Passengers run to catch the train at the Guangzhou Railway Station in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, Jan. 8, 2012. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)

BEIJING - Transport authorities in China on Monday mobilized 840,000 passenger vehicles on Monday to carry 31.56 million travelers on the Spring Festival, according to the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

The Chinese lunar New Year typically marks a relatively low level of the travel rush season during the week-long holiday, but the number of road passengers on Monday was still 10.2 percent higher than the previous year.

He Jianzhong, an MOT spokesman, said the road travelers are mainly short-distance passengers visiting their relatives or friends and on tourism trips.

He expected the number of road travelers to remain at low levels in the coming two days when passengers are on short-distance travels, particularly in rural areas.

Icy and freezing road conditions blocked traffic in some sections of trunk roads in the municipality of Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou province in southwest China, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the south, according to the MOT.

Meanwhile, waterway passengers on the Chinese Lunar New Year went up 8.47 percent from a year ago to 943,900, according to MOT data.