This photo taken on April 2, 2021 shows passengers at the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING - China is likely to see 49.7 million railway passenger trips from Friday to next Monday during the upcoming holiday travel rush, according to the national railway operator.

A peak of more than 14 million passenger trips in a single day is expected on April 3, the first day of the three-day Tomb-sweeping Day holiday, said China State Railway Group Co, Ltd. on Friday.

With domestic COVID-19 control efforts paying off, travel demand has picked up as people opt to visit family and friends, go on spring outings and worship their ancestors during the holiday, rail authorities said

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With domestic COVID-19 control efforts paying off, travel demand has picked up as people opt to visit family and friends, go on spring outings and worship their ancestors during the holiday, said the group.

Railway authorities will increase transportation capacities to handle the spike in trips during this period, with 10,046 passenger trains to be put into daily operation, up 10.6 percent from 2019.

Tomb-sweeping Day, also known as the Qingming Festival, falls on April 4 this year. It is a traditional Chinese holiday during which people pay tribute to their deceased family and friends. Many also spend the three-day holiday traveling. 

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Separately, north China's aviation regulator on Friday said that Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport are expected to see a surge in flights during the upcoming Tomb-sweeping Day holiday.

The two major airports in the Chinese capital are set to handle 5,835 flights during the three-day holiday from April 3 to 5, up 337 percent from last year's Tomb-sweeping Day holiday, said the CAAC North China Regional Administration.

From March 28 to Oct 30, the season will likely see 92,756 domestic flights per week, up 10.7 percent from the same season in 2020, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Latest CAAC data also show that China's civil aviation industry handled approximately 23.95 million passenger trips in February, a jump of 187.1 percent year-on-year.