Hong Kong is the destination of choice for mostmainland travelers this Christmas, a new survey hasfound.

　　Forty-four percent of the 2,000 people polled, all ofwhom have an annual income of more than 60,000yuan, said they were planning to visit the region overthe festive period.

　　Other popular destinations included Shanghai (10percent), Sanya in Hainan Province (9 percent),Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Bali in Indonesia, Phuketin Thailand and Harbin in Heilongjiang Province.

　　Conducted by the online travel firm ctrip.com, the survey found people were most interested inplaces with a "strong holiday atmosphere", "good shopping environment" and "excellent hotelsand beaches" when choosing a destination for their Christmas getaway.

　　Tang Yibo, director of Ctrip.com's holiday department, said: "Embodying both Eastern andWestern cultures, Hong Kong stands out because it has not only a vibrant Christmasatmosphere, but also offers lots of shopping and entertainment facilities, and big discounts atthis time of year."

　　The convenience of traveling between the mainland and Hong Kong is also an importantfactor, Tang said.

　　Lin Kang, deputy general manager of theoutbound tourismdepartment of the ChinaInternational Travel Service Head Office, said tour packages to Hong Kong are always bestsellersat Christmas.

　　He said the reason was that Chinese do not have much time off work at Christmas and the NewYear so they cannot travel too far.

　　"When it comes to the week long Spring Festival holiday, destinations like Europe will be morepopular," he said.

　　Packages for the Spring Festival are now available, he said, with some of them to Australia andNew Zealand already sold out.

　　Some travel experts have said the high volume of holiday bookings for this year's SpringFestival is due to the cancellation of the May Day holiday.