2.85 bln road journeys over festival period

 　　BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry¹ of Transport (MOT) said Thursday that about 2.85 billion passenger-trips by roads were made during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush this year, up 9.6 percent from the corresponding² period last year.

　　A total of 42.45 million journeys were made by water during period from Jan. 8 to Feb. 16, up 1 percent year-on-year, said MOT Spokesman³ He Jianzhong.

　　The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, fell on Jan. 23 this year.

　　He said passenger traffic increased by 10 percent year-on-year during the travel rush before the Spring Festival day, and by 9.4 percent afterward⁴.

　　To meet the rising demand, the country put into operation 850,000 units of vehicles, which made a daily average of 2.65 million trips during the festival travel period, according to He.

　　The provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu saw the most road passengers before the Spring Festival, while return journeys made by road passengers peaked in the provinces of Henan, Anhui, Hubei and Jiangxi.

　　The Spring Festival holiday, which brings with it the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, began on Jan. 22 this year. Hundreds of millions of Chinese, mainly migrant workers and college students, travel home during the holiday every year to reunite with their families.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 corresponding   

adj.符合的，一致的，相同的，相应的，相当的

参考例句：

• We shall take the corresponding measures.我们将采取相应措施。
• Finally,some corresponding advices are put forword based on the above experiments.最后提出了几个相应的建议。

3 spokesman   

n.发言人，代言人

参考例句：

• The government spokesman gave a quick briefing to the reporters.政府发言人向记者们作了情况简介。
• They drew lots to decide who should be their spokesman.他们抽签决定谁是他们的发言人。

4 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。