More Chinese are getting used to shopping by simply punching bank cards instead of carrying large sums of cash, as the first two days of the National Day "Golden Week" witnessed a soaring number of card transactions.
  
On Oct. 1 and 2, CUP trans-bank transactions on the mainland surged 60 percent year-on-year to exceed 19 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion), according to figures released on Wednesday by China Unionpay (CUP), a national electronic payment and interchange network.
  
The number of transactions in Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions and overseas markets more than doubled to hit 121,000, with a total value of 390 million yuan, up more than 80 percent.
  
Bank card transaction now makes up more than 17 percent of China's total retail sales of consume goods and the figure reached 30 percent in major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
  
CUP issued 10.21 million credit cards in the first half of 2007 in China, up nearly two folds over the same period of last year.
  
The bank card organization also issued 127 million debit cards in the same period, up 113.7 percent year on year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2007)