The 2024 Spring Festival travel rush that lasted some 40 days came to an end on March 5. China Eastern Airlines, along with its subsidiaries Shanghai Airlines and China United Airlines, operated a total of 106,800 passenger flights, transporting nearly 16.5 million passengers, with an average load factor exceeding 82%.

China on Tuesday announced a defense budget draft for 2024 worth 1.66554 trillion yuan ($231.36 billion), an increase of 7.2 percent from the previous year.