China expected to record over 270 million inter-regional passenger trips on Saturday, the 13th day of the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, marking a 1.8 percent increase from the same period last year, Ministry of Transport data showed.

The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, amounts to the world's largest annual human migration as millions embark on journeys across the country to reunite with loved ones to celebrate the arrival of the Chinese New Year.

The Spring Festival falls on Feb 17 this year. The official holiday lasts nine days from Feb 15 to 23, with the travel rush running from Feb 2 through March 13.

On Saturday, an additional 2,095 passenger trains were deployed across the national railway network. It is estimated that 15.35 million passengers would have been transported over the day, marking an increase of 0.3 percent from the previous day and a year-on-year rise of 5.6 percent.

Meanwhile, national expressway traffic is expected to exceed 250 million passenger trips, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 1.4 percent. Traffic saw a notable surge on Saturday evening, as Sunday marks the start of the toll-free period for expressways.

From Feb 15 to 23, expressways across the country will offer toll-free access to passenger cars with up to seven seats.

Waterway passenger transport is estimated to handle 990,000 trips, up 2.1 percent from the previous day and 41.6 percent year on year.

Civil aviation is expected to carry approximately 2.43 million passengers on Saturday, up 5.6 percent year on year.