China's annual Spring Festival travel rush began Wednesday.

Railway traffic has increased in parts of Guizhou and Hunan provinces because heavy snow has delayed other modes of transportation, the Ministry of Railways said in another report.

But so far railway traffic has been orderly, as local transportation authorities prepared for possible inclement weather conditions, after freezing weather in the winter of 2008 caused traffic chaos and prevented many people from going home, the report said.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) forecasts snow storms to hit regions of Guizhou, Yunnan and Hunan this week.

Besides journeys home, many trips will be made to tourist destinations, such as Sanya in Hainan Province, said ministry spokesman He Jianzhong.

On Tuesday alone, a total of 4.72 million passenger trips were made on the nation's railway lines. Railway authorities have arranged an extra 132 trains to cope with the increase in passengers, according to MOR figures.

The MOT had earlier said it will run an extra 293 trains per day during the rush period, with the average daily train departures totaling 4,561. The trains will carry 6.2 million passengers per day, up 12.5 percent year on year.