Qingming travel rush starts early

Road and railway traffic is set to increase this weekend in the run-up to the Qingming Festival which falls on April 5.

Expressways and highways which lead to cemeteries in suburbs and to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces will be under the greatest pressure, the Shanghai Road Administration Bureau said.

The tomb-sweeping day holiday runs from April 5 to 7. It's predicted that 4.4 million to 4.5 million cars will use the city's expressways, a 5.4 to 7.5 percent rise from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, from now to April 15, two buses will be added to the Pudong No. 31 route to Laogang area of Nanhui for peach blossom viewing.

A total of 6.42 million people are expected to visit the city's 44 cemeteries and 10 columbariums between Saturday and April 7, bringing an extra 836,000 vehicles onto the streets.

People who plan to travel by train during the holiday from the Yangtze River Delta region will have more choices.

The railway authority expects about 10.6 million people will take trains from this region between April 5 and 7, about 800,000 more than the same period last year.

The authority will add 93 G-series high-speed trains, 35 D-series trains and 49 slower trains, with 159 of them running within the region, and 18 bound for further destinations.

Within the region, the most popular destinations for the holiday include Hangzhou, Nanjing, Hefei, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Jinhua, Yiwu, Huangshan, Wuhu, Fuyang and Xuzhou.

Some of the most popular further destinations for travelers are the capital Beijing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Nanchang, Changsha, Wuhan and Zhengzhou.

It's predicted traffic at railways will peak on April 5, when 2.9 million will board trains.