Transport gears up for holiday ride ( 2003-09-29 00:18) (China Daily)
With the seven-day National Day holiday just around the corner, various
departments around the country have been busy preparing for the coming traffic
flow.
A Chinese guide
holding a green flag leads a group of tourists outside the train station
in Beijing, China, Monday, Sept. 29, 2003. With the annual National Day
golden week holiday coming, millions of Chinese are expected to travel on
already congested public transport system to get home or go on a tour. [AP
Photo]
Civil air administrations have approved 2,700 extra flights during the
holiday period, 14 per cent more than last year's increase.
The Ministry of Railways has also added more trains to cope with the crush of
people buying train tickets during the "golden week."
The ministry predicts that a total of 35.5 million passengers will take
trains between last Sunday (September 28) and October 7.
The peak traffic flow will be seen on October 1, with 3.85 million passengers
expected hit the tracks.
Today is expected to be the peak day for passengers taking middle and long
distance journeys, with an estimated flow of 1.05 million passengers, 25,000
more than last year flow on this day.
Beijing, one of the hottest destinations for tourists, has been preparing for
tourists from all parts of the country.
According to the Beijing Holiday Tourism Management Team, Beijing Capital
International Airport is prepared to handle over 700 flights every day.
The local railway bureau put an additional 33 temporary trains into operation
yesterday evening for the duration of the holidays, and the Beijing Public
Transportation Company plans to dispatch 10,300 buses every day.
It is expected that the local bus system will carry 87 million passengers
from today to October 7, and over 13.5 million people will use the subway system
during the same period.
As for boundary control points between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong,
measures have been drawn up to enhance the flow of visitors, increase the
capacity of transportation facilities, and step up information dissemination to
visitors, Hong Kong's Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee said yesterday.
To facilitate customs clearance, "expeditious immigration clearance''
procedures and new optical-character-recognition readers have been introduced at
busier control points to increase handling capacity.
To inform tourists about important travel information, the Ministry of Public
Security said it would release daily information in popular tourism areas from
today to Oct 8 through major Chinese media.
The daily information will mainly include traffic and accident reports in 28
major scenic spots, major traffic accidents in 31 tourism cities, and other
necessary information.
