BEIJING - Passenger trips on Chinese railways hit a monthly record high in August amid the summer travel rush, official data showed.

A total of 370.85 million railway trips were made last month, up 9.8 percent year on year, according to the People's Railway Daily, the official railway newspaper in China.

During the period, railway departments put more trains into service to cope with the summer travel rush, fueled by college students traveling between their hometowns and universities during the summer holiday, as well as a surge in trips for tourism and leisure.