Record number of Chinese travel abroad for Spring Festival

A little girl holds on to her mother while waiting in line to go through customs to travel overseas at an airport in Qingdao, Shandong province, Feb 3, 2016. [Photo/IC]

Millions of Chinese broke from tradition and spent their vacations traveling abroad this Spring Festival holiday.

Of the 300 million Chinese who traveled during the weeklong holiday, a record 6 million visited overseas destinations, according to Ctrip.com International Ltd, the nation's largest online travel agency. It is customary for Chinese to visit their hometowns and celebrate Chinese New Year with family.

"Outbound tourism surged this Spring Festival and the number of outbound travelers that we handled tripled last year's total," said Liu Qing, vice-president of Tongcheng Network Technology Co Ltd, China's third-largest online travel agency based in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.