May Day: the holiday travel spree in China Visitors swarmed into hot cities, the first such holiday since China optimized COVID-19 measures

CHINA is witnessing a travel boom during this year’s five-day May Day holiday, the first such holiday since the country optimized its COVID-19 response measures, and also the first long holidays after the seven-day Spring Festival holidays in China, which was in late January. This year’s May Day holidays run from April 29 to May 3.

Domestic travel bookings for the holiday, which starts on April 29 this year, have surged more than 700 percent from last year, the latest data from online travel agency Trip.com Group shows.

Tickets sold out, transport at maximum capacity

Multiple tourist spots across China have witnessed tickets being sold out and advised visitors to reschedule their plans as number from the May Day holidays in the world’s second-largest economy continues to smash all expectations.

On May 1, authorities in Gulangyu island, the pedestrian-only island off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian Province, announced all the ferry tickets had been sold out, suggesting tourists to visit island on another day.

In Central China’s Wuhan city, the Yellow Crane Tower, the traditional Chinese tower also known as Huanghelou, has been at maximum receiving capacity for two days straight, roughly 40,000 people, according to its official Sina Weibo account.

Latest figures from China State Railway Group Company show that the railway system nationwide ran 12,064 passenger trains and handled 19.66 million trips in total on Apr 29, the first day of the five-day May Day holidays, both a record high. And travelers taking flights also registered a record high on Apr 29 of around 2.04 million, up 441.8 percent year-on-year, according to civil aviation authorities.

Tourism recovering at full tilt

“I’ve never imagined such a huge population of travelers. It really blew my mind,” said Wang Yalu, a 32-year-old from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, who is enjoying her holiday in Sanya, a coastal city in Hainan province, for a four-day trip with her family.

Wang said that she booked the trip a month ago. “It’s a very good time to take a family trip, but the price is quite high. The trip cost us almost 20,000 yuan ($2,900).”

Online travel portal Trip.com said in a recent report that its users have shown a strong desire for overseas travel during the holiday.

The holiday travel spree in China shows that the tourism sector is recovering at full tilt in the post-epidemic era, and the world’s second-largest economy is regaining its vitality.

GLOBAL TIMES/ CHINA DAILY/XINHUA

7 Chinese cities that win hearts of tourists for holiday travel

THERE are seven Chinese cities that are among the top holiday travel choices for tourists, according to Xinhua.

As a historic and cultural city, Beijing, the Chinese capital is undoubtedly one of the most popular destinations.

This year, Beijing recommends 16 tourism routes highlighting the city’s ancient relics.

Boasting the Bund, the Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Disney Resort, Shanghai is listed among the top 10 destinations by multiple online travel platforms.

Meanwhile, Xi’an , Guangzhou, Chongqing, Sanya also popluar due to their various attractions.

Apart from first-tier cities, smaller ones like Zibo of Shandong Province, also has become a new choice for travelers due to its iconic barbecues.

In addition to the above-listed cities, tourists also flock to Chengdu

Floriculture combined with tourism creates success for small biz in Guizhou

SOUTHWEST China’s Guizhou province is not known for traditional flower plantations. However, suitable climate and fertile soil, coupled with immense scope for agricultural innovation, are igniting the business instincts of people near and far, and attracting them to start up floral businesses.

Annie Leung, hailing from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, visits Hezhang county in Bijie, Guizhou, to collect flowers her startup grows for sale in Hong Kong.

Up on Wumeng Mountain, at an altitude of over 2,000 meters, Leung established flower farms. Within three years, she built 517 greenhouses and 400 flower cultivation bases.

Through independent research and development, Leung and her team developed a series of products, including automobile aromatherapy, household aromatherapy and air fresheners. The team is striving to expand its product portfolio.

The flower plantation bases employ or involve over 2,400 farmers, generating a collective income of 12 million yuan for 796 poor families in Hezhang.

Leung also established a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao youth program to aid the Guizhou entrepreneurship base, creating employment or internship opportunities for young people from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

“I want to serve as a bridge for them to better know about and contribute to our country,” she said.

▲ Volunteers and villagers pick rose buds at a plantation in Wulidun village, Huangping county, Guizhou province, in May 2022. (China Daily)

▲ Farmers take care of lily flowers at plantation. (Xinhua)

Cultural corner

Chinese tea-making techniques: maker of special blend spends decade on technique to watch giant pandas, to Xiamen to hear the sea breeze lying on the beach at Gulangyu Islet, and to Changsha to taste the yummy snacks at the night fair.

LI Xingchang repeatedly stirred leaves in an iron pan at a temperature of several hundred degrees day after day for years. A decade later, Li’s mother, Kuang Zhiying, who taught him all about tea, finally smiled after sipping from a cup that Li had made.

“It’s been hard to do the same thing for a decade, but it has paid off,” says Li, an eighth-generation inheritor of his family’s Pu’er tea business.

In 2022, traditional Chinese tea-making techniques were included by the UNESCO in its representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Pu’er tea-making is one of the 44 techniques included. Li is the first national-level inheritor of gongcha, or Pu’er “tribute tea”, which was exclusively enjoyed by royal families during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Some netizens said they would like to travel to any destination for which they can secure a plane or train ticket. XINHUA

“The process of stirring is key to the taste of this ‘tribute tea’,” Li, 70, says, adding that he has to adjust the interval time of each toss, lasting either a few seconds or even half a second, while his hands feel the change of humidity and temperature of the tea leaves.

“A good tea maker should have high concentration levels,” says Li Xingchang. CHINA DAILY

▲ Li Xingchang, an inheritor of making gongcha, or Pu’er tribute tea. (China Daily)

▲ An elderly villager engages in tea making. (China Daily)