Huge number of revelers travel safely hither and yon

More than 1 million holiday-goers entered and left Zhuhai during Spring Festival Golden Week, up 23.2 percent year-on-year. No major accidents, stranded passengers, or service quality complaints were reported, said an official with the city Transportation Bureau.

China Railway Guangzhou Group operates five MRT stations in the city -- Zhuhai, Qianshan, Mingzhu, Tangjiawan, and Zhuhai North. Zhuhai Railway Station, for example, recorded 225,000 outbound and 283,000 inbound passengers during the holiday, an increase of 42.9 percent. Traffic peaked at 72,000 daily between the third and sixth days of the Feb 15-21 Lunar New Year. 

Ferries meanwhile carried 179,000 fares, up from last year by 14.1 percent. Of them, 64,000 were bound for Hong Kong and Macao, and 115,000 for cities on the Chinese mainland.

Feb 21 traffic en route to Xiangzhou on National Highway 105 (G105) [Photo by Zeng Yao / Zhujiang Evening Post]

Conversely, highway traffic dropped by 9 percent to 165,000 persons compared with last year. Eleven stations set up by Xinhe Long-distance Passenger Transportation recorded 67,000 outbound travelers in total, down 21 percent. As for inbound flow, the number fell by over 17 percent, according to the Business Department.

Furthermore, the number of passengers crossing the border at Zhuhai checkpoints increased by 5.23 percent to 2.6 million over the holiday period, while the amount of vehicles climbed by .19 percent to 55,700.

Automated border control lanes [Photo courtesy Zhuhai Daily]