Chinese tourists jammed popular sites as travel bounced back to pre-pandemic levels during a recent eight-day national holiday, giving a temporary boost to China's flagging economy.

The government said that tourism revenues reached about 753 billion yuan ($103 billion) during the combined Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period that ended Friday, a rise of 1.5% over 2019 and 130% compared to last year when pandemic restrictions were still in place.

Planes and high-speed trains were heavily booked over the holiday. The tourism ministry said that 826 million domestic trips were made, up 4.1% from 2019 and 71.3% from last year.