Archive for ‘scenic spots’

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01/05/2020

Xinhua Headlines: China welcomes tourism, consumption rebound under regular epidemic prevention, control

-China will embrace an opportunity for tourism and consumption in the upcoming International Labor Day holiday under regular epidemic prevention and control.

-Among comprehensive prevention and control measures during the holiday, tours to all of Shanghai’s top tourist attractions should be reserved to avoid gatherings of people.

-Internet technologies have also empowered tourism with online booking, live-streaming sessions and “cloud tourism.”

By Xinhua writers Chen Aiping, Sun Wenji

SHANGHAI, April 30 (Xinhua) — The upcoming five-day International Labor Day holiday will be an opportunity for tourism and consumption since China entered the phase of regular epidemic prevention and control.

The number of domestic trips to be made in the holiday is estimated to be over twice the number of that made in the three-day Tomb-sweeping Day holiday in April, said major online travel agencies in China.

How will the country guarantee healthy and safe travels while boosting tourism and consumption in the holiday?

Tourists visit the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, April 29, 2020. Wuhan’s landmark Yellow Crane Tower partly reopened to the public on Wednesday. For the time being, there is still a visitor number limit and online booking is needed. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

BOOMING RESERVATIONS

Among comprehensive prevention and control measures during the holiday, tours to all of Shanghai’s top tourist attractions should be reserved to avoid gatherings of people.

“Safety comes first,” said Yu Xiufen, head of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.

The city, with 84 major tourist attractions and over 5,200 hotels reopened, will be the largest tourist destination as well as the largest tourist source for the holiday, according to booking data from Trip.com Group.

However, reopened tourist sites should receive no more than 30 percent of their daily or real-time visitor capacity, according to a circular jointly released by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Health Commission on April 13.

People enjoy themselves at the Shanghai Happy Valley in east China’s Shanghai Municipality April 5, 2020. (Shanghai Happy Valley/Handout via Xinhua)

“Better travel planning is needed if you don’t want to gather inside the attractions or outside waiting for entry,” said Zheng Bing, a 33-year-old visitor who has booked trips to Zhujiajiao Old Town and Shanghai Happy Valley for her family.

“I can book through the attractions’ official online channels or call them with the required information for a limited number of family members, and check the real-time passenger flow on the WeChat accounts of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism,” she said, adding that nearly 200 attractions, museums, art galleries and public cultural centers have launched booking access through Visit Shanghai, an online platform with Shanghai’s cultural and tourism resources.

“In April, the number of tourists who made online bookings increased by 300 percent from March,” said Yu Xiaojiang with Trip.com Group, noting that over 4,000 tourist attractions in China have launched online booking access.

“Nearly 2,000 visitors have booked for May 1, marking the largest daily volume during the holiday. We will take more precise epidemic prevention measures,” said Zhao Shuai, marketing director of Shanghai Happy Valley.

PREPARED DESTINATIONS

China has urged the safe and orderly opening of tourist sites across the country, noting that efforts should be made to control passenger flows, prevent the gatherings of crowds, implement reservation systems and raise public awareness of epidemic prevention and control.

China’s resort island Hainan Province recently announced 20 specific epidemic-control measures in tourism, transportation, dining and shopping sectors while launching holiday promotions to boost consumption.

A customer tries out a pair of sunglasses at a duty-free experience shop in a resort in Sanya, south China’s Hainan Province, April 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu)

“Tourists are required to wear masks, show their health codes and have their temperature checked. All the sales staff are required to wear masks and gloves,” said Zhang Ke, an employee with a duty-free shop in downtown Haikou, capital of Hainan.

One-meter bars were set at the shop’s sales counters and sanitizers were provided, while staff will keep customer flows at a safe distance and disinfect public areas regularly every day, Zhang said.

Over 85 percent of hotels across China have resumed operations, according to Tongcheng-eLong, another online travel agency giant. Over 110,000 hotel suppliers have joined the Safety Hotel Initiative of Tongcheng-eLong in adopting more safety measures, including disinfecting public areas and popularizing coronavirus control knowledge.

In popular destinations such as Shanghai, Yunnan and Hainan, restaurants are encouraged to serve separate dishes. In Shanghai, some 30 percent of restaurants now offer separate dishes for diners.

Tourists will also shoulder more responsibilities with better travel plans and behavior, said He Jianmin, an expert with Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

INTERNET　EMPOWERMENT

“Epidemic-control measures including online booking are also important for ensuring the tourism sector’s high-quality long-term development,” said Zhao Shuai, adding that China will eye booming smart tourist attractions empowered by Internet technologies.

5G infrared thermal imaging temperature measurement has been implemented in public areas including metro stations, commercial centers, airports and train stations in Shanghai and many other cities to monitor people’s body temperature.

A visitor receives body temperature check at the entrance of Shanghai Museum in east China’s Shanghai Municipality, March 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Ren Long)

The Old Town of Lijiang in southwest China’s Yunnan Province implemented a big data system to monitor passenger flows and prevent the gathering of crowds.

Although group tours across provinces were still suspended, online consumption for tourism boosted.

Shanghai has taken measures to promote the recovery of epidemic-hit culture and tourism, and exhibitions, cooking competitions and tours have been held online. Trip.com Group said its sales of travel products had reached 200 million yuan (28.33 million U.S. dollars) in seven recent livestreaming sessions as of Wednesday.

Tour guide Zeng Hongjuan (R) introduces an exhibit via livestreaming on a cellphone platform at the Beijing Auto Museum in Beijing, capital of China, April 30, 2020. Livestreaming shows for this auto museum will be staged from April 30 to May 3 for the upcoming International Labor Day holidays. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Scenic spots in Yunnan have cooperated with video platforms to livestream their natural beauty to attract more tourists.

“Go-Yunnan,” an online travel platform, has launched more than 1,400 live feeds allowing people to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Yunnan from home.

“Online tourism, or ‘cloud tourism,’ as a new mode of tourism, helps scenic spots attract more tourists and aids the recovery of Yunnan’s tourism industry,” said Yang Wenwen, head of the platform’s content operation. “I expect ‘cloud tourism’ to drive the future upgrading of China’s tourism industry.”

The number of netizens in China had reached 904 million as of March 2020 and 897 million of them access the Internet through mobile phones, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

Source: Xinhua

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14/04/2020

China limits admission as outdoor tourist sites reopen

BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) — Chinese authorities have released a circular, only allowing outdoor tourist attractions to reopen amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

The tourist sites that resume operation should receive no more than 30 percent of their daily visitor capacity, according to the circular jointly released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Health Commission.

The reopened tourist attractions should take measures to prevent the number of visitors from exceeding the limit, said the circular, adding that indoor tourist sites should remain closed amid the epidemic.

The circular required tourist sites to encourage visitors to reserve visiting slots in advance to control visitor flows and prevent large gatherings of people.

While noting some tourist attractions have seen large crowds of tourists after resuming operation, which increased the risk of virus transmission, the circular demanded temperature checking at the entrance of tourist sites and major scenic spots.

Source: Xinhua

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07/04/2020

China Focus: Qingming festival boosts recovery of domestic tourism

BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) — Bike riding, bird watching, or simply enjoying the natural scenery against the blue sky. A wild duck lake wetland in suburban Beijing has attracted urbanites during the traditional Qingming festival.

The park imposes a daily limit of 1,680 visitors and workers take body temperatures for visitors and ask them to show their health codes, which are common preventive measures in many scenic spots.

“Our tickets sold out one day in advance on the Internet, “said Liu Xuemei, a park management official. “Through the online booking of tickets, we strictly control the flow of tourists to protect wild birds as it is a season of bird migration.”

Besides paying tribute to the dead, outing is another tradition among Chinese during Tomb-sweeping Day, also known as Qingming Festival which fell on Saturday. Citizens enjoy a three-day holiday for the festival.

As China’s domestic COVID-19 situation continues its improving trend, more parks and scenic sites have reopened across the country, providing places for citizens to have spring outings amid tight prevention measures.

On Saturday, the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs in Beijing reopened to the public after two months of closure in the prevention and control of COVID-19.

The famous Badaling section of the Great Wall in Beijing, which partly opened on March 24, hosted 12,000 tourists on Sunday alone.

Beijing’s major parks, which partly opened to the public, also adopted strict measures to control the number of tourists while cancelling some traditional spring activities such as enjoying flowers to avoid gathering.

Data from several domestic travel companies such as Qunar and Trip.com show that the domestic tourism industry is recovering and the booking volume of tickets for travel, hotels and scenic spots is on the rise.

Since March, some of the business activities of travel agencies have resumed in more than 10 provinces and municipalities. Tours around cities and 1-hour high-speed trips are popular, according to the travel platforms.

“I haven’t been out during the epidemic. It’s fine today. I brought my daughter to the mountain area to breathe fresh air and relax,” said a female tourist surnamed Liu, in the city of Wuhu, east China’s Anhui Province. Liu went to the suburban area of Wuhu with her daughter for an outing on Saturday and said she felt the epidemic prevention measures were reassuring.

At the Balihe scenic area in Yingshang County, Anhui, the number of tourists rose from 1,000 after it reopened on March 15 to about 8,000 per day during the Qingming holiday.

The scenic area implements online real-name booking. Its tourist service center has a body temperature detection area and provides wash-free disinfectant. Staff members wear masks and gloves, according to Wang Longtao, deputy general manager of a company in charge of the Balihe tourism development.

“I am optimistic about the recovery of domestic tourism. People have accumulated a strong desire to consume,” said Liang Jianzhang, co-founder and chairman of Trip.com Group.

Huangshan Mountain, a UNESCO world heritage site in Anhui Province, saw 20,000 tourists on Saturday and Sunday, as pictures of crowded tourists triggered concerns over epidemic prevention.

The scenic area authorities said Monday they increased 20 transfer buses and mobilized a total of 160 buses to prevent overcrowding.

Industry experts warn that as the COVID-19 epidemic has not ended domestically and the pressure of imported cases is growing, scenic spots should make people’s safety and health the top priority and take targeted measures as they reopen.

Source: Xinhua

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30/11/2019

China’s Hubei opens scenic high-speed railway

WUHAN, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — Central China’s Hubei Province on Friday opened a new high-speed railway that connects many of the province’s scenic spots and poverty-stricken areas.

The railway linking Wuhan, capital of Hubei, with Shiyan, a city in the northwest of the province, has designed maximum speeds of 250 kph and 350 kph in its two sections, according to China Railway Wuhan Group.

The railway passes five cities, home to 46 percent of Hubei’s population. It also snakes into the Qinling Mountains and reaches large expanses of impoverished areas there.

Dubbed the “most beautiful railway” in Hubei, the rail line links four national tourist attractions with the highest 5A-level ratings, including Mount Wudang, known for its many Taoist temples.

Zheng Zongli, a Wuhan resident and passenger on the first train on the line, hailed the railway for slashing travel time between the two cities of Wuhan and Shiyan to about two hours.

“It is so convenient that you can set out in the morning and arrive at Mount Wudang in the afternoon. It used to take more than a day,” he said.

Shi Lilong, chief of the poverty reduction office of Shiyan, said the railway would become a powerful weapon in the local battle against poverty by bringing the mountains and its sceneries closer to tourists, unlocking the tourism potential of the mountainous region.

Source: Xinhua

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30/09/2019

Next stop: Croatia. Chinese travellers skip Hong Kong for niche destinations over National Day break

  • Train trips, Xinjiang and chartered flights among the growing holiday trends, travel agents say
Destinations such as Dubrovnik, Croatia, are becoming more popular among mainland Chinese tourists, according to one of China’ s biggest travel services. Photo: AFP
Destinations such as Dubrovnik, Croatia, are becoming more popular among mainland Chinese tourists, according to one of China’ s biggest travel services. Photo: AFP

Chartered flights and niche destinations such as Croatia and Malta are growing in popularity as Hong Kong falls out of favour for mainland Chinese holidaymakers over the National Day “golden week” break.

Japan has overtaken Thailand as the most searched overseas destination on the website of travel agency Ctrip, followed by Malaysia, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Macau, France, Italy and Russia.

Within the mainland places such as Beijing and Shanghai continued to be among the most popular searches but Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is a fast-growing term, especially among people in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

“It could be that tourists want to see autumn leaves,” a Ctrip spokesman told the South China Morning Post.

October 1 marks the start of a week-long break on the mainland when millions of Chinese take the chance to travel. This year, an estimated 800 million people are expected to go on trips in China or overseas, about 10 per cent more than last year.
The country’s motorways are expected to be jammed from about 2pm on Monday, reaching a peak at around midnight, and again from 10am Tuesday, according to web mapping service Tencent Map.
China’s highways can expect heavy traffic as travellers head out for the holiday. Photo: Reuters
China’s highways can expect heavy traffic as travellers head out for the holiday. Photo: Reuters

Ctrip said people heading overseas were increasingly seeking out new destinations, with bookings to places such as the Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, Malta and Cambodia growing by 45 per cent this year.

“As Chinese people travel outside the country more and their experience of travel grows, many are more willing to go to smaller eastern European countries, such as the Czech Republic,” the spokesman said.

“Popular movies also have a strong influence. Many young people are willing to travel to see where films are shot, such as Croatia, one of the locations for Game of Thrones.”

Other noticeable trends this year include more people travelling with pets, by train and on chartered flights. The site said it sold 60 per cent more European train tickets and 10 times the number of train tickets for Japan for this golden week compared to last year.

The most popular routes in Asia were Tokyo to Kyoto in Japan, and Seoul to Busan in South Korea.

Hong Kong protests leave ‘golden week’ tourist boom in tatters as visitor arrivals during Chinese holiday period are set to be slashed by a third

Thousands of users also chose chartered flights, a service Ctrip introduced in September.

Ji Yu, head of chartered flights for Ctrip said most people thought chartered flights or helicopters were something only millionaires could afford, but in the internet age, they had become cheaper and more accessible.

“In the internet era, consumer needs vary from person to person, especially in terms of travel. There are products on the market to satisfy each customer’s personal needs.”

Among the more popular chartered routes were from Beijing or Shanghai to Tokyo, Bangkok, the Maldives and London.

More people are also going away for longer. Digital travel services giant Qunar said that 80 per cent of the travellers booking flights or hotels through its services were heading off for more than five days. And of those 41 per cent were travelling for more than a week.

Meanwhile, trips to Hong Kong have fallen substantially, with just 15 group tours expected to enter the city each day, down from 110 last year, according to the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.

Efforts to promote Hong Kong attractions have also increased in Shenzhen in recent weeks, with advertising videos scenic spots, popular restaurants and malls in Hong Kong playing on cross-border buses. Passengers can also get discounts to some stores and services with their tickets.

Source: SCMP

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29/09/2019

36 people killed after coach slams into truck on expressway in eastern China

  • Thirty-six others were hurt, with nine being treated for serious injuries
  • Bus had a tyre blowout and collided with road divider before slamming into truck in the opposite lane in Yixing, Jiangsu province, police say
The expressway reopened after a rescue operation of more than eight hours. Photo: Weibo
The expressway reopened after a rescue operation of more than eight hours. Photo: Weibo

Thirty-six people were killed and another 36 injured when a coach had a tyre blowout and crashed into a truck on an expressway in eastern China on Saturday.

The coach, which had 69 passengers on board, collided with a road divider before slamming into a truck in the opposite lane at about 7am, the Yixing municipal police department said in a statement on Sunday.

There were three people in the truck.

The accident happened on the Yixing section of the Changchun-Shenzhen Expressway in Jiangsu province.

A rescue operation took more than eight hours, and the injured were taken to hospitals in nearby Yibing.
Nine people were seriously injured, 26 were being treated for minor injuries and one had been discharged from hospital, according to the statement.
A tyre blowout may have caused the accident on Saturday morning. Photo: Weibo
A tyre blowout may have caused the accident on Saturday morning. Photo: Weibo

Police are still looking into the crash but said “according to our preliminary investigation, the accident was caused by a blowout of one of the coach’s front tyres”.

The accident happened days before China celebrates the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule on Tuesday.
Security is tight

ahead of National Day and the week-long holiday marking it, as all levels of government try to make sure nothing goes wrong.

This month, local governments were told to check factories, restaurants, rental accommodation, scenic spots close to water and roads for safety hazards and to take measures to prevent fire, crashes or other accidents, according to media reports.

Traffic accidents are common in China, where about 200,000 people lose their lives on the roads every year, according to the World Health Organisation.

Source: SCMP

Posted in 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule, accidents, Changchun-Shenzhen Expressway, coach, collided, crashes, expressway, factories, Fire, hospitals, injured, jiangsu province, killed, National Day, People, Police, rental accommodation, rescue operation, restaurants, road divider, roads, safety hazards, scenic spots, slams into, traffic accidents, truck, tyre blowout, Uncategorized, water, World Health Organisation, Yibing, Yixing | Leave a Comment »

21/09/2019

China’s scenic spots join garbage pickup campaign to mark World Cleanup Day

BEIJING, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) — A total of 73 popular domestic scenic spots have joined a campaign to collect garbage as China marked the World Cleanup Day Saturday.

Stalls will be set up in these scenic spots to encourage tourists to pick up garbage, take them away and sort them.

Spearheaded by China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip and charity program Pickup China, the campaign will last through the National Day holiday and is expected to attract about 1 million travelers and reduce 1,000 tonnes of tourism-related waste.

A mobile game was also launched on Ctrip’s app to raise awareness of trash collection and sorting among its users.

Sustainability will contribute to improved travel experiences and the sector’s development, said Fang Hongfeng, general manager of the activities business unit at Ctrip, adding that they are willing to seek broader cooperation with scenic areas in this field.

The World Cleanup Day, which falls on Sept. 21 each year, is a global social action program designed to address the global solid waste problem.

Source: Xinhua

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