Millions of Chinese have returned to their work posts Friday at the end of a "golden week" Oct. 1 National Day Holiday, but this time, the spree was used more rationally for fun and their money spent with more carefully.

Traveling and shopping remain top two items on the agenda for the National Day holiday week as the world's most populous nation celebrated its 55th founding anniversary. According to statistics, 99 major tourist attractions around the country reported 430 million yuan (US$52 million) in revenue after hosting 13.07 million travelers in the seven days, while Beijing alone saw over four million domestic tourists throng its streets, who contributed 3.33 billion yuan (US$397 million) to the city's tourism income, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier.

As to shopping, 85 major shopping areas in the national capital alone posted 1.03 billion yuan (US$124 million) in sales, up 6.5 percent from the same period last year and the week-long retailing sales in the municipality was expected to reach 7 billion yuan (US$843 million).

The week-long holiday, by far the 16th since its launch in 1999, is viewed as a golden opportunity to boost China's domestic consumption, especially in tourism and retailing, together with the other two annual "golden weeks" of Labor Day Holiday and Spring Festival.

Holidaymakers, who used to be driven by packed schedules as arranged by tourist agencies, were no longer content with "knowing nothing except for taking photos while traveling."

"I'd rather spend 20,000 yuan (about US$2,400) to acquaint myself more with one or two countries instead of milling around dozens of European nations in a week," said an engineer named Chen Zailin. "We are not looking for ways of holidaymaking for everybody, but for ourselves."

Such small and individualized package tours organized by tourist agencies are especially popular when it comes to outbound traveling. Figures from south China's Guangdong Province showed that outbound travelers jumped by 35.05 percent in the past week, helping the provincial tourism people reap in more than 2.5 billion yuan (some US$300 million).

In addition, more people prefer outing within their city or province as it was easier and more convenient for them to organize trips themselves by driving a car to places within their reaches.

Moreover, the newly-emerging auto leasing sector had become preferred in big cities like Beijing as the National Day holiday approached. According to a report of Oriental Morning Post, around 80 percent of autos in major Beijing auto leasing companies were rented to individuals on the eve of Oct. 1.

Cars are generally rented on a "seven-day" rental basis at 180 to 300 yuan (US$22 to 36) per day, the report noted, adding that fashionable cars like Volkswagen's Polo and SUV were more sought after.

Besides traveling and shopping, a growing number of Chinese had turned to other ways of making the "golden week" more shiny and enjoyable for themselves.

In scenic Suzhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, thousands of people queued ahead of the city library every day before it opened at nine o'clock in the morning during the National Day Holiday.

"The seven-day holiday offers us a golden opportunity to do reading which we normally do not have enough time for," said Su Fei, a young lady working in a Suzhou German-invested business. "I think we should take the holiday to enrich ourselves by reading and learning more."

In Shanghai, psychotherapy clinics had become increasingly popular with "white collars" during the holiday, who were eager to relax themselves from months of hard work.

Although the "spiritual chicken soup" was not cheap enough, costing some 200 yuan (US$24) per hour, people who called to get the therapy were up 30 percent as compared with the normal time and all the vacancies on Oct. 7 were filled up, said a head of the Shanghai Dengta psychotherapy clinic.

"People should have flexible holidays and more initiative for themselves to decide on their pastimes, like spending them on relaxation exercises, studying or joining exploration clubs," said Chen Wenjiang, a professor with northwest China's Lanzhou University.

Still, "golden weeks" continue to witness overcrowded tourist attractions and shopping centers. "Traveling is only one way of spending holidays", said An Jianglin, a research fellow of northeast China's Gansu Academy of Social Sciences. "If we can choose to decide when to have our holiday, people will naturally seek for more ways of enjoying their leisure time."

The holiday schedule of Beijing-born Yang Ji maybe best exemplify the aspire of the people for more diversified holidaymaking. "Visit Mt. Tai from Oct. 1 to 3, join a get-together party with friends on 4th, do keep-fit exercise on 5th, shopping on 6th and watch DVD at home on 7th."

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2004)