China sees road transport boom in Spring Festival "golden week"

BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's transport department said Friday altogether 273 million road trips were made during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, up 10.5 percent over the same period last year.

The waterway sector reported 6.54 million journeys during the "golden week" which ended on Friday, up 2 percent from a year earlier, said the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

MOT spokesman He Jianzhong said the road and water transport capacities were sufficient during the holiday and the market was in good order.

Altogether more than 760,000 buses and 20,000 ships were put into use to cope with the transport boom, he said.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, fell on Feb. 14 this year, and is an important holiday for family reunions.

A total of 2.54 billion journeys are expected during the 40-day Spring Festival travel season that ends on March 10, or chunyun, which has always been an annual test on China's transport systems.