The third day of China's National Holiday Golden Week saw an increase of 7.8 percent of visitors on Friday, up to 2.475 million, in the busiest 99 tourist resorts across the country that monitored by an expedient National Holiday Administration, according to figures released Friday night.

These bustling, popular sites of tourist attraction netted 84.8 million yuan (about US$10.2 million) in ticket fare on Friday, 8.3 percent more than on Thursday, or 4.2 percent more than the same day last year, the Administration said.

Thanks to the blue, clear sky and refreshing air in the capital of Beijing, the world-famous Palace Museum, popularly known as the Forbidden City, and the elegant Summer Palace received ever more tourists than on Thursday, and visitors to the magnificent Great Wall at Badaling section and the imposing Heavenly Temple jumped by three-fold.

To cater for the crave of urban dwellers for the country life, farmers in the suburb areas of Shenyang city, in northeast China's Liaoning Province, turn their own rooms and courtyards into makeshift hostels to make a small fortune. A host of urbanites in Liaoning province launched their recently-purchased vehicles to the countryside or even to mountainous areas to enjoy themselves.

Major cities are still the best attraction to tourists. Of 59 major cities under the monitoring of the National Holiday Administration, 16 reported that their hotel occupancy rate were over 90 percent and 36 reported their hotel occupancy rate were more than 80 percent.

Nevertheless, sporadic traffic accidents occurred during the on-going National Day holiday period, ushering in more substantial efforts to safeguard tourists' safety when they are traveling around the country.

(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2003)