Crowds of tourists walk along West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Oct 3. [Photo/IC] 

Zhejiang province proved popular among tourists during the National Day holiday, with more than 18.38 million people visiting major scenic areas throughout the province from Oct 1 to 7, statistics showed.

In particular, the well-known West Lake in Hangzhou received approximately 3.63 million visitors, more than any other scenic area in Zhejiang. The remaining top five scenic areas were Nanxi River in Wenzhou, Wuzhen in Jiaxing, Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in Hangzhou and Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing. 

Hangzhou also proved to be the most popular city in the country in terms of number of visitors, followed by Shanghai and Wuhan, according to a survey by Piggy, a tourism service platform owned by Alibaba. 

"Red tourism," or revolutionary-themed tourism, saw a boost in popularity. Many significant historical sites in China's Communist Party-lead revolutionary history were crowded with tourists, and special activities were held in several cities to honor this history. 

The Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, which was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage on July 6, was also a hit among tourists, with its park and museum receiving 35,800 and 76,700 visitors during the holiday, respectively.

Railway is becoming the preferred method of travel for tourists. Statistics showed that 4.8 million people traveled by rail in Zhejiang from Oct 1 to 7, up 7.67 percent year on year, while 17.87 million and 581,200 people traveled by bus and air, down 12.1 percent and 3.34 percent year on year, respectively.

Metro lines also saw a large boost in traffic, with 16.78 million people taking the metro in the province during the holiday, a year-on-year increase of 21.11 percent. 

"As transportation becomes more convenient, more people are encouraged to travel during the holiday," an analyst said.