Beijing businesses thrive despite rainy weather

The rainy weather during the National Day holiday did not weaken people's consumption enthusiasm in Beijing as the capital city carried out measures to help many business sectors.

The capital's major business sectors including department stores, supermarkets, restaurants and online-retailers posted total revenue of 6.3 billion yuan ($970 million) during the seven-day National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percent, the city's commerce bureau said on Friday.

In Beijing's 52 key business areas, the city saw total visits of 33 million, up 3.6 percent compared to the same period last year.

"I found that shopping malls in Beijing are becoming increasingly modern and fashionable in recent years," said Qiu Liuyu, a 36-year old mother with an 8-year-old son. "There are lots of themed events in malls, which are attractive for us. It has become a part of my life to dine with friends, bring my kid to play and shop for accessories in shopping malls."

The bureau said the major business areas including Dongzhimen, Changying and Shuangjing in Beijing all saw a more than 30 percent growth of visitors during the holiday compared with the same period last year.

The restaurants and cultural industries also achieved good performance in revenues during the holiday. Many traditional local restaurants offered special dishes for the National Day to express good wishes for the country.

Beijing-headquartered Ziguangyuan, Hongbinlou and Dong Lai Shun restaurants all witnessed a more than 10 percent revenue increase year-on-year during the holiday.

The culture and entertainment industry saw 209 shows and several movies, which contributed to box-office receipts of 170 million yuan during the break.

In the tourism sector, the newly opened Universal Beijing Resort theme park was a hot spot for both locals and visitors from outside of Beijing.

It brought about a 15 percent increase in consumption from visitors outside of Beijing compared with the previous years, the bureau said.

The daily visits to Universal Studios Beijing surpassed 25,000 and around half of the visitors were from outside the city, said the bureau. Visitors from outside of Beijing boosted consumption in hotels, cultural and entertainment units.

"It's within our expectation that the Universal Studios Beijing theme park will bring a boost to the capital's tourism industry since short tours have become increasingly popular this year due to COVID-19. Theme parks have always been a hot choice for this kind of two to three-day tours," said Zhang Guodong, director of the communication department of ly.com, a Chinese online travel agency. "The park has perfectly met the demand for this among the public in North China."

To boost consumption, the Beijing municipal government also organized events such as "Beijing Consumption Season" and supported night consumption, which were welcomed by consumers.