(Yicai Global) Jan. 10 -- The Chinese transportation system will carry a total of some three billion passengers during the Spring Festival travel period starting from Friday, according to the country's development and transport authorities yesterday.  

The 2020 Spring Festival travel rush, known as the Chunyun in Chinese, will run from January 10 to February 18. The number of passengers slightly increased from last year, said Zhao Chenxin, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, at a press conference on the Spring Festival travel. 

He said that the pre-holiday travel rush is expected to add pressure on railway and highway traffic along certain routes. 

Nearly 440 million passenger-trips will be made by railway during this year's spring festival travel rush, eight percent higher than a year earlier.

In addition, more passengers will choose self-driving travel during the travel rush this year, according to Li Jiangping, director of the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. 

In 2019, the number of private cars in the country increased by 17.86 million, an increase of 9.5 percent than a year ago, exceeding 200 million for the first time.

On the other hand,the civil aviation authorities say 79 million will travel by plane, an 8.4 percent growth from last year.

Wan Xiangdong, of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said, the most popular international destinations during the rush period are Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries close to China.