CBN丨China saw historic high in rail and air travel in 2024

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programRecord-breaking travel reveals China's strengthened economic vitality;China's central bank will issue the biggest batch of offshore yuan bills to defend exchange rate.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours China witnessed a remarkable surge in both rail and air travel in 2024, fueled by vigorous economic activities and robust consumer spending.The country's railway network handled a record 4.08 billion passenger trips in 2024, a 10.8 percent year-on-year increase, according to China State Railway Group.Similarly, the latest data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China shows that air passenger trips are estimated to have hit a record 730 million in 2024, an 18 percent year-on-year increase.This surge was partly driven by a growing thirst for leisure travel, with the tourism sector standing out as a bright spot of China's consumption in 2024, experts noted.In the first three quarters of last year, China reported 4.24 billion domestic trips, representing a year-on-year increase of 15.3 percent. The total expenditure of domestic tourists amounted to 4.35 trillion yuan, up 17.9 percent year on year.With improved infrastructure making various regions and lesser-known destinations more accessible, the shift toward off-the-beaten-path travel has gained momentum, drawing travelers in search of niche experiences.Beyond the hustle and bustle of the domestic travel market, international travel also flourished last year, with a boom in both inbound and outbound tourism.In early December, the Chinese leadership positioned "boosting consumption" as a key policy task for 2025 at a tone-setting conference, and called for the implementation of a special action plan to that end.Looking ahead, this strong travel momentum is expected to carry through to the Spring Festival travel rush, a traditional peak period for China's transportation network. This year's travel rush will run from January 14 to February 22, which is poised to see a record-breaking 9 billion trips. Rail journeys and civil aviation passenger trips are projected to hit record highs of 510 million and 90 million, respectively.To accommodate the mass movement of travelers, China's railway system announced a new operating plan on Sunday, adding 230 passenger trains to schedules across the country to bring the total to 13,028. Meanwhile, the civil aviation sector is set to handle an average of 18,500 flights per day during the Spring Festival travel rush, an 8.4 percent increase from 2024 levels.Greater Bay Area, Greater futureNew high-speed rail services linking Hong Kong with Xi'an and Wuhan, two major cities in the Chinese mainland, were officially launched on Sunday. A single trip in either direction takes under 11 hours, with other stations located in the provinces of Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Guangdong. Trains departing from Wuhan take no more than five hours to reach Hong Kong. More than 27 million inbound and outbound passenger trips were recorded through the Zhuhai port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in 2024, an increase of 72 percent year on year and a record high. The bridge handled more than 5.55 million inbound and outbound vehicle trips last year, up 71 percent and exceeding the 5-million mark for the first time.Guangdong is expected to rank first in China in terms of foreign-invested enterprises. There are 215,100 registered foreign firms in the province by the end of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 8 percent, accounting for a quarter of the country’s total.Next on industry and company newsApple dropped the price of nearly all of its products, including the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods, for the first time this year after launching a New Year shopping event on its Tmall flagship store from Jan. 4 through Jan. 20. The iPhone 16 series was discounted by up to 1,000 yuan and its new price starts from 4,999 yuan.Volkswagen China announced on Monday forging a partnership with Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Xpeng  to jointly build a fast charging network for running EVs in China. The project will feature more than 20,000 self-operated charging piles, covering 420 cities and regions across China, according to Volkswagen.The Luxeed R7 has received 58,000 lock-in orders in the 100 days since its launch, Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s smart auto solutions unit, said on Weibo yesterday, adding the NEV model the Chinese telecoms giant co-developed with Chery Automobile "exceeded expectations.”Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of Apple, will become the first non-US company to rank as the world's largest server vendor since 2018, a report by market research firm Omdia said yesterday. Foxconn's original design manufacturing direct-to-user business had "astronomical growth" last year thanks to surging demand for AI-optimized servers from major US cloud providers, it said.Switching gears to financial newsThe central bank will issue offshore Chinese yuan bills in Hong Kong this month, whose amount is estimated to be the largest-ever, to defend the falling exchange rate, media reported today, citing a source at the central bank. The new note issuance is in response to strong demand for high-grade yuan-denominated bonds by overseas investors, the person said. They will be newly issued this time to drain yuan liquidity from the market and will not be bills that are rolled over upon maturity. If there continues to be strong pressure on the yuan exchange rate, the central bank may issue even more offshore bills. The onshore yuan tumbled past 7.3 against the US dollar for the first time since November 2023 on Jan. 3 to 7.36 due to a new high set by the US dollar index the day before.The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges recently held meetings with foreign institutions, both bourses said, assuring investors that they would continue to open up China's capital markets after fresh volatility in Chinese stocks in the first trading days of 2025.Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock marketChinese stocks closed mixed on Monday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite down 0.15 percent, while the Shenzhen Component gained 0.2 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.4 percent, and the TECH index ended 0.2 percentlower.