Millions of Chinese were on the move at the start of the annual National Day holiday, designed by the government to be a growth-boosting "Golden Week" of shopping, dining and traveling.

As the world's most populous nation marked its 55th anniversary, huge crowds of people were milling around tourist sites and shopping areas in Beijing and other large cities.

Beijing, a city of 13 million, expected its streets to be crammed with shoppers and tourists and was struggling to control the crowds.

There were crowded scenes on the sidewalks around Tiananmen Square in the heart of the city early Friday, as masses thronged the area, unaware the square itself had been sealed off.

The closure of the square left thousands of people nowhere to go except to pack and crowd the northern end by the Tiananmen Rostrum, where a new portrait of revolutionary Mao Zedong was put up last week depicting the leader with a much rosier complexion.

The closure appeared to be due to the appearance of President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese leaders at two parks adjacent to the square Friday morning, where they mingled with groups of ordinary Chinese people.

The square was opened later in the day, and tens of thousands -- many of them migrant workers taking a day off from local construction sites -- were spilling into the square.

China has three week-long holidays a year, and each has evolved into an opportunity for prosperous urbanites to spend their wealth.

With seven days off work, many city dwellers grasped the opportunity to visit other parts of the country, and in the capital 250,000 passengers were believed to be getting on trains every day, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

While rail remained the favorite mode of transport, many members of the nation's newly-affluent middle classes were traveling by plane.

The Xinhua news agency reported that 2.5 million Chinese were expected to go by plane during the holiday.

Over the coming seven days, a total of 2,400 departures will be added to the normal flight schedule, Xinhua reported, quoting the civil aviation administration.

That decision would be welcome news to policy-makers who have in recent years portrayed the week-long holidays as a measure to encourage people to spend more freely rather than keeping their savings idle in the bank.

To ensure holiday-makers would not suffer cash shortages, major banks said many outlets would be open during the week, according to the Shanghai Daily.

The law enforcement authorities also said they were on the look-out for any trouble.

Beijing SWAT teams had been holding "anti-terrorism exercises" and were expected to be at any of the city's 250 large shopping centers within five minutes in the event of a serious incident, reports said.

The Beijing News said two brothers had been arrested on suspicion of trying to blackmail a company after stealing explosives from its stores and threatening to blow up sections of the Great Wall.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2004)