Capital's parks witness a rise in visitors amid boiling holiday weather

Despite a scorching heat wave, parks in Beijing received 3.26 million visits during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, up 61 percent from 2022, according to local authorities.

The Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven Park and Beijing Zoo were reported as the most popular destinations during the holiday, which lasted from June 22 to 24, according to the Beijing 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.

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 festivities. The temperature at a meteorological station in southern Beijing soared to 41.1 C on June 22 — the second-highest reading since reliable records began, according to the Beijing Meteorological Service.

To beat the heat and draw in tourists, Beihai Park, Fragrant Hills and Yuyuantan Park held an array of cultural activities at night, and Beijing Zoo 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 more than 309 million yuan ($43 million) in revenue, up 2.1 percent and 5.8 percent from the same period of 2019, respectively, according to the Beijing Bureau of Culture and Tourism.