The summer travel peak will brace for a sudden surge of return trips as college students will get ready for the next semester in late August.
Railway passenger flow has been on the high side since the start of the summer vacation, due to factors such as strong travel demand and increased transportation capacity.
Take Nantong Station as an example. The trains leaving Nantong for Beijing are almost filled to full capacity every day while tickets on the 10 trains heading for Nanjing are fallen short every day.
Starting Wednesday, the summer vacation will enter its second half and more trips will be made by college students returning to their schools for the new semester. Tourists going on leisure tours will also make up the bulk of the passenger flow.
Among the major destinations are Shenyang, Nanjing, Wuhan, Xi'an and Dalian where many universities are based.
Passenger flow remain on the high side on trains heading for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and tickets for some trains have already fallen short of supply.
Civil aviation has also entered the peak period. At present, Huai'an Airport has sent more than 10,000 passengers, an increase of nearly 10% over the previous year. 90% of the seats on flights from Nantong to Beijing are sold off while almost 100% of the seats on the flights heading for Nha Trang of Vietnam and Bangkok of Thailand are sold off. Air tickets are generally sold at 20% off while on weekends tickets are sold at full price.
China's summer transport peak period began on July 1, with a total of 647 million passenger trips expected to be made by train. The period runs from July 1 to August 31, when students on summer vacation have time to travel or return home.
