China’s transport system had to cope with millions more travelers during the National Day “Golden Week” as the number of trips made over the break rose 11.9% to 705 million compared with the same holiday last year. Holiday makers spent CNY583.6 billion, or 13.9% more than last year. The ‘Golden Week’ holiday – starting on China’s National Day on October 1 – was extended by one more day to October 8 because the Mid-Autumn Festival fell within the week this year.

The number of outbound tourists was roughly the same as last year at about 6 million, but more travelers were opting to go travel by themselves rather than join a tour group. Since 2012, China has become the largest source of outgoing tourists, accounting for a large share of global tourism, Zhu Shanzhong, Executive Director of the World Tourism Organization said. 65 countries and regions are providing visa-free and visa-on-arrival access to Chinese citizens and, during this year’s National Day holiday, 88 countries and regions received Chinese visitors, up from 68 countries last year, CCTV reported. Russia was the most popular destination for Chinese tourists, followed by Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, while Moscow was the most popular city, followed by St. Petersburg, Bangkok, Pattaya, and Singapore, according to the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).

Travelers made about 105 million train trips since the holiday rush started on September 28, the China Railway Corp (CRC) said. About 40% of the journeys were on high-speed lines. The number of travelers passing through Shanghai’s Hongqiao and Pudong airports between September 30 and October 7 jumped 6.6% to 874,000 from a year ago. Travel agencies in Shanghai organized trips for 104,000 outbound tourists, surging 62.4%.

China will officially start operation of the world’s fastest train service next month, knocking an hour off the 1,318 km journey between Beijing and Shanghai. Seven pairs of bullet trains – named Fuxing, which means rejuvenation – will start operating from September 21. At present, the fastest trains in China, which have their top speed capped at 300 km/h, are named Hexie, or Harmony. China had briefly tried a maximum speed of 350 km/h, but a deadly train crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, in 2011 forced the railway authorities to reduce the upper speed limit. Bullet trains have now become a key export product for China, so the government is keen to increase their speed. The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed route is one of the most popular, with around 600 million passengers since it opened in 2011, and it is also one of the most profitable in China. The operator of the route made a profit of CNY6.6 billion in 2015. According to the current train schedule, the fastest bullet train running between the cities takes four hours and 55 minutes, and most bullet trains take around 5½ hours. A one-way ticket costs CNY553 for a regular seat and CNY933 for a first-class seat. It is not known whether China Railway will raise ticket prices after the speed is increased. Authorities tested the 350 km/h services on some parts of the line last month and the results convinced officials they would be able to run at higher speeds along the whole line, the South China Morning Post reports.

Foreign airlines’ services to or from China’s second-tier cities are facing increased local competition, which has led to a fall in profits on the routes, and more empty seats. According to figures from travel-aviation industry analysts, European carriers cut capacity on secondary China routes by 23% in the first seven months, and suspensions of those are likely to grow in the coming months. Early this year, British Airways (BA), for instance, closed its route from London Heathrow to Chengdu, after the airline said flights were “not commercially viable”, despite Chengdu being widely regarded as one of China’s most promising destinations for Europeans, well known for its hi-tech industry development. In October last year, Lufthansa also discontinued its route from Frankfurt to Shenyang. Flying on a Chinese carrier is a more natural choice, as Chinese travelers are more familiar with domestic airline brands and are more comfortable with the largely Mandarin-speaking cabin crew and ground staff, than they might find on foreign carriers, according to Corrine Png, Chief Executive of Crucial Perspective, a transport industry research firm. Earlier this month, United Airlines announced it would no longer be flying to Hangzhou, where China’s largest internet giant Alibaba is headquartered. Residents in second-tier cities were widely seen as becoming a lucrative customer source for foreign airlines, but according to experts the problem is that Chinese passengers prefer Chinese carriers, the South China Morning Post reports.

The first high-speed railway in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region was opened on August 3. The new rail service reduces the journey between Ulanqab and Hohhot from 56 minutes to 39 minutes. The bullet train runs at 250 kilometers per hour. Ten services are scheduled daily. The new 126-km line will be part of a 286.8-km high-speed railway that will connect Hohhot with Zhangjiakou, co-host of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, in Hebei province, and will be connected to the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway, reducing travel time between Hohhot and Beijing from an average nine hours to less than three hours. Last year, China’s high-speed network reached 22,000 km, accounting for 65% of the world’s total high-speed rail. According to a plan released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China will expand high-speed rail to 30,000 km by 2020, linking 80% of its major cities. By 2030, the network is planned to link all cities with populations of more than 500,000.

China has issued national guidelines governing bike-sharing operations to address mounting complaints over an accumulation of millions of bikes on city streets. Users of bike-sharing services should register under their real names, controls on the parking of bikes will be tightened, offenders will be punished, and the use of the bikes by children under 12 is prohibited. China has around 70 bike-sharing brands, which have put more than 16 million bicycles on the streets and attracted more than 130 million users. By the end of June, the industry had registered 106 million customers, just a year after Mobike launched its services in Shanghai in April 2016. Around 14% of China’s 751 million internet users have now used smartphones to rent a bike. The industry has attracted billions in investment from the likes of Warburg Pincus, DST Global, Tencent and Alibaba.

Beijing-based bike-sharing firm Mobike announced the launch of bike-rental services in London, with a plan to operate 750 bikes in September. The company plans to expand to 200 cities globally. As Mobike is set to cover more countries, the company will explore more payment methods. The bikes are produced in China and then exported to overseas markets. Rival Ofo said it plans to operate a total of 6,000 shared bikes in Bangkok by the end of September. Now Mobike has rolled out more than 6 million bikes in over 150 cities globally, while Ofo said it has over 100 million users.