Golden Week kept China's railways very busy. From Sept. 28 to Oct.7, the railways carried a record 42.13 million people, 3.68 million more than the same period last year, according to statistics from China's Ministry of Railways.

The statistics released Sunday show that the country's railways carried a record 5.18 million passengers on Oct. 1, the first day of the country's weeklong National Day holiday.

To cope with the sharp rise in passenger traffic, the ministry arranged 2448 pairs of temporary passenger trains over the 10-day period, mainly to and from major tourist destinations such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai-Lhasa and Guangzhou-Lhasa lines started operation on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 respectively.

No passenger casualties were reported during Golden Week. Trains ran in a steady, orderly fashion, with 99.8 percent on schedule, the ministry said.

China adopted the three annual Golden Weeks of the Lunar New Year (Spring Festival), Labour Day (May 1-7), and the country's National Day (Oct. 1-7) in 1999.

The Golden Week holiday not only helps boost China's domestic consumption and the economy, but also makes people more aware of going out and enjoying life, said Wang Zhifa, deputy director of the China National Tourism Administration.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2006)