China’s longest “golden-week” holiday celebration witnesses tourism boom

Friday, October 6, 2023

Chinese people are spending the longest “golden-week” holiday in a variety of fascinating ways, including visiting cultural heritage sites in the western desert, watching discussion programs, and participating in sports.

The National Day holiday, termed “golden week” by the Chinese, is generally seven days long, but this year it has been combined with the customary Mid-Autumn Festival and has been extended to eight days, spanning from September 29 to October 6.

According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, more than 395 million trips to tourist sites were made in the first three days of the holiday, up 75.8 percent year on year, and total tourism revenue increased by 125.3 percent to 342.24 billion yuan (47.67 billion US dollars) in the three days.

Popular tourist locations are overrun with tourists. Leading tourist attractions in Beijing got 6.83 million visitors in the first three days of the vacation, an increase of 60.6 percent year on year and 31.8 percent over 2019.

Dunhuang, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northwest China’s Gansu Province, saw 28,000 visitors on the first day of the vacation, up 58.45 percent over the previous year.

During the eight-day celebration, Kuanzhai Alley, a historic district in Chengdu, southern China, recreated night bazaars from the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) periods.

The “red” tourism spots, which highlight the country’s revolutionary history, also attract visitors who are motivated by patriotism.

The number of visitors to the Liupanshan Red Army Long March beautiful region in Guyuan, northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, has increased year after year, and the park expects to receive approximately 20,000 tourists this holiday season, according to Lu Xuezhou, deputy general manager of the site.

“On Oct. 1, we organized various celebrations for visitors, including sunrise viewings, national anthem renditions, and national flag-raising ceremonies,” Lu said. “There will also be a red art performance to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and tourists can walk along a ‘Red Army path’ to trace the history of the Long March and learn from the Long March spirit.”

Those who do not travel far during the holiday do not spend their time at home idle. They went to the movies, driving the national box office beyond 2 billion yuan.

They sat through talk programs, plays, and circus performances. In the first three days of the holiday, the 148 theaters in Beijing delivered 828 performances to 227,000 people, a 269 percent and 168.3 percent increase over the previous year.

Hangzhou, the capital city of east China’s Zhejiang Province, is hosting the Asian Games, attracting a large number of tourists interested in both the city’s scenic West Lake and the sporting events.On each of the first two days of the holiday, more than 40,000 people attended the Games’ main stadium.

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