8 in 10 of you will take a bus home

Road trips via long-distance buses have long been the major means of transportation for Chinese heading home for Spring Festival. This year, however, such trips are expected to decline for the first time as the country's high-speed rail network continues to expand and more people chose to drive home, authorities said.

About 2.98 billion trips are expected to be made during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which starts on Thursday, Lian Weiliang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in a news conference organized by State Council Information Office on Wednesday.

While trips done via all other public means are projected to increase, road trips on public vehicles will decline for the first time by 1.6 percent from 2017 to about 2.48 billion, which still is expected to account for 80 percent of the total trips this year.