More Chinese opt for travel during family reunion festival

More Chinese celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional holiday for family get-together, by traveling instead, as data from tourism authorities and travel agencies show.

According to Ctrip.com, China's major online travel agency, Chinese travelers have booked trips to tourist destinations in 88 countries and regions. The cities of Sanya, Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai and Xi'an were favored domestic destinations, while Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Russia and Indonesia were top outbound destinations.

One fourth of Ctrip's customers traveled with their beloved ones, 21 percent and 12 percent traveled with their children and parents respectively.

Shanghai, one of the top destinations embraced a huge amount of tourists during the three-day holiday which started Friday.

The city's 160 main tourist sites received 2.78 million visitors, up 26.6 percent year on year, said the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the city's 115 museums had 221,900 visitors during the holiday, up 10 percent year on year. Shanghai Science and Technology Museum welcomed 55,300 visitors, increasing 44.4 year on year.

Red tourism destinations such as the historic building in Shanghai where the Communist Party of China held its first national congress and Longhua Martyrs' Memorial also received crowds of visitors.

Booking data from another online travel agency Lvmama.com also show that besides theme parks for parent-child tourists, historical and cultural sites reported larger amount of bookings across the country.

The Mid-Autumn Festival witnessed booming night-time consumption. Lvmama recorded 44 percent expanding of bookings for night-time tours than last year. Night cruises along rivers in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing were among the best sellers.

Celebrations were also held during the festival. Shanghai Tourism Festival welcomed 300,000 audiences for its grand opening parade held on Saturday.

"I feel at home as long as I'm with my family members, no matter where I stay or what I do," said Shanghai resident Zhou Wei.