China projects 344 million passenger journeys and 2.4 million border crossings on first day of May-Day Golden Week

China’s transport and immigration authorities are bracing for the biggest movement of people since the pandemic as the five-day May-Day Golden Week holiday gets underway. The Ministry of Transport announced that it expects a staggering 344 million inter-regional trips to be made on Friday, 1 May, a 3.4 percent increase on last year. Road travel will dominate with an estimated 315 million highway journeys, while the national railway operator has scheduled enough capacity for a record 24.8 million passengers in a single day. Waterways will add another 1.73 million trips to the tally, and even with jet-fuel prices squeezing capacity, commercial airlines still anticipate handling 2.33 million domestic and international travellers. Behind the huge headline numbers is an unprecedented level of operational coordination. Highway toll operators have temporarily lifted fees for passenger cars with fewer than seven seats, railway bureaus have lengthened trains and extended operating hours, and airports have opened pop-up security channels to cope with wave departures. The National Immigration Administration (NIA) has deployed more than 9,000 additional officers to 310 land, sea and air ports. E-gates have been placed on 24-hour service and real-time wait-time dashboards are being fed to popular super-apps to help travellers reroute in case of bottlenecks. For inbound business travellers, the NIA forecasts average daily cross-border volumes of 2.25 million during the holiday, peaking above 2.4 million on the busiest day. Border posts at Hong Kong–Shenzhen, Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou Baiyun and Beijing Capital airports will run “blue-vest” liaison teams to guide first-time visitors through China’s digital arrival-card and mobile-payment set-ups.



If your organisation is sending employees to China during this surge, VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork crunch by handling visa applications end-to-end, offering real-time status tracking and rush services that mesh with the NIA’s digital systems. Their China portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) lists current entry policies and exemptions, letting mobility managers move quickly while avoiding costly documentation errors.

The immigration agency has urged companies flying in project teams to pre-register staff passport data in the NIA 12367 app to avoid manual document checks. Why does it matter for global mobility managers? Short-term assignments, plant inspections and partner visits scheduled for early May will collide with leisure demand, driving up fares, filling hotels and stretching ride-hailing capacity in every major Chinese city. Firms are being advised to book fully flexible tickets and to budget extra time for last-mile ground transport, especially on 3 May (return peak) when rail and air capacity will again crest. Travel-risk teams should also note that temporary traffic restrictions are in place in more than 60 tourist hot-spots to protect pedestrian flows. Looking ahead, officials say the Golden Week data will shape decisions on further visa-free trials and port-of-entry expansions planned for the second half of 2026. If the system holds under this week’s pressure, China is expected to green-light additional 240-hour transit-waiver ports in Chongqing, Wuhan and Qingdao—moves that would substantially widen options for multinational itineraries.