Chongqing proved to be a hot travel destination over the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, with 34.18 million tourists flocking to the city from Oct 1-8, a year-on-year increase of 21 percent.

The city earned a total tourism revenue of 12.31 billion yuan ($1.85 billion) over the holiday week, a year-on-year increase of 34.68 percent. Receiving nearly 17,000 tour groups, Chongqing saw a year-on-year increase of 15.8 percent for inbound tourists, with foreign tourists from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, Singapore and France accounting for 77.41 percent of inbound tourists.

The Three Gorges tourism area proved significantly popular among the city's scenic spots, receiving 1.7 million tourists with more than 100,000 people visiting the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum and visitors taking a ride on the Three Gorges cruise ship up 87 percent.

Cultural consumption was also plentiful during the holiday week. The Chongqing Bookstore saw 30,000 visitors, selling an average of 50,000 books per day.

Tourists flock to a scenic spot in Chongqing on Oct 7. [Photo by Luo Guojia/Chongqing Daily]

Children read books in Chongqing's Xinhua Bookstore on Oct 5. [Photo by Cui Li/ Chongqing Daily]

Chuan Opera is staged during the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays. [Photo by Xia Jing/ Chongqing Daily]

Edited by Zachary Dye