Notably, the number of travelers from six smaller Chinese cities more than tripled during this year's Golden Week holiday, according to data from Ctrip, a Chinese travel services company.

Leading the growth was the southeastern city of Changzhou with an increase of 288% in residents traveling, followed by the southern city of Foshan at 244%, and Zhuhai - which borders Macau - at 237%. Other cities which saw triple the number of residents booking through Ctrip were the southeastern city of Wuxi and Zhengzhou in the east-central part of China.

Chongqing in the central west saw bookings by residents increase by 225%, putting the region into fourth place overall, behind Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu by the number of residents traveling, Ctrip data showed.

Residents of China' second and third-tier cities also saw significant increases in spending on overseas travel during National Day holidays, Ctrip said.

Spending by Chinese from Dalian, Suzhou, Shenyang, Chengdu, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou, Xian and Xiamen ranged from about 6,800 yuan to 7,800 yuan per person (USD 982-1,127), a "clear" increase from last year's Golden Week, Ctrip said.

Alipay reported more than double the number of overseas in-store transactions, with average spend rising 30% to 1,979 yuan (USD 286). Average spending by user was highest in Denmark at 8,764 yuan (USD 1,266), Alipay said.