Retail sales and the number of tourists throughout the National Day Golden Week holiday broke China's tourism industry records, authorities say.

The Ministry of Commerce said that retail sales during the Golden Week exceeded 420 billion yuan, up 21 percent from last year.

Golden Week holidays refer to week-long breaks over Chinese/Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) in January or February, and for National Day on October 1.

This year's National Day holiday, which marks the 1949 founding of the People's Republic of China, ran from September 29 through October 5.

Beijing, host of the Summer Olympics in August, and Olympic co-host cities like Qingdao and Shanghai witnessed a surge of tourists, according to figures released by the National Tourism Administration on its website.

Beijing was the hottest destination, with visitors surging 35 percent from the same period of last year.

Visitors to the Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing during the first six days of holiday were up 78 percent, the Beijing News said.

At least 8.02 million people visited Beijing between September 29 to October 5 including 2.35 million overseas visitors. That amounts to 5.25 billion yuan in tourist revenue, up 27 percent from the previous National Day holiday.

The Olympic Park, home to the Bird's Nest National Stadium and Water Cube Aquatics Center, attracted 2.17 million visitors during the first six days of the holiday.

According to the administration, many Chinese tourists traveled by private cars, which forced tourist destinations to expand parking lots. Family lodgings and private hotels were also quite popular during the holiday.

The administration said that the country's 119 major tourist destinations received more than 18.29 million visitors during the National Day holiday. That's an increase of 13.2 percent from a year earlier. Without giving an exact number, the administration also said that ticket sales rose 16.4 percent from last year.