Chinese visiting Portugal during the week of Chinese holidays at the beginning of this month used the Chinese Alipay system to make payments 64 times more than they did in the corresponding period last year,  the China News Service (CNS) reports, citing figures given by Alipay.

The Chinese state-run news agency fails to give the value of the transactions.

Chinese visiting foreign countries in general during the holidays spent, on average, nearly 2,500 yuan (about US$350) each using Alipay, 14 percent more than a year earlier and the most in any October holiday week yet, CNS says.

Last November Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Negócios reported that Alipay and Portuguese Commercial Bank, in which Chinese company Fosun International has the biggest stake, had agreed to facilitate payments by Chinese using Alipay in Portugal.