More Chinese people hit road for Dragon Boat Festival

BEIJING -- More Chinese people are hitting the road on the first day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, official data showed on Thursday.

Some 30.95 million road trips will be made on Thursday, up 66.3 percent year on year. The country's number of waterway trips is expected to soar 164.82 percent from a year earlier to 1 million, the Ministry of Transport said.

China's railways will likely handle 16.2 million trips on Thursday, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

Some 13.86 million railway trips were made on Wednesday, up 11.8 percent from the same period of 2019.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.