China tourism industry reaps golden harvest

The weeklong National Day holiday, one of China's three "golden weeks", has made its title justified for the country's tourism industry with remarkable rise on tourism revenue.

 

Beijing received 5.94 million visitors during the seven days, 3.5 percent up from last year. Tourism income hit 4.13 billion yuan, according to the municipal vacation office.

 

The Forbidden Palace, the Summer Palace, and the Tian'anmen Square remains the major attractions for tourists, but with a cleaner face as tourists improve behavior.

 

At the Tian'anmen Square alone, the sanitation workers have collected around 80 tons of garbage from the world's largest square till Sunday night, about one third of the amount left by tourists last year, said Zhang Zhiqiang, an official with the Beijing Environmental Sanitation Group.

 

The second weeklong vacation since the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has brought 401,600 tourists to Tibet with a remarkable rise of 51 percent over the last year, bringing 133 million yuan for the southwestern autonomous region in tourism income, with a year-on-year increase of 53.5 percent, said Yu Yungui, deputy director of the regional tourism department.

 

"We are glad to the notable increase on both tourist number and tourism revenue, but what makes us happier is that we see no accidents in the past week," said Yu.

 

In eastern metropolis of Shanghai, the Golden Week saw visitors spend more than 3.3 billion yuan (US$438 million), as the city received 4.62 million visitors, 15.2 percent up from the same time last year.