Gasping for getaways

Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan province [Photo/]China Daily]

Thailand's Bangkok, Phuket Island and Chiangmai have remained popular during the holiday period, although－perhaps unbeknown to many Chinese－the country's capital and Phuket are often blanketed in smog.

The Phuket Gazette called Chinese arrivals "surprisingly resilient" given the island's air pollution last year but said they weren't too disheartened "because it didn't differ much from what they were used to back home".

A third of Chinese bookings for the following two months are to the islands of Jeju in South Korea, Bali in Indonesia, Boracay in the Philippines, Sabah in Malaysian Borneo and Guam.

Chinese are willing to splurge up to 30,000 yuan ($4,600) for high-end packages to such long-haul destinations as Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand during the period, according to Ctrip.

The company reports more than doubled growth in bookings for Australia and the US.

Popular among Canadian itineraries are a 10-day trip through the west coast, Banff National Park and Yellowknife. Many travelers to New Zealand took an 11-day excursion through Christchurch, Fox Glacier, Queenstown, Lake Tekapo, Auckland and Rotorua.

Ctrip's top domestic smog-escape routes last month were Sanya in the island province of Hainan; Heilongjiang's provincial capital, Harbin; Yunnan's provincial capital, Kunming, and Lijiang city; the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region's Guilin; Fujian province's Xiamen; Sichuan province's Jiuzhaigou Valley; and Hunan province's Zhangjiajie natural area.

Sanya topped the list, since it offers not only blue skies but also blue seas and warm weather, Yan says.