A total of 67 million Chinese tourists traveled around the country on the sixth day of the National Day holiday, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said on Friday.

The figure represents an increase of 12.3 percent year on year, the CNTA said.

Tourism revenue generated on Friday totaled 54.6 billion yuan (8.23 billion U.S. dollars), up 15.1 percent from the same period a year ago.

The number of tourists in major scenic spots remained high with that in Changbaishan Mountain in northeast China’s Jilin Province rising by 78 percent to 22,500, according to CNTA statistics.

Zhejiang Province in east China hosted 9.77 million tourists who spent a total of 7.974 billion yuan on Friday.

CNTA said the tourist market over the latter half of the holiday running from Oct. 1 to 8 was mainly driven by road trips, periphery tours and leisure travel.

Folk customs, rural tourism, camping, theme parks and tourism complex were increasingly popular.

China’s air, road and railway transport systems are to enter another peak as people have started to return.

On Oct. 1, the first day of the holiday, 15.03 million trips were made by train, an all-time high. This year’s National Day holiday was extended by one more day due to the Mid-autumn Festival which falls on Oct. 4.

A separate report from the China Railway Corporation said trains were expected to carry 12.57 million travelers on Friday.X To cope with the high passenger flow, CRC scheduled 539 extra trains on Friday.

This was the second day that CRC expanded its train services during the holiday. On Thursday, 503 additional trains were arranged.

Tickets were almost sold out for trains traveling back to major sources of tourists in the next three days, CRC said.

Airports in China are also seeing a growing number of passengers returning home.

Survivors and bodies of all crew members from a Chinese mainland fishing vessel have been recovered from international waters off the Japanese coast, officials said.

In all, three men survived and 13 were pulled from the water dead, the Chinese consulate-general’s office in Osaka said.

The identities of the 13 victims, which have been transferred to nearby Chinese boats, were being verified.

The fishing vessel, identified as the 290-metric-ton Lurong Yuanyu 378, capsized after colliding Thursday morning with the 63,294-ton tanker Bright Oil Lucky out of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The Japanese Coast Guard sent three patrol vessels and several divers to search for the Chinese fishermen.

The collision was some 400 kilometers north of the Oki Is

Beijing will see large influx of traffic from Friday, as the eight-day holiday for National Day and the Mid Autumn Festival is drawing to an end, said local traffic authorities.

According to the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, on Friday afternoon, the highways into Beijing saw a peak of inbound traffic which will not ease until next week.

The long holiday is a good travel opportunity for Chinese people. The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said on the fifth day of the holiday that 93 million tourists traveled around the country.

In Beijing, many who chose to travel by car left the city at midnight or in the early morning. Between midnight and 6 a.m. on Sunday about 310,000 cars left Beijing, said Cheng Wei, a police officer with the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau.

Beijing will resume its traffic restrictions next Monday, when cars will be restricted according to the last number of their plate.

The China National Tourism Administration announced on Friday that more than 67 million trips were made that day, generating 54.6 billion yuan ($8.2 billion).

The number was 12 percent more than the same day last year, the authority said, adding that destinations with distinct cultures and folk arts had been the most popular with visitors.

“Our performances and tourism projects relating to local folk arts and culture attracted many visitors,” said Zhang Kexin, deputy director of the tourism administration of Anxin county in Hebei province.

For example, visitors could enjoy folklore shows in a grand view lotus garden in Baiyangdian, one of the largest freshwater wetlands in North China, as well as fishing or sailing at Wangjiazhai, a cultural village in the area, according to Zhang.

Ma Hepeng, deputy manager of the lotus garden, said the garden received about 4,000 visitors on Oct 1, of whom, 30 percent came from outside the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Anxin is part of the Xiongan New Area, the national level economic zone announced by the central leadership on April 1. It has proved to be one of the hottest travel destinations during the Golden Week holiday, the nation’s top tourism authority said.

“I came to Xiongan with my friends as we want to see whether the cultural performance market is good. If possible, we’ll consider investing in the area,” said one visitor from Macao.

A report by the China Tourism Academy in late September estimated that the tourism industry would make 590 billion yuan during the National Day holiday this year, up 12.2 percent from last year, while the number of trips made by tourists might exceed 710 million over the eight days.

And Hebei has been playing its part in that, the province received 5.86 million trips and made 3.8 billion yuan from tourism on Thursday, according to the national tourism administration on that day.

Data from the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip, one of the country’s leading providers of travel services, showed that Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou in Jiangsu province were the top three travel destinations during the holiday.

And, according to iqilu.com, an official website of Shandong provincial broadcasting and television station, about 60 percent of travelers nationwide during the holiday were women.

Despite a retreat in daily passenger traffic from Sunday’s peak, Chinese railways were still busy carrying passengers back to work and college as the week-long holiday nears its end.

More than 12 million trips were made Thursday, up 12.3 percent year on year, China Railway Corporation (CRC) said. Major city clusters surrounding metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai and Guangdong Province contributed more than 40 percent of the total.

CRC expects more to come on Friday and said it has arranged 539 more trains to ensure smooth travel, as well as free shuttle buses and more ticket vending machines.

Railways nationwide will receive around 130 million passengers in the 11 days following Sept. 28, according to an early forecast.

The National Day holiday has been extended to eight days this year to celebrate Mid-Autumn, or Moon Cake Festival, that falls on Oct. 4.