The five-day May Day holiday — from Thursday through Monday — spurred a tourism boom in the country, with scores of domestic and international tourists swamping destinations big and small to make the most of the break, the last long holiday in the first half of the year.
Encouraging reports have been coming in from local authorities and tourists alike. "We were packed like sardines and it was very hard to push our way through the crowds. But we love the festive atmosphere. The snacks and specialties made by street vendors taste good too," said Li Yunfeng, 34, who is on a four-day trip to Huangshan city in Anhui province with his family.
He said the Huangshan Mountain, known for its famous peaks, pine trees and hot springs, was packed. "It took us an hour to cover a kilometer, but the view was breathtaking. Maybe I will bring my family here again on a regular weekend," he said.
Huangshan city is not the only domestic destination teeming with travelers this holiday.
Reports from Zhejiang province said that by 2pm on the fourth day of the holiday, the province received 23.75 million tourist visits, up 12.9 percent year-on-year. Authorities in Hubei province in central China said about 12.17 million tourists visited the province's top scenic spots in first three days of the holiday, an increase of about 24.15 percent year-on-year.
Some destinations in the province have had to place limits on the number of visitors to cope with the rush.
The surge in the number of international travelers shows that the optimized entry and tax refund policies are paying off. Figures from the Chengdu border inspection office in Southwest China's Sichuan province show that on May 1, the second day of the holiday, over 8,700 international travelers entered Chengdu.
Among these visitors, nearly 2,400 were foreign tourists, while the rest were from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
There had been indications that top domestic destinations such as Beijing and Shanghai would see a surge in international travelers over the May Day holiday. The Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection estimated that about 310,000 people will exit and enter the city during the holiday. It specified that the Beijing Capital International Airport will see 225,000 people exit and enter the city, roughly 45,000 people per day — marking a growth of 9.7 percent from the same period last month.
Travel agencies are also reporting encouraging figures. Travel portal Trip.com Group said that on the first day of the holiday, inbound tourism bookings on its platform surged by 141 percent year-on-year.
Shanghai, Guangzhou in Guangdong province and Beijing remain the top choices for international travelers.
Before the holiday started, the agency said it noted a 173-percent growth in inbound tourism bookings for May Day holiday trips on the platform. It said videos by You-Tube star Darren Jason Watkins Jr, or IShowSpeed with about 39.2 million subscribers, are a hit among international travelers after he shared his recent travel experiences in China.
