More severe weather is expected on Sunday, and could cause delays for holiday travelers.

The National Meteorological Center of China Meteorological Administration said on Saturday that heavy rainstorms will hit parts of South and Southwest China, as well as regions south of the Yangtze River, through Monday. Some of the areas may experience thunderstorms, gales and hailstones, it said.

Sunday will see another surge in travel as many people return home on the last day of the three-day holiday of China's traditional Duanwu Festival, or Dragon Boat Festival, the Ministry of Railways said on Saturday.

It said 5.9 million people traveled on trains on Thursday, one day ahead of the start of the holiday, marking an increase of nearly 1 million passengers from Wednesday.

The steady rainstorms over the weekend have already stranded a large number of passengers and delayed flights.

Li Jie, a student, said her flight from Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, to Beijing was delayed for two hours on Saturday afternoon.

At least 127 flights have been delayed and 25 cancelled in Guangzhou as of 6 pm on Saturday, according to veryzhun.com, a real time flight tracker.

Pictures posted on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese micro-blogging website, showed flooding from heavy rain at the airport.

Delays and flight cancellations in Shanghai caused conflicts between angry passengers and airport employees. Hundreds of flights have been canceled since Thursday, stranding thousands of passengers.

Pictures posted on Shanghai-based eastday.com showed passengers arguing with police officers, raising their fists in anger.

Meanwhile, the National Meteorological Center also forecast that heat will parch the southern parts of North China in regions along the Yellow, Huaihe, Yangtze and Hanjiang rivers over the next few days. Temperatures are expected to reach 38 C, it said.

zhaoyinan@chinadaily.com.cn