The Beijing News
October 9, 2007

The top headline of The Beijing News today says that the Labor Day Golden Week holiday (May 1-7 next year) might be canceled in favor of vacation days for traditional Chinese festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival or Mid-Autumn Day.

According to officials from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), tourist volume has climbed every year since the country started the practice of having standardized week-long holidays for Labor Day, National Day, and the Spring Festival in 1999. Data from CNTA indicates that nationwide tourist volume hit 146 million people during the recently-concluded National Day holidy. Some crowd scenes: TBN, Xinhua.

The front page picture shows excited passengers looking around a new train on Line 5 of the Beijing Subway. The new line should provide general relief of traffic pressure on the north side of town, the article says.

Other headlines:

• Forbes published a list of China's 40 Richest yesterday. A 26-year-old girl, Yang Huiyan, topped the list with a net worth of US$16.2 billion. Yang replaces last year's #1, retailer Huang Guangyu;
• The Shanghai Stock Index set a new record yesterday, breaking 5700 points;
• There are now 73.36 million members of the Communist Party of China, according to figures from Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC.