Over 1,000 migrant workers queue for refueling their motorcycles for free at a gas station on Sunday in Foshan, South China's Guangdong Province before traveling home for the Spring Festival holiday. Photo: IC

Some 2.91 billion trips are expected to be made across the country during the 2016 Spring Festival travel rush between Sunday and March 3, up 3.6 percent year-on-year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner.

About 7 million people, mostly students and migrant workers, began traveling Sunday to get back home to celebrate Spring Festival, according to China Railway Corporation.

The travel will peak between February 5 and 7, a day before Spring Festival, and again between February 11 and 13, a day before people start to work, Wang Shuiping, an official with the Ministry of Transport, was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying on Sunday.

About 2.48 billion trips will be made via road, 332 million by railway and 54 million via air, according to the NDRC.

Over 60 percent of the trips during the rush period will be made across different provinces, said Wang. He added that people are encouraged to pool cars, though they should clarify their plans and interests beforehand to avoid unnecessary disputes

The carpooling service provided by car-hailing app Didi has received 580,000 cross-regional orders from January 11 to 23, and the number is increasing by a daily average amount of 70,000 orders, Huang Jieli, Didi's director of service, told news portal 163.com on Sunday.

The top 10 destinations during the holiday travel rush from 2014 to 2016 include Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province, Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province and Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, according to Alitrip, an online flight-booking service platform under Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, news site cnr.cn reported.