国内英语新闻:More people make return trips in last day of National Day holiday

BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- As more people made return trips to go back home and work, China saw a traffic boom on Thursday.

Road transport departments nationwide carried 62.23 million passengers on Thursday, up 9.0 percent over the same day last year, according to the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

    In the eight-day holiday, a total of 488 million passengers made journeys by road transport, representing an increase of 6.8 percent over the same period last year.

Passengers queue to receive security check at the subway station entrance of Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 7, 2009. As the National Day holidays are about to end, the railway transportation witnessed a travel peak all over the nation

    Some 820,000 medium and large-size busses were put into use from Oct.1 to Oct. 8. Of the total, more than 80,000 were tourism buses.

    According to the Civil Aviation Administration, 5.29 million people traveled by air during the holiday, up 7.8 percent over the same period last year.

    He Jianzhong, the MOT spokesman said the transport departments made full preparations to cope with the 16th typhoon of this year, "Ketsana", dealing with 4 dangerous cases, involving 44 people.

    Marine salvage departments put 72 ships and 12 helicopters into service during the holiday period, said He.