People rush to board trains at Shanghai Railway Station on May 7, 2006. Officials said operations went smoothly during the Labor Day holiday thanks to additional trains being put into service.

BEIJING, May 8 -- A record number of travelers flooded Shanghai's railways, airports and long-distance bus stations during the Labor Day holiday.

    The passenger flow was close to, or in some cases, bigger than that during the Spring Festival, which is historically the busiest time for transport facility operators as people head to ancestral homes to be with their family.

    But transport operators said things went smoothly as more trains and planes were added for the anticipated surge in demand.

    Shanghai Railway Station handled nearly 270,000 passengers since Thursday when residents began returning to the city, an increase of about 8 percent year on year.

    At peak times, the station handled nearly 140,000, similar to the figure during the Spring Festival holiday.

    "Most of them are tourists this time, but there were no passengers stranded at the station for failure to catch trains as was the case during the Spring Festival," said Sun Lei, an official at the station's information office.

    The most popular destinations were Beijing, Jinan, Xi'an, Wuyi Mountain in Fujian Province, Guilin and Hangzhou, according to the Shanghai Railway Station.

    Meanwhile, the Shanghai General Station of Long-Distance Buses said it served more passengers during the holiday compared to the Spring Festival.

    The station handled nearly 260,000 passengers during the past week, with a passenger flow of 44,700 people on May 1, 0.56 percent higher than the daily peak in January.

    Three emergency exits were added from Friday to ensure people could leave the station quickly upon arrival.

    Frontier police at the Pudong International Airport reported inbound passengers of more than 280,000, an increase of 12 percent from the same period last year. More than 3,100 planes took off and landed at the airport, an increase of 35 percent year on year.

    More than 20 flights were added during the weeklong holiday to handle the increased passenger flow, officials said.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)