Planet's top mass travel frenzy begins

Ticketless trips helping ease bottlenecks

The world's largest annual human migration－the Spring Festival travel rush－kicked off on Monday, with nearly 3 billion trips expected to be made in the 40 days from Jan 21 to March 1.

On the first day of the rush, railway departments across the country handled an estimated 9 million train trips, according to China Railway Corp, the national railway operator.

In Beijing, some 402,000 train trips were estimated to have been made via the city's three railway stations on Monday, a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent, according to China Railway Beijing Group Co.

New technologies were introduced this year to increase efficiency during the travel rush. In Guangdong province, some railway stations pioneered ticketless travel.