65 million holidaymakers take Chinese trains

Passengers at Haikou East Railway Station in Haikou, China's coastal province of Hainan on Sept 30,2013. [Photo/CFP]

BEIJING -- Chinese railways carried 65 million passengers between Sept 28 and Oct 5, a record high over the same period in history, the state-owned China Railway Corporation (CRC) said on Sunday.

The seven-day National Day holiday, also called "Golden Week," starts on Oct 1 every year, but the railway system usually feels the strain from a couple of days before.

On Tuesday, de facto National Day, the total number of railway passengers hit 10.33 million, for the first time the 10 million mark has been breached, the CRC said.

An average of 8 million people travel by train each day from Sept 30 to Oct 4, it added.

The CRC is expecting another passenger peak in the last two days of Golden Week as holiday makers return.

Preemptive measures have been taken against any possible adverse influence of Typhoon Fitow on railway operations.