Services on the Wuhan-to-Guangzhou high-speed railway were 98 per cent full in the first 26 days of the 40-day Spring Festival, reported China Economic Review. Some 1.1m passengers were carried on the trains since the start of the travel season on 30 January.

The railway, which costs Rmb116.6bn to build, allows trains to travel at an average speed of 350 kph. The journey has been reduced from at least 11 hours to just three hours now.

According to the Zhengzhou Railway Bureau, another high-speed railway from the central city of Zhengzhou to Xian in northwestern Shaanxi province has also been operating nearly full trains. Some 2.32m passengers have travelled on services since the line opened on 26 December last year.