Tomb-sweeping Day saw 8.31m railway trips

BEIJING -- China's Qingming Festival, or Tomb-sweeping Day, saw a total of 8.31 million railway trips on Thursday, the railway authorities said Friday.

The figure hit a record high of one-day trip amount comparing with previous three-day holiday of Qingming Festival, said China Railway Corporation (CRC), the country's new organ in charge of railway operation.

The holiday was jammed by the people through the country back to their hometown to burn incense and paper money in remembrance of the dead.

Besides, many tourists also took the opportunity to make journeys, since this is the first holiday longer than weekend after the Spring Festival, which made the traffic more crowded, CRC said.

Figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that a total of 520 million people visited their ancestors' tombs during the holiday last year.