Tourists flock to China attractions during Golden Week

An eight-day holiday in China has seen millions of people visit the country's ancient sites and tourism hotspots, according to official statistics.

The National Tourism Agency (NTA) of China said during Golden Week a total of 34.25 million people visited the country's 119 major tourism sites. The number of tourists was up more than a fifth on figures for last year.

One of the most popular tourist destinations was the Unesco World Heritage site of the Forbidden City in Beijing, which reportedly attracted record volumes of visitors during the week.

Some 186,000 people attended the Forbidden City, otherwise known as the Palace Museum, on Tuesday 2 October - the largest ever number of visitors in one day.

The record numbers were encouraged by the Chinese government lifting road tolls for the duration of the holiday, allowing travellers to get around the country for less.

Statistics released by China's Ministry of Transport showed a record 80.87 million people made journeys by road during each day of the holiday.