China's railways send 5m passengers by Feb 6

Railway passengers pour into the ticket-inspection lanes at the Jinan Railway Station in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 30, 2010, the first day of China's Spring Festival travel peak. (Xinhua/Lv Chuanquan)

Railway passengers pour into the ticket-inspection lane at the Jinan Railway Station in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 30, 2010, the first day of (Xinhua/Lv Chuanquan)

Photo taken on Jan. 31, 2010 shows railway passengers at a platform in Bozhou Railway Station in Bozhou, east China's Anhui Province. China on Saturday began its annual mass passenger transportation for the traditional Lunar New Year, with an expected 2.54 billion journeys in the coming 40 days. (Xinhua/Zhang Yanlin)

BEIJING: China's railway network has transported 5.03 million passengers as of February 6, the eighth day of the country's annual Spring Festival transport peak lasting from January 30 to March 10 this year, said the Ministry of Railways (MOR) Sunday.

The figure was 105,000 more than that in the same time last year, up 2.1 percent year on year, according to the MOR.

Beijing railways have transported 347,418 passengers by February 6, and the figures in Guangzhou and Shanghai stood at 576,710 and 325,190, the MOR said.

The MOR had forecasted in January that China's railways were expected to transport 210 million passengers during the Luner New Year travel rush, up 9.5 percent year on year.