(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-11 08:46

Return-trip travel after Spring Festival could peak on Monday as millions of people get back to work after family gatherings, transportation departments have forecast.

The Ministry of Railways has kept 226 special trains on standby to meet the return-trip rush, which could see the highest number of people getting back to work on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, a day earlier than in previous years, a spokesman said.

The return-trip rush used to begin on the sixth day of the weeklong holiday. But since this year's rescheduled holiday started a day earlier, on Lunar New Year's eve, it could advance the return-trip peak by a day.

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Railway sources in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province said the number of people returning to their places of work had risen on Sunday and it could peak on Monday.

The Guangdong provincial railway department said train tickets for the next three days had been sold out on Friday, the third day of the weeklong holiday.

On Saturday, the Shanghai railway bureau said the tidal wave of passengers had returned to China's eastern railways - a reversal of the massive flow that had taken them away from the commercial hub.

Officials at Beijing's two railway stations said the daily passenger arrivals would exceed 100,000 today and tomorrow.

Ctrip.com, a leading on-line ticket booking agency, said no discounts on air tickets were available for flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing from Monday to Wednesday.

The Ministry of Communications, too, reported an increasing number of vehicles making short-distance trips and an improvement in cross-province passenger transport, which was disrupted by blizzards in the eastern, central and southern parts of the country.

About 23.5 million people hit the roads on Saturday, 1.48 million more than on Friday and 2.12 million more year-on-year, according to ministry figures.

The rush on the roads caused some accidents too, with nine people being killed when an overloaded minibus veered off the road in Guizhou's Tongzi county yesterday morning. The seven-seat bus was headed for Chongqing.

Xinhua