SHANGHAI, Aug. 16 -- THE affluent of the Chinese mainland spent most on travel for leisure expenditure and are buying bigger properties and more real estate, MasterCard Worldwide said in a survey yesterday.

About 92.6 percent of affluent households that participated in the survey said they spent about US$10,000 on leisure and other recreational activities in 2006, MasterCard said.

The survey cites domestic and outbound travel as the key priorities for spending time and money, followed by fitness, visiting theme or amusement parks, sports and socializing.

About 43.3 percent of the affluent traveled at least three times within the Chinese mainland and 30 percent made at least three overseas trips.

Hong Kong topped the list of the overseas travel destinations, with an 85.6-percent strike rate for the rich, followed by Macau for the lure of its growing casino business.

Hong Kong is also the top destination for business travel among the affluent due to the strong economic links between the mainland and Hong Kong.

The rich are also spending more on their property investments.

The average floor space of the group's first property investment stands at 129 square meters, while the figure grew to 208 square meters for the fourth foray into real estate.

About 76 percent of the affluent paid the money for their fourth property, while the figure for first property buying sits at 49 percent.

MasterCard conducted the inaugural face-to-face survey via 900 participants - 300 in each of the three cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with household incomes of US$16,000 to US$50,000 annually.

It is estimated that there were 2.9 million households with a yearly income of more than US$25,000 on the mainland in 2005.

That figure is expected to top 8.5 million households by 2015.