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Travel records expected during 'golden week'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-29 09:43

The upcoming National Day holiday is putting a strain on China's transport systems as a record number of travelers take advantage of time off.

The Ministry of Railways (MOR) said on Sunday that 57 million people would be on the move during the week-long holiday either going to tourist destinations or their hometowns.

The "golden-week" takes place from September 29 to October 5.

The MOR's figure was 7.57 million more than last year.

This year, the country's three "golden week" holidays were cut down to two. However, three new one-day public holidays were added -- the traditional Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon-boat Festival and Mid Autumn Festival.

Observers said people's enthusiasm to travel during the National Day break increased since the week-long May Day holiday was cancelled.

Olympic host city Beijing and six co-host cities are expected to be hot destinations for tourists. In fact, more than seven million people are expected to flock to Beijing to have a look at the Olympic venues.

To deal with the surge, the MOR arranged 44 pairs of tourist trains to travel to cities, such as Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Shenzhen and Kunming. Forty-two pairs of extra trains would provided through services to large cities and tourist destinations.

The railway passenger flow is expected to peak Monday, at 6.5 million, which is 650,000 more compared with last year, said the MOR.

According to the Ministry of Transport, highway and waterway passenger volumes would hit 381 million and 6.13 million, up five percent and two percent from the same period last year, respectively.

A total of 760,000 medium- and large-sized passenger vehicles and 20,000 passenger ships would be used to deliver travelers, said ministry spokesman He Jianzhong.

In two separate statements, both ministries highlighted and urged local authorities to improve services during the holiday.