CBN丨Graduates drive post-gaokao wave of consumer spending, travels

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Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

With the results of China's national college entrance exams, orgaokao, now released, a significant wave of spending is sweeping the nation as 13.35 million high school graduates and their families embrace what has been dubbed the "post-gaokaoeconomy".

The purchasing of the "tech trio" — smartphones, laptops and tablets — has become a near-universal ritual, often seen as a reward or necessities for university preparations. E-commerce platform JD.com reported that the sale of electronics during the "618" shopping festival, which coincides with the post-exam period, jumped 45 percent, accounting for half of all sales.

Governments and manufacturers are offering subsidies to encourage purchases. In Suzhou, Anhui province, combined national subsidies and vendor discounts could save graduates up to CNY800 yuan on a single phone. The city reported more than 77,000 subsidized transactions worth CNY280.7 million.

Meanwhile, graduates are also marking the end of high school with celebratory travel. Tongcheng Travel reported that bookings surged 137 percent year-on-year in the period after the exams, with long-distance travel particularly popular. Bookings on travel platform Qunar rose 35 percent.

China expects to set a new record high for air passenger traffic this summer. Airlines may handle 150 million passengers this month and next, a 7 percent increase from a year earlier and an all-time high for the summer season, according to a forecast by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Daily passenger volume could peak at 2.6 million, surpassing the previous record of 2.48 million set during the Chinese New Year holiday on Feb. 3.

Rising demand is already evident in ticket bookings. As of June 26, domestic bookings for July had reached 17.9 million, up 5 percent on the previous year. International bookings rose 14 percent to 7.7 million, according to data from Umetrip.com, a flight information website.

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