Roundup

Visits to Macao surge

Visitor arrivals in Macao surged 297 percent year-on-year to 451,000 during the Spring Festival holiday from Jan 21 to 27. Among them were 165,000 from Hong Kong, a remarkable surge of 2,601.8 percent over the same period of 2022, and 265,000 from the Chinese mainland, the Macao Government Tourism Office said on Sunday. This was the first "Golden Week" holiday after Macao eased inbound travel restrictions in early January, dropping the requirement for those who enter Macao from the Chinese mainland, as well as China's Hong Kong and Taiwan to present negative nucleic acid test results for COVID-19.

Exhibition on escape

An exhibition opened at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum on Monday commemorating the people who came to China to evade the Nazis during World War II. Titled After the Holocaust: Displaced Persons and Displaced Persons Camps, and cohosted by the United Nations and the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, the exhibition will run until March 10. It presents copies of archived materials and reviews the situation of the Jewish refugees, when tens of thousands of them came to Shanghai from Europe, seeking refuge during WWII. It led to tens of thousands of Jews escaping Nazi atrocities and establishing deep friendships with the Chinese people.

Bustling scenic spots

During the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, 120 A-level scenic spots in Central China's Hubei province saw tourist volume and revenue return to the 2019 levels, with 64 hitting a record high, local authorities said on Monday. A total of 463 A-level scenic spots in Hubei received nearly 8.83 million tourist visits, up 41 percent year-on-year from 2022, said the provincial culture and tourism department. Hubei launched a variety of cultural tourism products to attract visitors. Data from the provincial department show that as of Jan 27, a total of 33.45 million visits made by tourists were registered in the province, up 28.86 percent year-on-year from 2022.

100m railway trips

China saw railway passenger journeys climb 48.7 percent year-on-year to more than 100 million after Spring Festival, as the country's shift in COVID-19 response unleashed pent-up travel demand. A total of 102 million trips were made by train between Jan 22 and Feb 1; 33.51 million more than the same period of 2022, data from China State Railway Group show. The company said an average of 9.31 million passenger trips were made daily throughout the period, about 90 percent of the level in 2019.

Mine-turned-resort

A new leisure tourist resort is to be developed on an abandoned coal mine. Wangping is scheduled to start construction this year in western Beijing, according to the Beijing Commission of Development and Reform. The mining area, covering 2.95 million square meters, was put into operation in 1958 and halted in 1994. It was officially shut down in 2016. The new resort will make full use of its industrial heritage and historical buildings, melding art and technology, industry and fashion, tourism and culture, said an official from the commission. The project is part of a bigger plan, where a 33.4-kilometer railway will link tourist destinations including three other transformed coal mines.

Xinhua - China Daily