(XINHUA)

Weary passengers travel aboard a train heading from Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, to Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, in the early hours of January 16 during a 26-hour ride.

The annual travel rush around the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as Spring Festival, began on January 16. In the following 40 days, travelers across the country are expected to make more than 3.62 billion trips, up 200 million compared to last year, posing a great challenge to the transportation system.