Nearly 35 million passenger trips were made on the national railway network during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday travel rush from Saturday to Tuesday, with the peak falling on Sunday, China State Railway Group said on Wednesday.

The number of passenger trips was 48 million during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2019, before the COVID-19 epidemic broke out.

Freeways witnessed more traffic on Tuesday. In Beijing, major freeways connecting the capital's suburbs saw an increasing number of returning vehicles-with peak hours from 4 pm to 7 pm-the city's transport commission said.

The civil aviation industry also saw a peak of returning passengers on Tuesday, with some 1,720 flights scheduled at the capital's two airports.

In some regions in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province and North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, heating services were offered on some trains to counteract temperature declines.

To contain the spread of COVID-19, passengers could obtain free face masks at some railway stations, such as Shenyang and Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning province.

The national civil aviation regulator planned more domestic flights to respond to increased demand during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. In addition to about 100,000 flights every week, another 4,250 were planned during the holiday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

Shang Kejia, deputy director of the administration's transport department, said summer traffic was down 42 percent compared with 2019 and down 16.6 percent compared with last year.

More trips were expected to be made during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays than over the summer, she said.

In Beijing, 4,550 flights were scheduled to arrive at or depart from Capital International Airport and Daxing International Airport during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.