A total of 311 million tickets had been sold via China's train ticket booking platform 12306 for the Spring Festival travel rush as of 9 a.m. on Saturday, according to the country's railway operator.

The Spring Festival travel rush, known as chunyun, is underway across China. This year's travel rush began on January 14 and will last until February 22, spanning 40 days. Authorities are expecting an unprecedented nine billion cross-regional passenger trips during this period.