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.
(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2007)
