County Driving

According to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 765 million domestic tourism trips were made, a 5.9 percent year-on-year increase and a 10.2 percent jump over the same period in 2019.　

Tourism revenue reached a record high of over 700.8 billion yuan (US$99.3b), up 6.3 percent year-on-year and 7.9 percent from 2019.　

The data shows that the tourism boom, which began early this year, not only persisted during the holiday but reached new heights. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in the first three quarters of the year, domestic trips are projected to reach 4.29 billion, up 16.8 percent year-on-year, with tourism spending expected to hit 4.32 trillion yuan (US$608b), jumping 17.1 percent year-on-year, nearing the 2019 peak of 4.35 trillion (US$612b).

Tongcheng Travel, a leading online travel agency, reported a 50 percent increase in car rentals in smaller cities and hotel bookings in nearly 100 counties nationwide compared to last year. Ctrip, another major travel platform, saw trips to smaller destinations increase by 40 percent.　

Motuo County of Xizang Autonomous Region, previously one of China’s most remote counties, received a record 19,291 tourists between September 30 to October 6, a 61.4 percent increase year-on-year, according to Li Zhen, director of the county’s Bureau of Culture and Tourism.　

Altay Prefecture of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was another hotspot. Fueled by the popular TV series To the Wonder, which highlights the region’s nomadic Kazakh culture, the prefecture has experienced a surge in tourism since summer.　

Over 1.82 million tourists visited Altay during the holiday, up 13.29 percent from last year, generating 1.7 billion yuan (US$240m) in revenue, marking an year-on-year increase of 16.9 percent, Derida Nabi, director of the county’s tourism bureau, told NewsChina.　

In Shanxi Province, the success of the video game Black Myth: Wukong, which launched on August 20, brought attention to its numerous film locations.　

Inspired by the story of the legendary Monkey King, the game features 36 locations across various provinces, with 27 in Shanxi Province. Although Shanxi is known for having more ancient structures than any other province in China, many of these locations were previously overlooked in the tourism industry.　

Xiaoxitian, a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Xixian County, saw an influx of nearly 90,000 tourists – equivalent to the county’s entire population – eager to see the temple’s exquisite wooden carvings, overwhelming the county’s tourism infrastructure.　

According to Sun Xiaorong, a member of the National Tourism Reform and Development Advisory Committee, a think tank with the China National Tourism Administration, social media platforms have played a key role in the rise of county tourism, allowing people to share their travel experiences on a large scale.　

“New media platforms can rapidly create topics and new consumption trends,” Sun told NewsChina, “Instead of visiting the same old destinations, tourists now prefer to discover unfamiliar yet stunning niche destinations that offer a sense of novelty,” Sun added.

China now boasts the world’s most extensive railway system, with more than 160,000 kilometers of track, including 46,000 kilometers of high-speed lines that run above 250km/h. As of September 14, 99 percent of cities with populations over 200,000 are connected by rail, and 96 percent of cities with populations over 500,000 are served by high-speed lines.　

Between September 29 and October 8, travelers made 177 million trips over China’s railways, a 28.3 percent jump from the holiday period in 2019, according to the China State Railway Group.　

Huang Huang, an associate researcher at the China Tourism Academy, described China’s domestic tourism as transitioning toward “all-region” development. As more counties, towns, villages and suburban areas attract tourists, this shift helps reduce overcrowding at mainstream tourism hotspots and fosters balanced development across China’s tourism sector, Huang said.　

While county destinations saw more tourists, residents of smaller cities and counties also traveled more. According to travel booking site Qunar, first-time flight booking from residents in smaller cities and counties rose by more than 50 percent over the same period in 2023, with first-time international flights bookings surging by more than 70 percent.

In July, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and seven other agencies, issued guidelines to enhance high-quality public tourism services.　

On September 27, days before the holiday period began, authorities rolled out an enormous stimulus package expected to inject 1 trillion yuan (US$140b) of liquidity into the financial market, boosting the stock market and consumer sentiment.　

At a press conference on October 8, NDRC head Zheng Shanjie stressed that China’s economy remains robust. “The fundamentals of China’s economic development have not changed, and favorable conditions such as our huge market potential and strong economic resilience have not changed,” Zheng said. “We are fully confident in achieving our economic and social development goals for the year.”