More than 320 million inter-regional passenger trips were expected across China on Wednesday, the 18th day of this year's 40-day Spring Festival travel rush period and the second day of the Chinese New Year, according to data released by the Ministry of Transport.

This figure marks a sharp 43.1 percent growth from the previous day, the Chinese New Year, with family reunions and tourism overlapping to fuel a surge in short-distance travel.

Nationwide, railways were expecting to handle 10.8 million passenger trips, up 78.5 percent from Tuesday.

To meet this surge, rail operators were planning to run an additional 476 passenger trains on Wednesday.

Highway traffic was projected to surpass 50 million vehicle trips, putting pressure on roads around popular tourist sites.

Around 2.48 million passenger trips on planes were also expected on Wednesday.

Routes from major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Chongqing to tourist cities such as Harbin and Kunming are the most popular, with many airlines boosting capacity on those high-demand routes.

The travel rush, also known as chunyun, which runs from Feb 2 to March 13 this year, is expected to see a record 9.5 billion inter-regional passenger trips across the country.