China sees smooth, orderly transportation on New Year's Day

China's railway, highway, and aviation sectors experienced smooth and orderly transportation on Wednesday, the New Year's Day, with a marked preference for short-distance travels among passengers.

According to the China State Railway Group, the railway systems nationwide are expected to handle 11.5 million passenger trips on Wednesday, with 10,427 passenger trains planned, including an additional 342 trains.

The railway stations in Beijing are expected to handle 435,000 passenger trips on Wednesday, with 15.5 pairs of trains added on peak routes, mainly heading for cities in neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality.

Several new rail lines in China launched festival services on Wednesday.

Among them, the new Langfang-Daxing section of the Huairou-Daxing intercity railway, which started operation on Saturday, is expected to handle 3,000 passenger trips on Wednesday.

The Jining-Datong-Yuanping high-speed railway, which started operations on Tuesday, stretches from Jining in Inner Mongolia through Datong to Yuanping, both in north China's Shanxi Province.

On Wednesday, the trains running on this rail line boasted an impressive occupancy rate exceeding 90 percent.

The Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou high-speed railway, which started operation on Friday, is expected to handle 30,000 passenger trips on Wednesday.

To date, the rail line has handled nearly 200,000 passenger trips, with an average occupancy rate of 130 percent. It runs a maximum of 38 multiple unit trains daily.

Several popular winter tourist routes witnessed heavy traffic on Wednesday.

In Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in northeast China, the China Railway Harbin Bureau Group added special trains to Mohe, Yichun and Yabuli for ice-snow tourism.

To meet the travel needs of people taking group tours, train stations with high passenger flows like Jinan West and Qingdao North in east China's Shandong Province have set up reception rooms for group tour makers. These rooms provide one-stop ticketing services, saving their waiting time for ticket issuance. On Wednesday, highways across China experienced a gradual rise in traffic volume.

According to real-time monitoring data, from 00:00 to 11:00 on Wednesday, the traffic volume on highways totaled 10.9678 million vehicles.

In civil aviation, a total of 16,535 flights are expected to operate nationwide, handling 1.77 million passenger trips.

China sees smooth, orderly transportation on New Year's Day

China sees smooth, orderly transportation on New Year's Day

China sees smooth, orderly transportation on New Year's Day

Representatives from China and France expressed a strong commitment to deepening bilateral cooperation across diverse sectors during an economic and trade forum in Lyon, France, on Thursday.

The event took place at the Chinese Consulate General in Lyon, bringing together scholars and representatives from business, finance, tourism, and other key sectors of both countries.

Lyon, a major industrial and economic hub in central France, has long served as a key player in China-France cooperation. Many attendees highlighted the city's historical and contemporary role in strengthening bilateral ties.

"The cooperation between Lyon and China has a long history, dating back to the days of the ancient Silk Road. Today, the newly established Sino-French Institute in Lyon further deepens mutual understanding between our peoples," said Philippe Valentin, president of the Lyon Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

French business representatives see immense potential for deeper cooperation between the two nations.

"China is today, I would say, the top in terms of automotive, in terms of innovation and new patents. And we are also looking for a lot of different skills and innovation to develop our development and collaboration in China," said Herve Vericel, vice president of Business Development and Advanced Engineering of Saint Jean Industries.

Chinese participants also expressed confidence in the future of bilateral cooperation.

"From aviation and sustainable development to infrastructure, China and France not only share extensive common interests, but also have their distinct advantages," said Zhou Mi, senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Yu Jiang, consul general of China in Lyon, underscored the growing momentum of people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

"People-to-people exchanges between the two countries will become faster and more frequent, making our friendship stronger and more enduring," he said.

Lyon trade forum highlights deepening China-France cooperation