China's bank card transactions hit 58.7 billion yuan (7.82 billion U.S. dollars) during the weeklong National Day holiday, up 73.8 percent over the same period last year, according to figures released on Monday by China Unionpay (CUP), a national electronic payment and interchange network.
With bank card use growing among Chinese as cards are accepted in more places like department stores, supermarkets and hotels, the number of CUP inter-bank transactions on the mainland from Oct. 1 to 7 hit 99.19 million, up 46.2 percent from the same period last year, the CUP said.
The number of transactions in Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and overseas markets surged to 454,000, with a total value of 1.42 billion yuan, both more than double.
The CUP figures also showed that domestic card transactions on Oct. 1 reached 10.79 billion yuan, setting a record fore single-day transactions over the past five "Golden Week" holidays since 2003.
Being notorious for carrying large bunches of cash when traveling everywhere less than a decade ago, more Chinese people are now embracing online shopping and payment fees on public services such as water and gas.
Last year, bank card transactions made up more than 17 percent of the nation's total retail sales of consumer goods and increased to 18.5 percent in the first half of this year. This figure has reached 30 percent in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai.
China Union Pay founded in 2002 has its Unionpay cards accepted by 400,000 ATMs in 23 countries and regions.
In the first half of 2007, the bank card organization issued 10.21 million credit cards and 127 million debit cards in China over the same period of last year.
(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2007)
