Forty percent of people have resumed work in major cities in China, according to a report released on Monday by AutoNavi, a navigation service provider.

During the novel coronavirus outbreak, driving is more popular than taking public transportation, the report said.

Both transportation modes are recovering as businesses resume operations. On March 2, they reached a new high since the epidemic started.

And in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, people are driving and taking the bus most frequently in China.

Meanwhile, Dongguan in Guangdong, Ningbo of East China's Zhejiang province and Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province are the cities that have seen the highest share of workers returning to work.

As of Friday, 49.53 percent of the workers in Dongguan, known as the world's factory, had returned to their posts, ranking first among cities on the Chinese mainland.