China's passenger trips surge in October

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's overall passenger trips reported robust expansion last month, the Ministry of Transport said Thursday.

The country's inter-regional passenger traffic rose 50.2 percent year on year to 5.34 billion in October 2023, the ministry's spokesperson Sun Wenjian told a press conference.

Among all types of transport, civil aviation trips led the way, rocketing 252 percent year on year in October, followed by 194.1 percent railway-trip growth and a 117.3 percent rise in waterway trips, while road trips increased by 44 percent, Sun said.

In October, commercial cargo transport went up 11.7 percent year on year to 4.82 billion tonnes, while cargo throughput at China's ports increased by 8.1 percent to 1.49 billion tonnes, the spokesperson added.

Fixed-asset investment in transport reached 3.23 trillion yuan (about 453.58 billion U.S. dollars) from January to October, marking 4.3 percent year-on-year growth.

This laid a solid foundation for reaching the annual investment target and provided strong service support for promoting overall economic recovery, said Sun.