Chinese take record 9 billion domestic trips during Lunar New Year, Xinhua reports

China notched a record 9.02 billion domestic trips during the 40-day Lunar New Year travel rush, the state Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, surpassing the 8.4 billion trips taken in the same holiday period a year earlier. The travel rush during China's biggest holiday is often read as a barometer for the country's economic health and a pressure test for its vast transportation system. Some 513 million train trips were taken during the Spring Festival, as the holiday is known in China, up 6.1% on last year, while 90.2 million passengers travelled by air, up 7.4%, according to Xinhua.