Tourism festival in Shanghai records progress
THE Shanghai Tourism Festival has been a witness to China’s development and citizens’ consumption upgrade over the past few decades.
On Saturday, 25 floats from China’s well-known tourist destinations, and 32 performance groups from 19 countries and regions, including Germany, Switzerland and France, took part in the dance and music show in downtown Shanghai, attracting around 300,000 spectators.
A float representing Yuexi County in east China’s Anhui Province displayed its mountainous landscape and tea culture, while a float from Shanghai’s suburban Fengxian District showcased a picturesque scene of peach blossoms and traditional houses with white walls and black roof tiles.
A float from Kashgar in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region featured a blend of Eastern and Western civilizations from the days of the ancient Silk Road, and the float of Wanzhou in southwest China’s Chongqing City presented views of its waterfall, riverfront, lakes and bell tower. Zhejiang Province’s Lishui City highlighted the city’s culture of porcelain and stone carving.
Shanghai Disney Resort’s float featured characters such as Duffy and ShellieMay.
The float of Chongming Island showed peonies and narcissus which the island is known for, promoting the 10th China Flower Expo to be held there in 2021.
The floats toured districts around Shanghai yesterday with stops at Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall and Hongkou Football Stadium.
The festival, which will last until October 6, will feature 100 activities including some for overseas travelers. A folk culture exhibition on Belt and Road countries will also be held. Dozens of tourist sites, museums and galleries in Shanghai will offer half-price admissions during the event.
The first tourism festival in Shanghai in 1990 attracted half a million tourists from home and abroad. The 2018 festival attracted 12.7 million visitors. As people’s living standards have improved remarkably, tourism is not a luxury any more, but a necessity for many citizens.
“In 1995, the company rewarded me with a trip to Hainan,” recalled a Shanghai taxi driver surnamed Guo, 54. “Now, our income has increased a lot, travel has become a routine affair for most people who are willing to pay their own money to relax.”
Thirty years ago, ideal tourism resources were lacking, said Lu Guojun, a clerk with Shanghai Huangpu River Cruise Group Co, citing the swaths of croplands along the eastern coast of the river which flows through the city center. In recent years, with improved infrastructure and rapid development of service economy, more companies have joined the development of the river tourism, Lu said.
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy in Beijing, said people’s aspirations for a better life lead to higher expectations of tourism quality.
On Friday, Shanghai signed agreements with six cities and regions including Budapest, Phnom Penh and Bangkok to boost culture and tourism exchange.
In 2018, the total tourism revenue in China reached 5.97 trillion yuan (US$842.7 billion) last year, up 10.5 percent, data of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed.
(Shanghai Daily/Xinhua)