BEIJING, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's cross-regional passenger flow surged to a historic high during the first half of the eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, with approximately 1.24 billion trips recorded, underscoring the vitality of a robust travel sector, the Ministry of Transport said on Sunday.

On Saturday alone, the cross-regional passenger flow totaled 301.29 million trips, a year-on-year increase of 6.1 percent, according to the ministry. The average daily flow during the first half of the holiday exceeded 310 million passenger trips.

Railway passenger trips increased 4.5 percent year on year to total 18.33 million, the waterway passenger volume was up 5.6 percent to 1.91 million, and civil aviation passenger trips rose 4.1 percent to hit 2.32 million.

Road travel facilitated 278.73 million passenger trips -- a rise of 6.2 percent year on year, remaining the dominant choice among members of the public.

First-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen were top holiday trip choices, along with popular tourist destinations like Chengdu and Xi'an, the ministry said.

It had previously projected that nationwide passenger trips would total approximately 2.36 billion over the holiday period. ■