The new three-day holidays, which have taken over partially for the past one-week holidays, have caused the number of travelers and shoppers to diminish significantly.

People take a leisurely shopping break during the three-day holiday. (Guangzhou Daily)

This year the new schedule for public holidays has been implemented. Now, Chinese people have four three-day holidays per year, which include New Year's, Qingming, Duanwu and Mid-Autumn Festival.

Compared to the past holiday schedule of two seven-day holidays falling on the first week of May and October (also called May Day Golden Week and National Day Golden Week), the two longer holidays have now been spread out over four shorter ones. As a result, the total number of people choosing to travel during the new three-day holidays is only 80% of the number traveling during the golden weeks.

Although 30,000 traveled at Duanwu festival this year, only an average of 6,000 people traveled for the New Year, Qingming, and Mid-Autumn holidays.

This year 80% of travelers chose to visit scenic spots within the province, Hong Kong or Macau. Many people took a leisurely break inside the city rather than having an exhausted holiday of long-distance traveling.

The National Day Golden Holiday, which runs from September 29 to October 5, is expected to see a sharp increase in the number of travelers.