Chinese spending on shopping, food hit record high during National Day holiday

Tourists visit the Nanjing Confucius Temple in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Oct. 5, 2016. Altogether 593 million people visited tourist attractions around the country and spent 482.2 billion yuan (about 72.3 billion U.S. dollars) during this year's National Day holiday, up 12.8 percent and 14.4 percent respectively year on year, according to the China National Tourism Administration. (Xinhua/Su Yang)

BEIJING, Oct. 7 -- Chinese spent a record high sum of money on shopping and food during the past week-long National Day holiday, according to the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

Enterprises in the retail and catering sectors raked in about 1.2 trillion yuan (180 billion U.S. dollars) from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7, up 10.7 percent, MOC data showed.

This was the second consecutive year for the "Golden Week" to see over one trillion yuan spending in retail and catering consumption since 1999.

West China's Chongqing Municipality and Sichuan Province and central China's Hunan Province were the top three regions seeing booming retail and catering business.

In breakdown, gold and jewelry, home appliances, IT products and new energy vehicles were the most popular goods, while banquets celebrating wedding, birthday and home reunion were the major contributors to catering services.

Altogether 593 million people visited tourist attractions around the country and spent 482.2 billion yuan during the holiday, up 12.8 percent and 14.4 percent respectively year on year, according to the China National Tourism Administration.