Paying tribute to dead and spring outings marked this year's three-day Qingming Festival holidays that started Thursday.

The Qingming Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, was observed on April 4 this year. The festival is a time for families across the country to pay tribute to the dead, honor their ancestors and go out to enjoy spring.

More than 297 million passenger trips by various means of transportation are estimated to be made on the first day of the holiday, according to data from the Ministry of Transport.

Among them, a total of 57,600 funeral institutions across the country witnessed around 24.73 million passenger trips on Thursday, according to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The figure is 9.76 million more than that of last year.

Besides mourning the dead and honoring ancestors, Chinese people also take the three-day holiday as a chance to enjoy some leisure time.

On Thursday, ticket bookings in popular cities increased 1.3-fold year-on-year, and hotel bookings in popular cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou nearly doubled year-on-year, according to statistics from Qunar, a Chinese online travel agency.

People made use of China's high-speed trains during the festival

Many tourists kicked off the holiday with short-distance train journeys with the two-hour high-speed rail circle standing out.

For example, the two-hour high-speed rail circle with Beijing as the center provides a chance for tourists to enjoy local natural scenery in nearby cities, such as apricot flowers in Chengde City and rapeseed flowers in Langfang City.

Xiao Peng, a researcher with the big data research institute of Qunar, said that the Qingming Holiday is short and with the approaching May Day holiday, it is not traditionally a hot season for travel.

However, taking the short-duration journeys as an example, Xiao said the three-day holiday offered a chance for smaller cities to better display their charm and let tourists enjoy spring scenery leisurely.

To ensure a smooth and convenient travel experience, the authorities took multiple measures. 

The railway authorities said they planned to add some 1,073 passenger trains on Thursday. And in scenic spots in Kaifeng City, central China's Henan Province, local authorities announced 44 free parking lots and increased the number of berths by more than 7,000 for tourists.

Besides, to facilitate the travel of the owners of electrical vehicles, who constituted part of the around 277 million self-driving trips during the holiday, the power departments in provinces including Hebei and Jiangsu added charging piles in highway service areas to alleviate charging pressure during peak hours.