China's bank card transactions soared to 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.46 billion) during the weeklong holiday of the Spring Festival which ended Saturday, the Oriental Morning Post said yesterday, citing China UnionPay Co.

 

The volume was nearly 2.5 times of the same period of last year, according to the Shanghai-based newspaper.

 

The operator of China's bank card system also said 34 million cross-bank card transactions took place during the holiday, jumping 135 percent from last year.

 

Overseas markets also posted strong growth, as more Chinese people made use of the weeklong holiday to travel overseas, including Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and South Korea.

 

In the period, overseas markets covered by China UnionPay network generated 680 million yuan, surging more than 122 percent.

 

China UnionPay expanded its service to more overseas markets last year, including the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand.

 

China UnionPay, considered the Chinese version of Visa and MasterCard, was set up in 2002 as an integrated system for all bank card transactions.

 

(Shanghai Daily February 7, 2006)