With Tomb Sweeping Day falling tomorrow, a Wednesday, and there neither being any working days the weekend either side, many are choosing to make it a 5-day break. It’s a combination setting records across the Yangtze River Delta rail network.
Sunday, 2 April, brought about 2.87 million passenger journeys across the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) on 2 April, a new record for single-day traffic this year.
In addition, YRD railways have seen over 48 million passengers since the launch of its spring season on 10 March. That’s up 10.8 percent, compared to the same period in 2019, i.e. pre COVID.
Part of the craze, it seems, is for so-called “slow travel by high-speed rail”. That means taking a train to go somewhere and relax; walking or biking amid the mountains. Or by getting close to nature; breathing in its scents, while enjoying a spa experience in a rural retreat.
Playing an important role in driving the new trend is the fact that, while much of the populace has been more or less quarantined, the high-speed-rail network across the YRD has expanded significantly.
And places such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Yellow Mountain have just now become very much a case of “been there, done that”.
People, after all, will always want to go somewhere new, and so, medium and short-distance routes within a 3-hour high-speed-rail ring have become the primary choice for many, as the Yangtze Evening News reports.
Hence the rise in popularity of destinations in southern Anhui, southwest Zhejiang and northern Jiangsu.
Take Chizhou in Anhui, for example, just over an hour from Nanjing South Railway Station, and with a Negative Oxygen Ion content 35 times higher than fresh-air standards defined by the World Health Organisation.
There, many also come to ascend Jiuhua Shan, one of the four sacred mountains of Chinese buddhism. Read all about The Nanjinger’s trip to Chizhou via this link.
Many travellers taking advantage of the new easy-to-reach destinations are seniors. As such, various YRD railway stations have launched senior-friendly services, such as drop off and pick up, to take them to and from their trains.
For those waiting for their trains, Shanghai Railways are promoting armrest-charging services at 40 stations across the YRD. Thereby, passengers can scan a QR code to enjoy free charging without leaving their seats.
The bulk of such services can be accessed via the Shanghai Railways’ app, 12306.
