OREANDA-NEWS.  November 12, 2013. Bank cards have further replaced cash as the payment method during the earlier National Day Golden Week, according to data. ICBC, for example saw its customers spend RMB 67.5 billion with ICBC bank cards during the National Day Holiday this year, equivalent to nearly RMB 10 billion every day on average, leaping about 30% over the same period a year ago.

From 2012 ICBC launched a nationwide promotion known as "City Streets" with focus on ICBC card acceptance at popular shopping circles such as "Cultural Street" and "Food Street". During the Holiday, ICBC's over 260 "City Streets", including "Ethnic Shopping Street" in Yunnan's Dali and "Tour Street" in Guangxi's Yangshuo, etc,,have effectively improved the card acceptance environment within these shopping circles and boosted the growth in consumption.

By leveraging the strength in Internet Banking, ICBC also offered fast online payment service for emerging consumptions like online shipping during the holiday. For example, ICBC processed 8,250,300 online payments for train tickets with a volume of RMB 1.417 billion during the peak period (September 11 to September 30). On Telephone Banking service, ICBC assigned sufficient seats to ensure smooth call service during the week-long holiday. ICBC 95588 agents processed nearly 1,750,000 dial-ins over the week, or an average of 250,000 calls each day, with over 95% calls answered within 20 seconds.