Driving private cars and taking families or friends for tours to warm seaside resorts in south China have become the latest fashion for city dwellers during the Chinese Spring Festival holiday season.

"It's a great feeling to go on self-drive tours. You have the freedom to stop by at any place as long as you wish, and you will never waste time browsing in those jewelry shops following your tour guides," said Ruan Xuemei, a Nanning resident of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Ruan drove to spend her holiday in the southern city of Shenzhen, an economic boom town neighboring Hong Kong.

The hottest self-drive tourist destinations are Guangxi, and the provinces of Guangdong, Yunnan and Hainan, which all have a warm climate when most part of the country are experiencing chilly winter weather.

Statistics from Guangxi Tourism Administration show that the number of self-drive travelers has reached record high in this year's Chinese New Year holiday. In Beihai, a coastal city known for its silver sandy beaches, 68,000 holiday-makers have chosen to drive by themselves in 14,100 vehicles. On Thursday alone, 3,200 cars with 14,300 tourists flocked to the city's long beaches.

Analysts say the self-driving craze comes despite the pressure of soaring oil prices, because modern Chinese city dwellers are pursuing an alternative, novel fashion of pastime to ease their increasingly intense work stress.

"The high oil price will be a consideration, but it's not going to be a determinative factor. Since I don't have too much time a year to go on such tours, it's worth doing in the Spring Festival," said Ruan.

Ruan has been echoed by many others, some of whom even abandoned the tradition of joining package tours and drove their cars out of garages.

In the south island province of Hainan, the number of tourists joining package tours has shrunk by about one third this year. In contrast, 13,584 self-drive vehicles swarmed into the island during the first six days of the holiday, representing a rise of 34.3 percent over the same period of last year.

The fever of the new traveling mode also catalyzed a business boom of car leasing companies.

Zhao Bing, general manager of Hainan Auto Self-drive Hiring Company, said his company started business promotion from last November and the leasing service during the New Year had been booked out 10 days before the holiday.

"It's a new way of traveling and we believe it's going to be more and more popular in the upcoming years," said Zhao.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2006)