China’s official estimates show the New Year travel rush saw 120 million visitor trips in the country.

Tourists visit the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 2, 2017.

China’s tourism sector pocketed 67.9 billion yuan (about 9.8 billion U.S. dollars) during the three-day holiday from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, according to the National Tourism Administration.

About 112 million of the trips were short-distanced due to limited time, the agency said, adding that rural and suburban trips are tourists' favorite.

Some 26.73 million passenger trips were made on trains, another 2.6 million on flights, data from transportation authorities showed.

The State Council, the Chinese cabinet, is planning to develop tourism in the country into a main engine for economic transformation, with tourism revenue hitting 7 trillion yuan (more than 1 trillion US dollars) by 2020.