By 22 February, an estimated 1.34bn people had travelled on China’s roads since the start of the Spring Festival holidays, up 8.3 per cent from the equivalent period last year, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Snowstorms in eastern China closed a number of highways during the holiday period, with major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing all affected. However there was no repeat of the chaos experienced in 2008 when the extreme cold weather crippled transport systems and stranded millions at the start of the holiday rush.

The rail network has also been busy. An estimated 600,000 passengers entered railway stations in Guangdong on 21 February. Most of the passengers were returning from holiday or migrant workers seeking employment in the province, said Huang Xin, spokesman for Guangzhou Railway Group. About half of them were transported by the 138 trains added during the Spring Festival holiday, he said. The second peak of inbound passengers is expected to occur between 1 and 3 March, when students and more migrant workers return.

China’s civil aviation industry recorded a 19.4 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger numbers to 4.78m between 13 and 19 February, according to statistics released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Chinese airlines arranged 37,027 flights during the holiday, 14.7 per cent more than in the same period last year.

An increasing number of Chinese are travelling abroad during the holiday period. The number of cross-border entries and exits by mainlanders between 13 and 19 February grew by 20.8 per cent on the equivalent period in 2009 to almost 2.4m, said the Ministry of Public Security. According to the China Youth Travel Service, popular destinations included Southeast Asia, Australia and Taiwan.