Sichuan announces routes for holiday travelers

Southwest China's Sichuan province announced travel routes and discounts to woo tourists during the National Day holiday week and the Mid-Autumn Festival in early October.

The 10 routes announced connect places with many draws, including giant pandas, heritage and health preservation sites and gourmet food, and cover the province's beautiful landscape while offering multiple choices to travelers to explore, Xie Haiyin, a senior official of the Sichuan tourism authority said at a promotional event in Beijing on Wednesday.

The Chinese capital has been a major source of tourists to Sichuan. Beijing residents paid 165,000 visits to the province in the first seven months of the year, up 18.7 percent over the same period last year. They have become the third-largest force in the province's tourism market, the official said.