A glimpse of China with Sue: Service sector gained steam in 2023

Welcome to A Glimpse of China with Sue! This time let's kick off with a snapshot of the impressive performance of China's service sector.

The service sector encompasses a broad range of intangible goods and services that are produced and consumed, such as retail, hospitality, finance, and transportation.

In China, the service sector bounced back last year to shore up economic recovery, contributing significantly to employment, innovation, and overall prosperity.

In general, the sector saw its value-added output rise 5.8 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 54.6 percent of GDP.

In 2023, the total passenger traffic was up 66.5 percent over 2022, reaching 9.3 billion person-times, meaning there were 9.3 billion instances where individuals boarded a plane, train, bus, ferry, or any other form of public or private transportation as a passenger.

The cumulative distance traveled by all these passengers was 2,861.0 billion person-kilometers, up 121.4 percent, indicating a significant increase in economic vitality.

And guess what? The number of internet users in China was 1.092 billion, 1.091 billion of which were mobile internet surfers.