Strong consumer demand during the Qingming holiday

Sun Hongli

In a report from Beijing on April 6, a reporter learned from the Ministry of Commerce that during the Qingming Festival holiday, many places implemented a spring-break continuous holiday, effectively releasing consumer demand and injecting vitality into the spring consumer market. According to the Ministry of Commerce’s business big data, during the Qingming Festival holiday, the average daily sales revenue of key retail and catering enterprises nationwide increased by 2.4% year over year. For the 78 pedestrian streets (commercial districts) monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, passenger flow and operating revenue grew by 6.0% and 6.7% year over year, respectively.

In terms of goods consumption, as of April 5, in 2026, a total of 1.53M subsidy applications were received for auto trade-in and replacement with upgrades, driving new car sales revenue to RMB 246.8 billion; sales of home appliances for trade-in and replacement, as well as digital and smart “buy-new” products, reached 62.85M units, driving sales revenue to RMB 215.97 billion. In terms of services consumption, during the Qingming Festival holiday, the Ministry of Commerce’s key monitored catering enterprises saw sales revenue increase by 3.9% year over year; key platform hotels’ lodging consumption increased by 2.6% year over year; intercity travel trips increased by 15.1% year over year; theme park consumption increased by 11.7% year over year; orders for parent-child research and learning doubled year over year; and car rental order volume grew by about 40% year over year.

A reporter learned from the Ministry of Public Security that during the Qingming Festival holiday, public security traffic administration departments nationwide actively responded to safety and congestion risks arising from the combined impact of severe weather such as rain, snow, and fog, as well as concentrated surges of people for Qingming tomb-sweeping, spring outings, and visiting relatives. Daily deployment of police officers exceeded 161k person-times, and police vehicles exceeded 54k vehicle-times. They scientifically optimized traffic arrangements, strictly supervised road traffic order, and worked around the clock to handle traffic emergency management during rain, snow, and fog conditions, while promptly providing travel guidance and alerts, effectively ensuring safe and smooth road traffic during the holiday.

A reporter learned from the Ministry of Transport that during the Qingming Festival holiday, the total cross-regional movement of people across society is expected to exceed 840 million person-times, with the expected daily figure exceeding 280 million person-times, which is an increase of 6% compared with the Qingming Festival holiday in 2025.

A reporter learned from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. that on April 6, nationwide railways saw a peak in passenger volume for holiday return trips. They expect to send 161k passengers and have plans to add 1,369 passenger trains. On April 5, nationwide railways sent 54k passengers, with transportation safety remaining stable, orderly, and well-managed.

(Reporters Wang Ke, Zhang Tianpei, Han Xin, Li Xinping)

People’s Daily (April 7, 2026, Edition 01)