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BEIJING. – As the eight-day Spring Festival holiday gets underway, anticipation mounts for new records in both travel volumes and box office revenues. The festival is set to end on Saturday.

Chinese railways witnessed nearly 12,93 million passenger trips on Tuesday, with an estimated 14,2 million expected yesterday, according to the China State Railway Group (CSRG), the nation’s railway operator.

According to the CSRG’s passenger department, daily ridership has consistently exceeded 10 million for two consecutive days, driven by various factors such as tourism, familial visits, and the return of people to their homes.

Additionally, the passenger flows to popular cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou and Shenzhen significantly increased, surpassing the peak of passenger flows before the Spring Festival, as indicated by presale tickets on China’s official railway ticket-booking website.

In terms of data for applying for standby train tickets on 12306.cn, Guangzhou and Shenzhen became the most popular destinations yesterday, while Harbin and Wuhan became the most popular departure cities for the third consecutive day.

As of yesterday, the fifth day of the Spring Festival holiday, China’s Spring Festival box office revenue (including pre-sale) has exceeded 5 billion yuan (about US$696 million), according to official statistics.  – CGTN.com