UPDATE 2-China records increased passenger trips via railway during Lunar New Year

China's railway travel rose 11.5% to 121 million passenger trips during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday period from last year's ‌festival, which was celebrated over eight days, state broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday.

* CCTV also reported that 85.38 million tons of goods were shipped via the railway, an increase of 0.5% over last year. * Passenger trips ‌via air travel totaled 22.05 million during the period, with the daily average of 2.45 million ‌7.7% higher than during the holiday period last year.

* Daily average of flights rose 4.4% on-year to a cumulative 171,000 scheduled flights over the period, CCTV said. * Within China, travel for all modes of transport rose 8.2% to a total ⁠of 2.8 ​billion trips, CCTV said.

* ⁠The nine-day holiday period marks the peak of the China travel rush recognised as the world's largest annual human migration. This ⁠year the travel rush period, also known as Chunyun, will last 40 days. * Popular outbound travel destinations ​were Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and others in the region, according to CCTV.

* Passenger volume ⁠to Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Maldives and Kazakhstan increased significantly. * There were also significant increases in outbound travellers to destinations such ⁠as ​Turkey, Australia, Russia and New Zealand.

* Box office sales during the holiday period exceeded 5.75 billion yuan ($832.37 million), state news agency Xinhua reported citing the China Film Administration. That was down ⁠from record sales of 9.51 billion yuan during the festive period between January 28 and February 4 last ⁠year, boosted by ⁠sequels to popular hit films. * This year, the racing comedy sequel "Pegasus 3" emerged as the highest-grossing film of the season, Xinhua said. ($1 = 6.9080 yuan)