A total of 2.05 billion intercity buses were taken in China during this year's 40-day Spring Festival, said sources with the Ministry of Communications on Wednesday.

 

While the number of bus trips rose nine percent, bus fares declined 10 percent on average from the same period of the previous year.

 

The country's 200 million migrant workers took 447 million trips by road and transportation departments across the country delivered 7.25 million bus tickets to their doorsteps.

 

About 70,000 long-distance buses were in service during the 40 days and half of them ran in rural areas.

 

Eighty-three percent of the villages had bus stations, making it more convenient than before for migrant workers to get home for family reunions during the festival and return to work in big cities.

 

China had 3.48 million kilometers of highways and 45,400 kilometers of expressways in operation by the end of 2006.

 

The total length of highways opened to traffic included 1.55 million kilometers in rural areas.

 

The 40-day Spring Festival travel peak began on Feb. 3, 15 days before the Lunar New Year's Day, and ended on March 14.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)