BEIJING - The number of highway passengers is expected to increase 10 percent from a year ago to 75.5 million on Saturday, China's National Day, the Ministry of Transport said.

A total of 840,000 coaches are in service across the country to deal with the flood of tourists during the week-long holiday that started Saturday, said He Jianzhong, the ministry's spokesperson.

The ministry on Friday expected at least 530 million passenger trips will be made during the National Day holiday, which is also dubbed the "Golden Week".

In addition, about 1.04 million passengers are expected to travel by water Saturday, almost the same level with that of last year, according to He.