National day sails overseas

Chinese tourists go on shopping sprees in Japan during the National Day holiday. Many visited Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district. Provided to China Daily

The Golden Week is becoming a time to celebrate New China's founding－by traveling abroad, largely to shop. Yang Feiyue reports.

This year's weeklong National Day holiday became international vacation time for a record number of Chinese mainlanders.

Outbound tourism during the holiday that ended Oct 7 surged 14 percent to over 4 million overseas travelers this year, Shanghai-based tourism-consulting service Gold Palm reports.

And the number of trips abroad booked through the country's largest online travel agency, Ctrip, doubled this year, the company says.

Japan, Korea and Thailand were, respectively, the top destinations.

Chinese tourists to Japan doubled, says Ctrip's publicity manager, Yan Xin.

About 400,000 travelers from the mainland visited and spent about 100 billion yen ($833.7 million), Guangzhou Daily reports.

"Scenic spots and shopping streets (in Japan) were crowded with Chinese tourists," says Shen Qing, a tour guide from a travel agency based in Jiangsu province's Suzhou.

"Most were shopping for cosmetics and electrical appliances."

Shen led a group of 15 Chinese on a six-day trip through Japan's Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Tokyo's Ginza shopping and entertainment district and Osaka's Shinsaibashi Plaza were especially packed with Chinese, she adds.

South Korea quickly regained favor after the Middle East respiratory syndrome crisis, thanks to visa-policy relaxations for Chinese and tourism promotions.

Seoul's Mayor Park Won-soon visited Beijing in August and promised concerts featuring popular musicians, discounted goods, fireworks and cultural activities would greet China's October-holiday visitors.

Roughly 210,000 Chinese from the mainland arrived in South Korea over the holiday, up 30 percent over 2014's National Day Golden Week, the country's tourism authority reports.