Fully booked! China braced for record May Day holiday rush

Published

2 years ago

April 28, 2023

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BEIJING – China is bracing for a record-high travel rush over the Labour Day holiday.

Popular sightseeing spots are selling out of tickets, and some cities are warning would-be visitors away as domestic tourism rebounds after Beijing ended Covid-19 curbs.

The authorities are expecting 19 million trips to be made across Chinas vast railway network on Saturday, the first day of the five-day holiday.

That would be the highest number of rail trips made in a single day in the countrys history.

On May 1 last year, 4.4 million rail trips were made. That was also the period when China locked down several cities including Shanghai to battle the spread of the virus.

The last peak on the same day was in 2021, when 18.8 million such trips were made.

Over the 40-day Chinese New Year travel period in January-February this year, 348 million trips were made in total, or about 8.7 million trips a day on average, according to the National Railway Administration.

The May holiday is far shorter than the Chinese New Year and October Golden Week holidays.

But it is traditionally still one of Chinas busiest travel seasons as spring moves into summer.

This year, the holiday is crucial for the tourism industry as well as the wider Chinese economy as the country strives to recover from years of virus disruptions.

It took me a lot of effort to get a ticket, its hard this time, said Ms Di Jingshu, 21, as she waited for a train at Shanghais packed Hongqiao railway station on Thursday.

Chinas aviation authority said it expects air passenger trips to reach a total of nine million over the five days.

Booking sites for popular scenic spots, such as Beijings Old Summer Palace and the Badaling section of the Great Wall showed they were sold out of tickets for the first few days of the Labour Day holiday.

Trip.com Group said that reservations across its online travel platform had surpassed 2019 levels. More On This Topic China to scrap PCR test for inbound travellers Chinese travel is set to return, but the question is when? One small city, Zibo, in Chinas coastal Shandong province, which has gone viral on Chinese social media in recent weeks for its local barbecue cuisine, imposed an upper limit on Sunday on hotel room rates.

Three days later, it issued a public letter warning would-be visitors its downtown hotels were fully booked.

Passenger traffic has exceeded our accommodation capacity, it said, pleading for understanding should service levels fall short given the anticipated swelling of visitor numbers.

Outbound travel for the holiday however continues to remain constrained, in part due to a shortage of international flights.

Bright spots were emerging, however, in cities such as Macau and Jakarta, according to a report from travel data firm ForwardKeys.

Bookings for outbound travel are around 50 per cent behind the pre-pandemic levels, it said. Chinese travellers have started to travel abroad but are still preferring destinations within the Asia Pacific region. REUTERS More On This Topic No spike in Chinas Covid-19 cases so far despite CNY travel rush Chinese airlines swamped with cabin crew applicants as travel rebounds

Entertainment

Dolly Parton says ‘I ain’t dead yet’ after health fears triggered by singer’s sister

Published

31 mins ago

October 9, 2025

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Dolly Parton says 'I ain’t dead yet' after health fears triggered by singer's sister

Dolly Parton has declared she “ain’t dead yet” after her sister raised concerns about the singer’s health by asking people to pray for her.

“There are just a lot of rumours flying around. But I figured if you heard it from me, you’d know that I was okay,” the 79-year-old singer said in a new two-minute video posted on social media.

“I’m not ready to die yet. I don’t think God is through with me. And I ain’t done working,” she added.

In the footage, captioned “I ain’t dead yet!”, the 9 to 5 singer is seen on a set speaking directly to the camera.

On Tuesday, a Facebook post shared by her sister Freida Parton escalated concerns around Parton’s health when she wrote that she had been “up all night praying for my sister, Dolly”.

Hours later, Freida Parton followed up with a clarification. “I want to clear something up. I didn’t mean to scare anyone or make it sound so serious when asking for prayers for Dolly,” she wrote.

“She’s been a little under the weather, and I simply asked for prayers because I believe so strongly in the power of prayer.”

Last month, Parton postponed her first Las Vegas residency in 32 years, citing “health challenges”.

She was scheduled to perform six shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in December. The dates have been moved to next September

Parton offered her own clarification about her health condition in Wednesday’s video.

“Everyone thinks that I am sicker than I am. Do I look sick to you? I’m working hard here! Anyway, I wanted to put everybody’s mind at ease, those of you who seem to be real concerned, which I appreciate,” she continued.

“And I appreciate your prayers because I’m a person of faith. I can always use the prayers for anything and everything.”

She also referenced her late husband of nearly 60 years Carl Dean who died earlier this year at the age of 82.

“I want you to know that I’m OK. I’ve got some problems as I’ve mentioned. Back when my husband Carl was very sick, that was for a long time, and then when he passed, I didn’t take care of myself. So I let a lot of things go that I should’ve been taking care of,” she said.

“So anyway, when I got around to it, the doctor said: ‘We need to take care of this. We need to take care of that.’ Nothing major, but I did have to cancel some things so I could be closer to home, closer to Vanderbilt, where I’m kind of having a few treatments here and there.”

And in true Parton fashion, she ended with a joke: “I wanted you to know that I’m not dying”.

Sports

Coach Sanders back at Colorado practice

Published

31 mins ago

October 9, 2025

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Associated Press

Oct 8, 2025, 04:45 PM ET

Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders was back at practice Wednesday, a day after undergoing surgery related to his blood clots.

Sanders had a procedure called an aspiration thrombectomy, which involves the left popliteal — located behind the knee — and tibial arteries. He appears on track to be on the sideline Saturday when the Buffaloes (2-4, 0-3 Big 12) host No. 22 Iowa State (5-1, 2-1).

His son Deion Sanders Jr. posted a short video of him on social media Wednesday as the Buffaloes coach stood at the 35-yard-line with a play sheet dangling from his waist. His team was practicing on the other side of the 50.

On Tuesday night, in a video posted by Well Off Media, which chronicles the Buffaloes, Sanders and his medical team talked about the procedure that would clean out his arteries to prevent more clots. Sanders said it was his 16th surgery over the past few years.

“Same position,” Sanders said as he got comfortable in the hospital bed. “Never doubting God. Never stressing. Never second-guessing.”

Sanders received a visit from longtime NFL cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, who gave his friend a kiss on the head. Sanders also took calls from sons Shedeur and Shilo.

“If you give me $5 million just to have, I will make sure that you don’t have to get surgery anymore,” Shilo Sanders cracked on the phone call.

“I know where your care is coming from,” his dad playfully responded. “I don’t want nothing to do with your care.”

“If you give me five, I’ll make sure you’re alive,” Shilo said, drawing a laugh from his father and Jones.

Soon after, Deion Sanders was taken away to the operating room.

The 58-year-old was in pain during a 35-21 loss at TCU last Saturday, alternating between sitting and limping along the sideline with his leg throbbing. He didn’t wear a shoe on his left foot in the second half, and after the game he said he was “hurting like crazy.”

Sanders dealt with blood clot issues while at Jackson State in 2021, with doctors amputating two of the toes on his left foot. He also skipped a Pac-12 media day session in 2023 following a procedure to remove a blood clot from his right leg and another to straighten toes on his left foot.

Last spring, Sanders was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer. He revealed details of his treatment, which involved doctors removing his bladder and reconstructing a section of his intestine to function as a bladder.