Chinese railway trips hits 440 million during new year

China witnessed 440 million trips during the Spring Festival holiday, which lasted from Feb. 9 to 15, for a population of 1.3 billion.

According to the Ministry of Transport, railways handled 34.7 million trips, with a year-on-year increase of 3 million trips.

Highway and water-based transport saw 399 million trips, up over 50 million trips compared with that of last year.

Meanwhile, the number of air-based trips rose 18 percent year-on-year to 6.4 million.

Friday is the last day of the week-long holiday.

Millions of people traveled huge distances to return to work.

Passenger flows peaked on that day, with 7.4 million railway trips.

783 temporary trains were added to the tracks to cope with the post-holiday travel rush.

This year, the peak travel season started on January 26th, and will last until March 6th.