国内英语新闻:Trips by road, ships top 2.64 bln as China' s busiest migration season ends

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 2.64 billion trips in China were recorded by road or ships during the 40-day Spring Festival transportation season which ended Sunday, the Ministry of Transport said.

The figure was 13.6 percent higher than the same period last year, noted ministry spokesman He Jianzhong.

To ensure smooth transportation, 840,000 buses were put into use each day during the busy season, as well as 13,089 ships, He said.

Statistics on railway transportation are not yet available.

However, statistics from the Beijing railway administration showed 20.63 million tourists had left Beijing during the transportation season from Jan. 19 to Feb. 27, up 3.9 percent year on year.

The busy Spring Festival transportation season runs for 40 days and is calculated in two phases: 15 days before and 25 days after the Spring Festival.