China’s weeklong National Day holiday began Thursday, extending a travel period that started with the Mid-Autumn Festival less than a week earlier and fueling demand for long-distance trips at home and abroad.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, traditionally an occasion for family reunions, fell on Sept. 25 this year. National Day, which marks the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, followed on Oct. 1 and began a weeklong public holiday. With only three working days between them, people who took those days off could combine the two breaks into a 13-day holiday ending Oct. 7.

Chinese airlines are expected to carry 31.19 million passengers from Sept. 25 to Oct. 7, up 3.6% from the same period last year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Bookings for domestic flights covering more than 2,000 kilometers rose about 14%, according to aviation data provider Umetrip.

International flight bookings for the period were up 22.5% year on year as of Sept. 24, the CAAC said. Flights to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Laos increased by about 20%, while those to Britain, Germany, and Spain rose by about 15%.

Here are snapshots from the extended holiday period across China.

(Header image: Tourists take photos at Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai, Sept. 27, 2026. Wu Huiyuan/Sixth Tone)