Few people in China would have imagined spending the eve of the Spring Festival high above the clouds some 20 years ago, but that is exactly what Zou Peiyuan did this year. Zou, who works for a law office in Beijing, took his family by plane to Australia during the Spring Festival holiday, which fell between February 18 and 24.

"This will be the first time that my family spends the lunar New Year's Eve on a plane, and I just want to have a totally different experience of how to spend the Spring Festival," Zou explained before the tour.

Spring Festival, also known as Chinese Lunar New Year, is traditionally a time for family reunions. It is important with numerous folk activities taking place and visits to friends and family to wish them good luck for the coming year. But in recent years there has been a growing trend for Chinese people to travel during the festival.

"Why not go out to take a bath in the thermal springs or to ski on a mountain? It's much more interesting than the regular endless relative visiting and big eating and drinking during the seven days," said Liu Meiqing, 20, a second-grade university student who studies literature at Beijing Normal University.

All three golden week holidays-Labor Day Golden Week (May 1-7), National Day Golden Week (October 1-7) and Spring Festival Golden Week-have gained in popularity with tourists.

Among the legions of Spring Festival tourists an increasing number are opting to travel abroad. "This has something to do with the general tourism climate in the country, where outbound tourism keeps going up in recent years," said Ba Zhaoxiang from the tourism management department of Shanghai-based Fudan University.

More travel abroad

According to China's Ministry of Public Security, the number of outbound travelers from the Chinese mainland reached 34.52 million in 2006, up 11.27 percent over the previous year. The most popular 10 destinations for mainland travelers were Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, the United States, Singapore, Viet Nam and Malaysia.

"This year's Spring Festival outbound tourism takes on three major features: the supply of outbound tourism products has fallen short of the exploding demand; tourism products this year have more diversity; self-help and in-depth tourism remains hot," said Lin Kang, a general manager in charge of outbound tourism business in the China International Travel Service, one of the largest travel agencies in China.

Lin believes that an increasing number of more easily accessible outbound destinations have contributed to expanding overseas travel demand. China has so far approved 132 countries and regions as destinations for outbound tourism, with 86 receiving Chinese tourist groups, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

Lin also drew a picture of the overall outbound tourism scenario for the Spring Festival. He said that Southeast Asia travel routes remain as popular as usual. Statistics from the China National Tourism Administration show that China remains Asia's largest source of outbound tourism, with 34 million Chinese tourists traveling abroad in 2006, up 10 percent year on year. East and South Asia account for more than half of the country's outbound tourist market, with Japan and the Republic of Korea taking up about 30 percent of the total.

"Travels to Europe have entered the hot travel season earlier than before, all seats to travel to Australia have been taken already, and South America and Africa have become the new hot outbound tourism destinations," Lin said.

Travelers should be wary of the tricks that some travel agents can play, according to Wu Jingmin, author of the book How Can I Not Rip You Off, which uncovers the dirty side of the tourism business.

"Travel prices are surprisingly low on the promotion ads put out by the travel agencies, but when the tourists go to sign up for a trip they are asked to pay additional fees for various items," he said. "And some travel agencies may rip the tourists off by offering lower standards of lodging and food services than they had promised."

According to the China National Tourism Administration and National Bureau of Statistics of China, the 2006 Spring Festival week received 78.2 million tourists, an increase of 13.5 percent over the same period of the previous year and grossed 36.8 billion yuan, rising by 17.6 percent over 2005.

Of the 36.8 billion earned from tourism during last year's Spring Festival week, 17.4 billion came from 39 cities known for their tourist attractions, while other cities and scenic spots yielded 15.3 billion yuan.

China established three golden week holidays in 1999 and since then tourism has risen dramatically, with many Chinese choosing to travel during these periods. However, some industry observers have noted that while the quantity of people traveling during Spring Festival continues to rise each year, the numbers traveling during the other two golden week holidays have recently declined.

In September 2006, a survey conducted by Ctrip.com, China's largest online travel service provider, illustrated this point. The survey asked more than 4,000 Ctrip club members about their upcoming travel plans, the majority of respondents being regular travelers.

According to Jing Song, who works in the marketing department of Ctrip, the results show only 60 percent of respondents will travel during the October national holiday. That's down 16 percent on 2005 figures. About 10 percent have said they definitely have no plans to travel during the holiday, higher than the number of last year.

Many Chinese workers, who do not get time off during the other two golden week holidays, are given vacation time during Spring Festival. "It's a rare occasion for these people to have a family reunion and they want to have a trip with their families to both relax and increase their family bonds," said Ba from the Fudan University.

However, some experts are worried that the traditional Spring Festival atmosphere could be diluted by the number of people choosing to travel. "Spring Festival travel reflects the fading away of our traditional ways to celebrate the festival," said Wang Yi, a professor of tourism and aesthetic culture with Sichuan International Studies University. "The young generation, especially in urban areas, may never get back the traditional Spring Festival flavor in the future."

Zhang Jingwei, a well-known Chinese social critic, disagreed with that view. "Traditional Chinese festivals such as the Spring Festival are open to social changes in their nature," he said. "Festivals are losing something which is inevitably to be lost because it doesn't fit into modern society any more. But in the meantime these festivals have evolved and developed something new such as the Spring Festival evening party and Spring Festival travel. This is just a natural evolving course."