221 mn Chinese travelled by train during spring festival
By IANSMonday, February 28, 2011
BEIJING - A whopping 221 million people travelled by train during China’s spring festival, which is also the largest migration of people anywhere in the world.
The railway ministry Monday said the trains carried a record 221 million passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush period that ended Sunday.
The figure represents an increase of 8.3 percent from the last spring festival period, said the ministry in an online statement, Xinhua reported.
A new record was established Feb 19 with 7.13 million passengers travelling on that day, it added.
Spring festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, fell Feb 3 this year. It is the most important festival of family reunion for the Chinese.
Over 2.3 billion people are estimated to have travelled to and from their homes during the festival using different modes of transport.
