Sales of household electric appliances, aided by a government program to subsidize purchases in rural areas, gained 17.8 percent.

Last year's Lunar New Year holiday week was disrupted by fierce snowstorms that snarled rail and air traffic, stranding millions of passengers. Holiday travel was much smoother this year.

Over the past 20 days, the Chinese made an average 4.40 million railway trips every day as many crossed the country for holiday reunions with their families, Xinhua news agency quoted the railway ministry as saying. That was up 15.6 percent from the same holiday period last year.

A total of 248 million people traveled by road in the week through Saturday, up 5.6 percent from last year, the transport ministry said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2009)