As an up and growing tourist destination, Nanjing saw some of its best numbers over this last National Day golden week.

Domestic tourists from all over China flooded into the city, with the Confucius Temple District (one of the main shopping/cultural attraction areas of the city) seeing some 1.26 million tourists walk through its streets over the 7 day holiday.

An estimated 1.95 million out-of-city tourists made their way to Nanjing over the holiday, creating over 1.2 billion RMB of income for the city, 7.7% and 13.3% better than last year.

All the major shopping venues in Nanjing saw retail sales spike as well, with the computer and digital products sector seeing mammoth sales of over 500 million RMB in a short 7 days. Higher end restaurants and hotels also saw their business swell over the holiday, as families got together to feast for hours, and hundreds of wedding banquets were held.

Residents of Nanjing also took off for far away destinations, but many preferred short local trips to the countryside just outside the city center, or to quaint tourist villages just across the provincial border in Anhui province.

Backpacking and individual tourism is also making a big appearance here and around China as a whole with more people becoming convinced that the freedom found in traveling along or with just a few friends beats going through a tourist agency any day.

Throughout the countrysides that surround any major Chinese city, eco-tourism and agricultural tourism destinations have been popping up, and prove to provide an important channel for the distribution of wealth from the city to the less developed country side.

All the traveling, tourism, shopping, and eating did not leave everyone without complaints though. With 7 days of vacation time, many people find themselves packing too many activities into one short week, and find themselves as tired after the vacation as before it.

More and more city dwelling professionals are under pressure to work overtime during these holidays, as the ever growing Chinese economy demands more out of its populace. The siesta mentality of China that flourished only a few years ago now seems a bygone era, as China's professional workers edge closer to a Japanese or US work ethic.

Traveling is becoming more expensive in China too, after the costs of toll stations, gas, and other miscellaneous fees one racks up on a simple road trip, the cost of getting out and away from the city for a few days can really add up. Add to this that upon returning to work after the week long vacation, most companies, schools, and government agencies around the nation arrange 8 days of continuous work or classes to make up for some of the time lost over the holiday.

A cycle of "work hard to make money, and work hard to spend it" seems to be taking shape, and it is easy to see why the laid back and relaxed work lifestyle of Europe is so romanticized around here.