The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, has received a record of 82,000 tourists during the first seven days of the National Day holiday, local tourism company said Wednesday.

The holiday is usually a week-long golden week. But this year it is extended to eight days as the Mid-Autumn Festival, also a public holiday, fell on Oct. 3.

Xu Ting, manager of the marketing department of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Tourism Development Co., said the number of tourists would climb to 88,000 as the holiday ends on Thursday.

The dam area, one of five major tourist sites along the Yangtze River, had received 820,000 visitors in the year to September, and the number would rise to 1.15 million for the whole year, Xu said.

The area, also the largest industrial tourist site, saw fewer overseas tourist arrivals this year because of global financial crisis, but domestic tourism still boomed, he said.

The dam area received 1.25 million tourists in 2007, a record high, and 930,000 tourists in 2008 due to the snow storms, massive Wenchuan earthquake and financial crisis.

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