BEIJING, Jan. 25 -- The number of road passengers in China rose 4.7 percent to 867 million in the first 10 days of chunyun, a 40-day period of travel rush around the Spring Festival, new data showed Saturday.

Road passengers, or those on long-distance scheduled coaches, charted buses or tour coaches, reached 94.38 million on Saturday, up 6.9 percent year on year and up 1.89 percent from Friday, data from the Ministry of Transport showed.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, is China's most important traditional holiday for family reunions. Drastic surge of travellers put great pressure on the road, railway and air transportation systems.

The coming Lunar New Year falls on Jan. 31. This year's chunyun, literally translated as "spring transportation", runs from Jan. 16 to Feb. 24.

The ministry has forecast that Chinese passengers will make 3.62 billion trips during this year's chunyun, including 3.2 billion trips by road.