Tourist destinations around China have had at least 4.05 million visitors by far, up 33.4 percent year-on-year, during the week-long national holiday, marking the establishment of the modern country.
The figure reflects reports from 119 tourist destinations as of 6:00 PM on Thursday, said the office in charge of ministry-level coordination on tourism during national holidays.
The office said tourism revenue jumped 37.5 percent year-on-year.
This year's "golden week" National Day holiday runs from September 29 to October 5. In previous years, the seven-day holiday kicked off on October 1.
Beijing had a visitor increase of more than 60 percent, with many tourists drawn to see the Olympics venues.
About 920,000 people, up 62 percent year-on-year, visited 21 major tourist sites in Beijing, according to figures released by the office.
The must-see Forbidden City welcomed 120,000 visitors, up 140 percent.
The financial hub -- Shanghai -- saw a 52.2-percent rise in the number of tourists at more than 70 sites.
In quake-hit Sichuan Province, about 107,400 people, an increase of 360 percent from last year, visited the ancient town of Huanglongxi near Chengdu, capital of Sichuan.
Chinese trains carried more than 5.4 million passengers on Wednesday alone, an increase of almost 13 percent. About 557,300 people traveled by air and 53.2 million people hit the roads on the same day.
(Xinhua News Agency October 3, 2008) |