The third China International Panda Consumption Festival was launched in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Sunday to further promote the consumption upgrade and high-quality opening-up.
The shopping festival, which is jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce, China Media Group, and Sichuan Provincial Government, has attracted nearly 30,000 local enterprises.
The event focuses on trade-in purchases to promote new services and green consumption.
The province issued consumption vouchers worth 100 million yuan (about 14.23 million U.S. dollars) on Sunday evening, covering five categories of Sichuan specialties including wine, cuisine, tea, silk and medicinal herbs.
During the two-month event which will run through Nov 30, over 1,500 consumption promotion activities will be held to create a new consumption boom through initiatives such as discounts, concessions, and live streaming sales.
Shopping festival launched in Sichuan to promote consumption upgrade
Transportation authorities across China are going all out to provide services and ensure smooth trips for the travelers as the country saw travel rush on Tuesday, the first day of China's seven-day National Day holiday.
China's National Day falls on Oct.1.
The national railway on Monday transported 17.283 million passengers, with significant passenger flow recorded in cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing.
The national railway is expected to send 21 million passengers, planning to operate 12,737 passenger trains, including an additional 1,476 trains, on Tuesday.
Regarding highways, starting from Tuesday midnight, small passenger vehicles with seven seats or fewer will be allowed to pass through toll roads nationwide for free.
The Ministry of Transport anticipated that on Tuesday, traffic on national highways will reach 65 to 67 million vehicle trips, with travel concentrated between 09:00 and 14:00. At 10:00, the first wave of traffic peak for the National Day holiday was observed.
The civil aviation saw a peak in travel on Tuesday morning, and is expected to fly 2.38 million passengers and operate 19,092 flights throughout the day.
During the National Day holiday, water travel will mainly focus on sightseeing and leisure, with an average of over 1.4 million passengers expected daily.
China braces for travel rush on first day of National Day holiday
