BEIJING?- China's road transportation served about 2.36 billion passengers nationwide in the first 33 days of the Chinese Spring Festival travel rush that kicked off on Jan 8, official data show.

The figure marked an increase of 9.8 percent over the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Transport.

A total of 35.89 million passenger trips were made via the country's waterway during the same period, the ministry said.

The Spring Festival travel season lasts 40 days, with hundreds of millions of people, mainly migrant workers and college students, heading home for the most important festival in China.