BEIJING - During the week-long National Day holiday starting Saturday, more than 530 million people are expected to go on a journey, an increase of nearly 10 percent from the same period last year, according to an official prediction.

He Jianzhong, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport, said China's railways, highways and airlines will serve a daily average of 75.6 million travelers during the holiday from October 1 to 7. They will be especially busy on the first and last days of the holiday when people are leaving and returning.

He said that more than 830,000 buses with 20 million seats will be operating during the holiday. Meanwhile, 21,000 ships with nearly 900,000 seats will be operating at full steam.

Sources from the Ministry of Railways said the ministry has made great efforts to make traveling easier. All CRH tickets can be booked via the Internet as of September 30, and before the end of the year, all kinds of train tickets will be available on the Internet booking system.

Two weeks ago, the Ministry of Railways announced that train ticket-returning charges were lowered from 20 percent of the face value to five percent, which was widely welcomed by the public.