SELF-DRIVING trips have become an increasingly popular choice for Chinese during the past May Day holiday as they embraced the open air after a relaxation of travel restrictions amid the waning COVID-19 epidemic, a report showed. The index measuring the enthusiasm toward self-driving trips on the first day of the five-day holiday has doubled the level recorded on the first day of the Qingming Festival holiday in early April, according to a report jointly compiled by Kuaishou, a popular short-video sharing platform, and Chinese mapping service provider AutoNavi, or Gaode Map. This indicates a recovery to 60 percent of the level in the same period last year, according to the report. The report said visitors opt more to travel by car as they believe it would be safer other than using public transportations. During the holiday that ended Tuesday, Chinese tourism authorities required indoor tourist sites to remain closed while setting a 30-percent cap on the daily visitor capacity for outdoor sites that have resumed operations. Inter-city traveling has also been popular for car trips, the report said, citing city clusters in regions such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pan-Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. (Xinhua) | 