Beijing parks see rise in visitors during scorching holiday

BEIJING -- Despite a scorching heatwave, parks in Beijing received 3.26 million visits during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, up 61 percent from the previous year, local authorities said Sunday.

The Summer Palace, Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) Park and Beijing Zoo were reported as the most popular destinations during the holiday, which lasted from Thursday to Saturday, according to the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.

A total of 69 cultural activities featuring traditional folk customs and popular science exhibitions were held in many parks to attract visitors.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. People enjoy sticky rice dumplings known as zongzi, and watch dragon boat races on the day. It has now become a national holiday.

High temperatures persisted across Beijing throughout this year's holiday.

The temperature at a meteorological station in southern Beijing soared to 41.1 degrees Celsius on Thursday -- the second-highest reading since reliable records began, according to the Beijing Meteorological Service.

To beat the heat and draw tourists, Beihai Park, Fragrant Hills and Yuyuantan Park held an array of cultural activities at night, and Beijing Zoo even launched ice pops featuring giant pandas.

During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, Beijing's 216 key scenic areas recorded more than 5.18 million tourist arrivals and raked in over 309 million yuan (about $43 million) in revenue, up 2.1 percent and 5.8 percent from the same period of 2019, respectively, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.