China's pawnbrokers were doing booming business around the National Day holidays, as both tourists and street hawkers put up their personal belongings to get extra cash to travel or cash in on tourism.

During the week-long National Day holiday, a manager of a pawnshop in this capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province said his business is up 30 percent to 40 percent.

The pawnbroker said some small business people are pawning private items to raise capital to buy wholesale souvenirs that they sell to tourists. Meanwhile, some tourists use pawnshops as a kind of safety deposit box where they pawn precious items before traveling and then buy them back on their return, said the manager who declined to be named.

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