Record railway trips made in holiday

BEIJING - The number of trips made via China's railway network hit a record high during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday ending Monday, the China Railway Corporation said on Tuesday.

With the holiday a popular time to visit attractions or return home, some 32.23 million railway trips were made from the pre-holiday May 30 to June 2, up 15.6 percent year on year.

Over one third of the trips were completed by bullet trains, with the figure up 37 percent from a year ago.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is traditionally celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. It fell on June 2 this year.

The festival commemorates ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. Chinese people traditionally eat zongzi, a rice dumpling, and race dragon boats during the holiday.