• Chinese travel and spending during the Lunar New Year holiday exceeded levels from before the pandemic, adding to signs that consumption in the world’s second-largest economy is improving.
• Some 474 million tourist trips were made around the country during the festival, which began Feb. 10 and concluded Saturday. That’s up 19% from the comparable period in 2019, state broadcaster China Central Television reported, citing data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Total tourism spending for the holiday climbed nearly 8% from that year on a comparable basis, to 633 billion yuan ($88 billion).
• Railway travel surged: for the period Feb. 10-17, there were 99.5 million rail trips, 36% higher than the comparable period in 2019, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Ministry of Transport and China Railway data.