KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — Malaysia was the 8th most visited country by Chinese tourists during China’s National Day Golden Week earlier this month, payment platform Alipay has revealed today.

For the second year running, Malaysia has also ranked ahead of Australia, the United States, and top European destinations in that same period.

"Despite our recent ventures into popular European nations this year, Malaysia still remains one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists,” Cherry Huang, its general manager of cross-border business for South and Southeast Asia, said in a statement.

"It continues to record high transactional volumes over our holiday periods, showing that Chinese tourists appreciate the ability to use Alipay when making payments with Malaysian merchants.”

There are two "golden week” holidays in China, with the National Day Golden Week celebrated between October 1 and 7 this year. Chinese tourists have increasingly travelled overseas during that week.

Alipay said Chinese visitors spent 1,361 yuan, or around RM817 per head during that period, an increase of 29 per cent over last year — beating neighbouring Singapore and Thailand.

Malaysia’s growth in Alipay transaction volume in 2018 also increased by a whopping 90 per cent compared to last year.

The top 10 destination list was topped by Hong Kong, followed by Thailand and Japan. Singapore was placed 7th, just above Malaysia.

Other countries above Malaysia were South Korea, Macau, and Taiwan.

Australia and the US ranked below Malaysia in the list.

Alipay also pointed out that there were twice as many women as men who used Alipay overseas, and those born after 1970 accounted for 96 per cent of users overseas.

Alipay’s in-store payment service covers over 40 countries and regions across the world, and currently supports 27 currencies.