China's foreign trade in 2010 jumped 34.7percent from a year earlier to 2.97 trillion U.S. dollars, with its trade surplus falling 6.4 percent to 183.1 billion U.S. dollars, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Monday.

The country's exports grew 31.3 percent year on year last year to 1.58 trillion U.S. dollars while imports surged 38.7 percent to 1.39 trillion U.S. dollars, said the GAC.

"China's foreign trade is, in general, heading towards a balanced structure," said the GAC in a statement on its website.

The trade surplus in 2010 accounted for 6.2 percent of all foreign trade of the year, down from 8.9 percent in 2009 and 11.6 percent in 2008.

In December, foreign trade hit a record high of 295.2 billion U.S. dollars, representing year-on-year growth of 21.4 percent and a month-on-month rise of 4 percent.