China is expected to register over 208 million cross-regional passenger trips on the New Year's Day, which marks a year-on-year increase of 21 percent, the Ministry of Transport said on Thursday.

On the first day of the three-day New Year holiday, road travel is projected to reach 187.26 million passenger trips -- an expected rise of 18.1 percent year on year.

Railway passenger trips are expected to grow by 65.1 percent from one year ago to reach 18.25 million, the waterway passenger volume is expected to go up 0.9 percent to 670,000 trips, and civil aviation passenger trips are anticipated to rise by 12.6 percent to hit 1.95 million.

On New Year's Eve, China reported over 207 million cross-regional passenger trips, 25.4 percent higher than that of the same day of last year.

Road passenger volume hit 188.28 million trips, a growth of 22.8 percent on a yearly basis.

China's railway system handled 16.68 million passenger trips on that day, representing a year-on-year increase of 60 percent.

Waterway and civil aviation passenger volume totaled 626,000 and 2.18 million trips, up 32.3 percent and 21.2 percent year on year respectively.