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.