BEIJING - The number of Chinese passengers on roads kept climbing as the week-long Spring Festival holiday approaches.

On Friday, the number of road passengers, or those on long-distance scheduled coaches, charted buses or tour coaches, reached 92.63 million, up about 1 percent from Thursday, data from the Ministry of Transport showed.

The Spring Festival, or 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 January 31. This year's c

hunyun, literally translated as "spring transportation", runs from January 16 to February 24.

From January 16 till Friday, total road passengers have reached 772 million, up 4.4 percent from the same period of chunyun in the previous year, the ministry said.

The country's transport system will witness the busiest time in the next days, as a vast number of people rush home to spend the seven-day holiday, officially scheduled between January 31 and February 6.

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.