BEIJING -- China sold more than 9.56 million train tickets on Friday, a new high for daily sales, as people rushed to book tickets home before the Spring Festival.

The official ticket-selling website, 12306.cn, saw a record high of 29.7 billion page views on Friday, the Institute of Computing Technology under the China Academy of Railway Sciences said Sunday.

A total of 5.64 million tickets, or 59 percent of the total, were sold online on the same day, also hitting a historic high.

At present, train tickets are available on the website 60 days ahead of the actual traveling date. On Friday, people can get tickets for Feb 16, 2015, three days ahead of the Spring Festival.

Spring Festival, or China's lunar new year, is the most important traditional festival for family reunions. A week-long holiday will start on Feb 18.

The institute, which is responsible for the daily operations and monitoring of 12306.cn, said online sales dropped to 4.58 million on Saturday and might further fall to around 4 million on Sunday.