Passengers wait for trains at the Shijiazhuang Railway Station in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, May 1, 2014. The four-day Labor Day travel peak began on Wednesday. The national railways are expected to receive 36.4 million passengers from April 30 to May 3. (Xinhua/Mou Yu)

Data released on Thursday by China's railway authorities showed that train trips on the first day of the three-day Labor Day holiday were predicted to pass 10 million.

Trips on the railway reached 8.78 million on Wednesday, 20.6 percent higher than the same day last year, said the authorities.

To cope with rising traffic, 346 temporary trains are expected to be added on the Labor Day which falls on Thursday.