Bank card transactions on the Chinese mainland rose 49.7 percent from a year ago to 29.42 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion) during the seven-day Spring Festival holidays ended on Tuesday, China UnionPay said yesterday.

UnionPay card transactions in overseas markets topped 1.6 billion yuan during the holiday season, up 42.6 percent than a year ago, the country's sole bank card transaction system operator said.

(Shanghai Daily February 14, 2008)