China enjoyed a tourism boom during the recent National Day holiday, with 765 million trips officially recorded nationwide, a 5.9% increase year on year and up by 10.2% compared with 2019. Total spending reached 700.8 billion yuan ($99.2 billion), 6.3% more than in the same period in 2023.

Among the most popular destinations were Beijing, Chongqing, and Chengdu, capital of the southwestern Sichuan province, which each welcomed more than 20 million visitors, while Hangzhou in the eastern Zhejiang province and Changsha in the central Hunan province received 17.6 million and 9.5 million, respectively. Changsha drew 72.4% more tourists compared with last year, with Yuelu Mountain and Juzi Island serving as two of its biggest attractions.

The weeklong break provides many Chinese an opportunity to loosen their purse strings, and even less-traveled cities saw tourist spending exceed 1,000 yuan per person this year. One vacationer writing online said they had driven to three different cities, shelling out 17,000 yuan on travel and accommodation. However, others posted about saving money by sleeping in their car.

In terms of flight bookings, many residents in Beijing and Chengdu “swapped cities” on a cross-country jaunt, according to the online travel service Qunar.

In addition to traditional National Day holiday destinations such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, big winners this break included Datong in the northern Shanxi province and Harbin in the northeastern Heilongjiang province. Ticket sales to tourist sites in these two cities increased year on year by 230% and 112%, respectively, according to the online travel agency Trip.com. This boom can partially be attributed to the recent success of the video game “Black Myth: Wukong,” which features scenery and landmarks in Datong, Shuozhou and Linfen in Shanxi; Tianjin; and Shijiazhuang, the Hebei capital.

China also continued to see a recovery in international travel. Qunar’s data shows that the top outbound destination was Azerbaijan, the so-called “Pearl of the Ancient Silk Road,” which saw a 16-fold increase in bookings.

Reported by Chen Zhifang.

A version of this article originally appeared in The Paper. It has been translated and edited for brevity and clarity, and is republished here with permission.

Translator: Wang Jingyang; graphic designers: Wang Yasai and Luo Yahan; editors: Wang Juyi and Hao Qibao.

(Header image: Tourists visit an ancient floating bridge over the Gong River, Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, Oct. 5, 2023. Huang Yangjun/VCG)