The Spring Festival travel rush began in China on Monday as the country ushered in its largest annual population migration.

A total of 9.5 billion passenger trips are expected this year, which will be a historic high, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Road trips are expected to remain the dominant mode of travel, accounting for approximately 80 percent.

An estimated 540 million passenger trips will be handled by the country's railways, while the civil aviation sector will see 95 million trips.

Both the overall scale and daily peak traffic of rail and air travel are expected to surpass historic levels this year.

The 40-day travel rush, which began about two weeks before the start of the Chinese New Year, ends on March 13.