China's railway traffic during the May Day holiday rose 6.7 percent from the same period last year, indicating growing enthusiasm for travel among Chinese.
About 49 million passenger trips were made by rail from Friday to Monday, or 3.09 million more than last year, the China Railway Corporation said.
Traffic peaked on Saturday, when about 13.7 million trips were made in a single day, up 5.8 percent from the same period last year while hitting a record high for the May Day holiday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
To accommodate the holiday rush, China Railway Corporation added 1,901 train trips.
The domestic tourism market also boomed during the 3-day national holiday, with the number of rail trips reaching 13.65 million on Saturday, according to a report on the website of the China National Tourism Administration.
According to a travel report jointly released on Tuesday by the China Tourism Academy and online travel agency Ctrip, 48 percent of travelers chose to take their paid-leave vacations before or after the May Day holiday to enjoy a vacation longer than four days. The May Day holiday period was reduced from seven days to three days in 2008.
The top tourist destination was Sanya, South China's Hainan Province followed by Beijing and Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province, according to data provided by online Travel agency Tuniu.
The most popular overseas destination was Thailand, followed by other Southeast Asian countries, Hong Kong and Macao, China News Service reported.
National scenic spots also welcomed 134 million visitors who spent 79.1 billion yuan ($11.48 billion) during the holiday, up 16.2 percent from a year earlier.
The tourism boom comes as China tries to shift its economy away from exports and heavy industries to a growth model anchored on consumption, innovation and the service sector.
