The National Day holiday has come to a close, marking the end of a bustling week across the country.
The period was characterized by a significant flux in transportation, popular travel destinations, a dynamic film box office and vibrant consumer activity.
We'll get you all caught up on all the key developments and stories from this year's Golden Week.
We are live from Beijing.
This is Roundtable.
I'm Steve, and for the show, I'm with Niu Honglin and Yushan.
First up...
The recent National Day holiday has now drawn to a close.
I know how you're all feeling out there and in this room.
But it marks the end of an eight-day break, so we can't really complain too much.
And this period typically offers a view into activity across a lot of different sectors, and this year was no exception.
So we observed the expected movement of huge amounts of people through various transport networks, with people many actually choosing to visit popular destinations across the country.
And at the same time, there were reports of consumer activity in areas like retail and food and beverage and the domestic film box office.
They also saw its share, their share of public engagement.
So we'll take a broader look at these different sectors and elements that characterize the holiday from all the reports and all the data that have emerged to get a better picture of this year's Golden Week.
Nyong Lin and Yushan, good afternoon.
Did you have a great holiday?
Yes, holidays are the best, except that everywhere i go, no matter how crowded it is, in the background i always hear someone saying huh, it's not as bad as i expected, and i was like, how bad were you expecting it to be?
I was not really going out that often.
I was spending time at home with my parents and friends were staying indoor most of the time.
But yeah, it was.
It's been a relaxing time, let's say.
Well, this morning was a busy morning because we were getting all caught up.
All the data was coming in, right?
All the reports are coming in from this year's holiday.
And now we're going to share all of that information with you.
So let's get into it.
Exactly.
This number is a bit mind blowing to me.
Exactly.
How many people were traveling during this holiday?
2.43 billion.
And that's just the passenger trips made or expected to made nationwide from October the 1st to the 8th.
And that's averaging 304 million trips per day, up about 6.2% year on year.
And by modes of transportation, counting the first is the railways that took up an estimated 140%
153 million passenger trips.
And then there is the civil aviation that handled over 19 million.
And then the road network, including both expressways and national highways, saw about 225 billion passenger trips.
That's a 6.5% rise year on year.
And among all of these different ways of transportation caught my attention waterways.
They saw nearly 12 million.
And that's up about 4.2% of increase.
Waterways, I can't imagine taking a boat, let's say, and just watering yourself down the canal.
That's what you do when you try to book a train ticket and they're all gone.
And then you try to get a plane ticket and they're all gone.
Then you go to the boat.
China has a population of 14 billion, which means within these eight days it's kind of like everybody moved around.
I know it's not true.
I know people made multiple trips because they go to different places, but it feels that way and feels very crowded.
Some people go for tourism purposes and i went home with uh to my parents place and yeah, i toured a little bit in the city of taiwan to the supposed to be relaxing destinations, but also uh, tourism destinations for tourists.
So it was a good experience and i get to see how well, from my personal experience, i think it's even more than 24 billion passenger trips.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but your hometown is the location of black myth.
Yes, oh yeah.
So did you see a lot of people traveling there for that specific purpose?
Because my hometown is the provincial capital of Shanxi Province?
It hosts some of the places that people would visit.
But for the hardcore of Black Myth Wukong, they would definitely go to more of the temples, more of the sites.
That has inspired the creation of the scenes in the game.
But I definitely saw a lot of different souvenirs, different decorations based on the game.
And I can see that local government being very proactive in taking also on the ride of the game or the popularity of the game with the tourists as well.
Yeah.
I mean it's a great thing, but it also comes with a lot of increased responsibility, because so many more people are going to be visiting the regions.
Those are really impressive numbers.
And those are all increased from the year before, right?
The number of rail tickets, the number of flights, the number of people taking boats.
Where do you take a boat?
We're landlocked here in Beijing.
So I wouldn't even know.
I'm guessing around the East Coastal region.
Or say, for tourists in cities like Shanghai, where there's, like the river or waterways going through, taking the boat is both a way to travel and a way to just go from point A to point B.
Yeah, we've talked about cruise trips here on Roundtable.
Not really sure how many of those cruise tours wow, sounds very relaxing are included in these waterway transportations.
The night views are pretty good there, at least in Shanghai.
Yeah, right.
So tons of people on the move.
But as we mentioned, as I mentioned in the opening, that was to be expected, wasn't it?
And it is every single year.
So what were some of the domestic hot spots then that people visited?
Well, one of the hotspots is definitely here in Beijing.
I also heard the news that, very close to where we are sitting at right now, which is the Shougang Park, it hosted the World Table Tennis, the WTT China Smash, with over 88000 tickets sold.
That's blending both the industrial heritage locally with the modern sports culture and it just went viral.
The whole event event viral on red notes.
That's how i learned about the news.
Apparently there are two very famous chinese table tennis players showing up in the shogun park and playing like yeah tournaments, or is that a match sort of 88 000 tickets sold.
Obviously it was a.
It was a hot place to be if you were lucky enough to get a ticket there right.
And then another hot spot would be in Shanghai, where the historic Customs House building now features an XR experience that's enabling visitors to explore the past, present and future of the Bund, which is a very popular travel destination there in the city of Shanghai.
That's along the water, right?
Yeah, that's along the Huangpu River.
So again, by evening time, by nighttime, with all the lights lit up, you can just see the how say such a blend of Western architectural style and say the vibe of Chinese modernity is all demonstrated within the Bund.
Along the water at night is one of the most well-known images of Shanghai, internationally speaking.
It's just gorgeous when it lights up at night.
What else were people doing here in the country?
Well, they definitely are still going to the traditionally mainstream really hot spots.
But many people are also thinking can I find somewhere that is as beautiful as entertaining, but with fewer, fewer tourists?
So they're trying to...
Nope, the answer is no.
You kind of can if you're really digging into the township and county in the beautiful, for example, Yunnan province.
Yes, or in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or in Tibet Autonomous Region.
In these places.
If you can deal with the high altitude, if you can also do well, be very smart and get a ticket in advance, you might be able to find these places and a lot of young people, especially those who are not interested in going to the uh, very much enjoyed and very much renowned places, to like to have the kind of trip with the meaning of i've been here, i have to visit this place once in my life kind of trip.
If they want to go for a relaxing and happy and just, you know, seeing a different place kind of trip, they go to other places as well.
We were chatting before the holiday on roundtable about, you know, the preparation for the holiday and I think it I think it was you should who shared that information.
Well yeah, but the searches started back in March or April.
The internet searches for places to go and getting tickets and all those, and booking hotels and all those types of things.
It starts months and months and months in advance, and So it's like winning the lottery, I guess, if you can manage to find a cool spot where there's nobody hanging out there.
Yes, and also another thing you need to do is really do full research and knowing where are the places that you would be enjoying quite so much.
For example, in Fujian Xiamen, the Lantern Festival or, to be more specific, the Mid-Autumn Festival held in the city's Horticulture Expo Garden.
They started a lantern festival for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
And there you get to enjoy a lot of traditional craftsmanship with modern technology being placed, decorating with different types of lanterns and with the kind of light that are, quite with a futuristic blend.
And also you can enjoy local legends, porcelain artistry and the city's signature garden landscapes.
And all these with a possibility of buying time-honored brands kind of local specialty.
So if you're into that kind of tour and you did your research, you'll be able to enjoy those in Xiamen.
Yeah.
Good point, because that's what you'd have to do.
You'd have to know those little hidden gems and where they were and what was happening there.
So that was domestically.
How about for international travelers leaving the country or perhaps entering the country?
How did those numbers come out?
Well, this year, whether it's joining a group tour to South Korea to enjoy the first batch of visa-free benefits, or just participating in niche birdwatching routes in Kenya, or experience bird watching all the way to Kenya for some bird watching, and telling you, the trucks carrying Chinese tourists in various cities in the land of Africa was like piling up.
They were waiting in queues.
Oh really yeah, it was saying that a lot of Chinese they're just flying outside letting the world knowing that yeah, we're on our one of the one of the longest and major holidays nationwide, making an announcement yep, So yeah, that's birdwatching routes in Kenya, or experiencing say, the close economic bond and also deep friendship between Serbia and China.
And just to experience the Eastern European, say, culture and architecture vibe there.
So all of these proving that chinese tourists they have more diverse options for outbound travel than ever before.
And even there in thailand, in order to welcome chinese tourists, the tourism authority of thailand they have launched the china thailand friendship month event just during the past weeks.
And many european countries they also have streamlined their visa processes for chinese visitors, just opening up their say tourism opportunities for more and more Chinese to get experience.
Yes, there are newcomers, too, to the list of Chinese people's favorite destinations.
Travel to Central Asian visa-free countries saw also notable growth.
According to Chunar, flight bookings to Pakistan and Kazakhstan surged by 33 times and 23 times year-on-year respectively.
And also sea trip.
Data indicated that car rental orders in these two countries increased by three times and 10 times.
Not only are they going, they're driving their own cars and traveling around.
They're getting the cars too.
Yeah, sure.
I mean the short haul destinations like Japan and Korea and other places in Southeast Asia.
Those are the ones that make sense.
And those are the ones that are kind of predictable because they're very close.
But gosh kazakhstan, uzbekistan and kenya, for a little bird watching those.
Even italy well, that might be on the expected list as well if you're, if you're willing to go that far.
But that's cool to see that the i guess people are are searching for their international unknown gems, just like they're searching for them domestically too.
As of the middle of September, we had, for those, unilateral visa-free policies for 47 countries.
There was an achievement of full mutual visa exemptions with 29 countries.
There was expanded transit visa-free policies to cover 55 different countries.
They increased the number of entry ports to 60.
They standardized transit, the duration of stay to 240 hours and that really significantly facilitated travel for foreigners coming into the country as well.
So lots of people coming from you know we talked about the popular travel destinations nearby Korea Japan, Southeast Asia.
Well, the people from those countries are coming into China as well.
Yeah.
And I was just watching such a video yesterday that's published, I think, by China Daily, that One.
By her accent I would say she's from the US.
Solo female traveler.
She just expressed how astonished she was when traveling by herself around China, touring for about two weeks, saying that you can't imagine how safe it is.
Wherever I go, I can just enjoy the nightlife. locally and blend into the local people celebrate together with the local people and buying delicious food let's say the most dangerous thing on the street are the different vendors selling all the different foods that you know are so delicious peppercorns are the most dangerous thing she was like recommending this and i was like wow nowadays this is how say the tourism industry is impressing foreign visitors nowadays.
They also say, whilst traveling here in China, they purchase unique cultural and creative products, local specialties.
Some of them are also attracted by the Chinese way of life, just all parts of experiencing the night economy, the food culture, and then in turn boost the prosperity of China's consumer market in general.
So I would assume a lot of them was contributed by these foreign visitors in some way.
Yeah, that's one of the things that you know.
I don't know what it is, but for anyone who travels around the world, before we go anywhere we always assume oh, it might be a little Anywhere in the world.
But when we get to those places, we're always pleasantly surprised by how safe it is.
But even that being said...
I was still surprised about how safe it is, especially at night here.
My wife can go walking in the streets by herself, and it's no issue at all.
And that's true for everywhere here in the country.
So for people coming into China, they were looking at the big first-tier cities, the second-tier cities.
And I guess those would be the most well-known spots, right?
You're going to go to places like Beijing and Shanghai and Chengdu.
We were thinking about going down to Chengdu to see the pandas.
And then we were told, yeah, no, I want to pick a different time.
I want to say that.
I totally, totally applaud coming to China and travel and go to different places.
Maybe when every Chinese is also traveling, it might not be the best experience, unless you really like people and like to blend in, because during that time when you're traveling, it's like the atmosphere, the social mindset of yours changes a little bit.
When you're in the city, you do not really talk to strangers.
But when you're traveling around and when you meet other tourists and when they are discussing something, asking about the knowledge that you know of, like where to recommend, what are the dishes, you kind of start.
Joining the conversation out of nowhere and recommending local specialties to them, because you know I was local and I was recommending local specialties to the neighboring table about what are some things you should order.
So that's great.
Yeah, it's different.
So that's all the travel information.
What about let's get over to spending a little bit.
So how and where were people spending their money during the holiday time?
It's the holiday time, so people are traveling.
A lot of the new consumption options lies within the tourism industry.
One good example would be in the city of Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, where low-altitude tourism, including helicopter paragliding and hot air balloon rides.
Are those two different things, or is that a new activity, helicopter paragliding?
That's two different things.
Okay.
But I get why you're confused.
New business idea.
But yeah hey, Huzhou.
They launched seven low altitude cultural tourism flights and also a total of 16 routes.
So these projects kind of bringing a new type of city fly experience.
So we're not talking about city walk anymore.
Nowadays, it's city fly to help you see the better view of the entire city.
So the head of the aviation program said that their experience, based both in Beijing and in Zhejiang province, all saw the surge during the holiday regarding their visitor number.
So the most popular activity was the unpowered tandem paragliding experience.
So if you don't know what that is, that's basically flying you up like flying a kite and you're on that kite.
Right.
You are like flying a kite.
Is that where you're attached to something?
I think at the very beginning, yes.
There's a rope attaching you with the aircraft, let's say, between you and the ground.
Sounds like a torture for information kind of activity.
I saw a video of it.
So the unpowered one goes without any type of engine behind the aircraft.
You just fly up like a kite.
And after the rope is cut down, you freely go with the wind for a while before landing softly, slowly onto the ground.
It looks very safe.
And the aviation program leader also said that, though the weather wasn't ideal at all for the first three days, they still managed to have 50 to 80 participants each day, mostly young people, with an average spending of about 950 yuan.
That's about 130 US dollars per person.
I would give it a go.
Yeah, new, say, travel opportunities or innovative experiences designed for tourists.
That's really cool.
And it's such a fun way to see a new place if you're visiting there for the first time.
You get a totally different view.
It's almost like you're coming in on an airplane when you're there.
And there are no helicopters involved in that activity.
Not this one, particularly no.
And in general.
According to the latest value-added tax invoice data from the State Taxation Administration, during the holiday time, the average daily sales revenue of consumption-related industries in China increased by 45 year on year and product consumption rose by 39, while service consumption grew by 76.
So everyone's spending, which is quite reasonable.
And everything was growing.
Good news.
The movie theater, was that a popular place for people to go during the holiday time?
I would say yes, since data shows that the box office is already surpassing that of 2024.
Already?
Yeah, the data is from ticketing platform MoYan that revealed that, as of the afternoon of October 2nd, the year-to-date grosses, including pre-sales, reached 425 billion yuan, and that's about nearly 6 billion US dollars, which is already surpassing the full-year haul of 2024.
And also data from the National Film Administration, showed that the total box office revenue during the 2025 national holiday period surpassed 18 billion yuan, or 252 million US dollars, with over 50 million moviegoers.
I'm not one of that 50 million, but I've heard a lot of good comments about the new movies relatively newer movies that was released during the holiday period, such as the Evil Unbound.
In Chinese is called Qi San You, which is a domestic production that depicts the, The Japanese German Warfare Unit 731 that's committed in China during World War II.
That movie had a really huge impact months and months before it went on.
So that's definitely one of the top five during the holiday period.
To be honest, I think this holiday, or this year's National Day holiday, Spock's office was not as impressive as we expected.
But it's kind of due to the fact that people are on the move.
They are traveling around to another province, to another country even.
And when you are looking at the beautiful view and experiencing the cultural fun of that place, you kind of do not want to hit the box office as much, which makes sense.
But those who did go, they enjoyed themselves.
They did a survey and this is what they found that the films during the holiday period scored 854 out of 100 points.
So the movies were really popular.
And that was the highest rating of the last four years.
And there were seven key films during this period that that covered a lot of different genres like drama and animation and fantasy and comedy, and it reflected a pretty diverse group of films and pretty high-quality content for the moviegoers as well, which is really good to know.
But if you didn't get to the theater during the holiday, that's evidence that you might want to go and check out a film coming up soon.
Any other little things that you wanted to mention before we wrap it up?
Well, one thing is that we talked about the consumption and I realized that it's also due to local government's policies.
One thing that I noticed is that, during the holiday period, many local governments across China have announced rolled out different types of consumption vouchers, continuously unleashing consumption potential.
For example, in Haikou, they issued vouchers totaling 13.5 million yuan.
In Nanchang.
They're having a golden autumn enjoying shop in Hongcheng kind of consumption reason injecting 13 million yuan to distributing vouchers.
52,000 consumption vouchers.
And this is happening across the country so that people can better enjoy their holidays.
And I always love a discount, especially provided by the government.
Holiday or not a holiday, everybody loves a discount.
Well, there you go.
Hey, well done, team, because it was a busy morning gathering all of that data.
But that's it.
That's the wrap up. of this year's national holiday.
And judging from all the numbers that we learned, it was a successful holiday in 2025.
