(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-05 19:21

BEIJING  -- Chinese railways carried 21.19 million passengers from April 30 to May 3, up 11.5 year on year, the Ministry of Railways said on Monday.

Passenger flow reached a record high of 5.90 million on May 1, the first day of the shortened May Day vacation, up 11.6 percent compared with last May 1.

China cut the length of the May Day holiday from a week to three days from this year as part of its scheme of restructuring national holidays to avoid overcrowding spring travel.

As a result, more passengers shifted to short- and mid-distance travelling.

An average of 3.82 million railway passengers made short- and mid-distance trips each day during the past four days, up 16.2 percent over the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, an additional of 938 trains were run, 791 of which ran short- and mid-distance trips, according to the ministry.