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China Telecom employee Du Lan and her friends planned for a holiday in South Africa, while Citic Company employee Liu Tao and his newly-wed planned for a honeymoon in Maldives in the National Day vacation.

Like Du and Liu, more and more Chinese tourists preferred to travel abroad. During the week-long vacation, Chinese tourists were seen everywhere in airports and railway stations.

Sources from national travel agencies indicated that during the week-long vacation, long-distance routes were favored by more Chinese tourists, such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Germany, while traditional routes such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia gained less popularity compared with years before.

"Before, Chinese travelers normally choose short distance trips abroad. On one hand, a trip to these destinations are comparatively cheap. On the other hand, only these nations have been approved by the Chinese government to allow private trips. In recent years, things are quite different, everyone preferred to travel longer," said Wen Qian, an official with the GuangZhou travel agency.

World tourism nations with famous sceneries regarded China as an important source of tourists. They come to China to tell the Chinese what they can see in their respective countries. Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Austria and France and other nations also promoted their scenic spots in China.

Meanwhile, as China speeded up the pace of opening up, Chinese tourists have traveled almost all around the world.

According to the prediction from the World Tourism Organization, China will become the fourth tourist source nation by 2020. The overall annual travel expenditure of Chinese people surpassed 20 billion US dollars, according to the latest statistics.