With China's Spring Festival period drawing to a close, traffic departments across China are coping with the post festival travel rush.
The back-to-work travel rush started on Friday, with all major cities across China seeing an upsurge of passengers on the railways and highways.
In Shanghai, however, it started two days earlier than usual, as people hurry to get back to work. A passenger said, "I came here to start work. And I want to prepare for work earlier."
Many tickets on long distance routes are already sold out, as migrant workers leave home as they return to the cities.
Liu Wenhong, deputy secretary of Taiyuan Railway Station, said, "Taiyuan railway station had the first peak of the post-Spring Festival travel rush. We saw 52 thousand passengers on January 26th, and estimated 60 thousand on 27th. Today, the number will reach 80 thousand."
With the rush for the train, many migrant workers have chosen to take the bus back to the cities. This had led to more buses on the roads, and ticket offices extending their opening hours.
Xiao Daqing, head of Santai Bus Station, said, "The post-Spring Festival travel rush started from Juanuary 26th, and will end on February 7th. Our bus station will transport an estimated 1 million passengers during the period."
There is expected to be a slow down on China's transport systems on Sunday. Over the 40 day Spring Festival travel rush, over 3 billion trips will be made, by bus, train, plane and car. That's a nine per cent jump on last year.
随着春节已接近尾声,全国交通主管部门应对春节后返京高峰。
返京高峰于周五开始,在各主要城市以铁路和高速公路为主,乘客以安全,快速的方式回到他们熟悉的工作岗位上。