China's week-long National Day holiday ended Oct. 7th with surging tourist numbers and profits reported in most scenic cities across the country.

Because this year is the 55th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many cities provided colorful celebrations to attract tourists.

In Beijing, all parks received a total of 5.11 million tourists during the seven-day vacation, an increase of 330,000 people from the same period of last year.

Officials from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Parks and Woods said during the past week, all parks in Beijing hosted series of cultural activities to mark the festival. So examples are the sweet-scented osmanthus exhibition in the Summer Palace, plant exhibition in the Beijing Arboretum and a book show in the Temple of Earth.

When local residents and tourists enjoyed the holiday in the parks in Beijing, hardworking migrant workers in some Beijing construction sites of Beijing also spent the holiday in another way.

In Qufu city of east China's Shandong province, the birthplace of Confucius (551 BC-479 BC), or Kong Fuzi in Chinese, colorful commemorating activities related to Confucius attracted about 300,000 tourists.

Director of the municipal tourism bureau of Qufu Kong Xiangjin said tourism is becoming a main industry of the city, with the city's park tickets income hitting 90 million yuan (about 10.9 million US dollars) each year, and its annual tourism-related income breaking 1.2 billion yuan (about 145 million dollars), about 12 percent of the city's annual GDP.

Kong said currently there are about one-seventh of its urban population working in the tourism-related industries, totaling more than 20,000 people.

In China's tropical southern island province Hainan, the tourist flood appeared at the end of the holiday. Many tourists, worrying about traffic jams, delayed their trip.

The amount of passengers at major airports of the island province and the major ports at the provincial capital city Haikou peaked Oct. 7th. All scenic spots of the province received another travel peak on that day.

Provincial statistics show that ten major scenic spots of the province received 53,476 people all together during the week-long holiday, with a total tickets income of nearly 1.6 million yuan. And 21 of the province's major hotels also realized a profits of 1.81 million yuan during the holiday.

In Guilin, a city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, one of China's most popular tourism destinations, tourists number in this holiday created a new record in history with a total domestic and overseas tourists of 485,800.

Local tourism increased 26.8 percent over that of same period of last year, with the total income registering a year-on-year increase of 13.9 percent to 262 million yuan (about 31.7 million dollars).

In northwest China's Gansu Province, the world-renowned Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang City also received a record number of nearly 20,000 domestic and overseas tourists in the first six days of the holiday.

The Mogao Grottoes, also popularly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves, comprises 500 man-made caves that have survived some 1,600 years of volatile climate changes and other damage. Dunhuang 's frescos, painted on the ceiling and walls of the caves, carry the best preserved trove of Buddhist art in the world.

Historians and relics experts from the Dunhuang Academe said the long history and profound cultural relics has made the Mogao Grottoes a great tourist attraction.

Statistics show that in 1984, the Mogao Grottoes received about 100,000 tourists. The figure doubled in 1998, and then surged to 320,000 in 2002.

An official with the Dunhuang Academe said this year the Mogao Grottoes will receive more tourists than ever, with the total number expected to top 400,000.

While the increasing number of tourists brought great profits to the city, the damages brought by tourists to the Mogao Grottoes also aroused attention from experts.

Currently, many frescos within the Mogao Grottoes changed color -- from red to black. Experts said the main reason is the change in temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide in cave caused by crowded visitors.

As China is starting to build a railway to link the Dunhuang with the outside -- ending the city's history without a railway.

Chinese historians and relics experts worry that the railway will bring more tourists to the Mogao Grottoes and have more damages to the site, which is expected to see about 500,000 tourist each year in the next five to ten years.