BEIJING, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's capital Beijing and the country's largest metropolis Shanghai have set records for the number of visitors since the weeklong National Day holiday began on Oct. 1.

From Sunday to Tuesday, 2.15 million visitors arrived in Shanghai, 50,000 more than the same period last year, according to the municipal holiday office.

About 20 percent of the visitors arrived by train, eight percent arrived by bus and five percent by plane. Others arrived by ferry or drove their own cars.

The Shanghai Tourist Distribution Center delivered 616,000 visitors to the city's tourist spots.

In Beijing, 220,000 people from all over the country watched the national flag-raising ceremony on Sunday morning. While downtown traffic is eerily light, the city's tourist attractions received about 722,000 visitors on Monday.

Tourist traffic flowing out of the city on Wednesday morning jammed the expressways to the Badaling Great Wall, Beijing-Chengde and Beijing-Shijiazhuang.

Local Beijing residents preferred to go to the countryside in Huairou, Miyun, Yanqing and Fangshan districts and counties, according to an official with the municipal traffic control center.

From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, a hotline received 193 accident reports, down 36 percent from the last year.

The traffic control center suggests people avoid traveling between 9-10 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. Enditem