Nation's cool destinations have surged in popularity

As a summer heat wave bakes much of the Northern Hemisphere, travelers are fleeing sweltering cities in search of cooler escapes, with China's high-altitude plateaus, northern forests and mountainous retreats emerging as top destinations among domestic and foreign tourists alike, according to travel agencies.

Data from online travel platform Qunar shows that searches for keywords and phrases such as "escape the heat", "cool off" and "night tours" surged 230 percent month-on-month in July, while hotel bookings in popular "20 C cool zone" cities rose more than 50 percent year-on-year. Among the top 20 air routes with the fastest passenger growth this summer, nearly half are "cool-chasing" routes linking southern cities with popular summer retreats.

According to major Chinese online platform Meituan, searches for "surfing" increased 37 percent month-on-month in July, while searches for "diving" were up 28 percent and "sea fishing" 19 percent in that period.

The rush to escape the heat has also propelled lesser-known destinations into the spotlight. Data from Qunar shows that Zherong county in Fujian province, a summer retreat where air conditioning is rarely needed, saw hotel bookings surge more than tenfold year-on-year.

Furthermore, Yanshan county in Jiangxi province, nestled in the Wuyi Mountain National Park area with more than 60 percent forest coverage, recorded a threefold increase, mainly driven by visitors from the Yangtze River Delta region, according to Qunar. Changli county in Hebei province, a coastal getaway popular with residents of Beijing and Tianjin, entered the top 20 county-level destinations with the fastest tourism growth, while hotel bookings in the Changbai Mountain resort area in Fusong and Antu counties of Jilin province nearly doubled.

Travel platform Tuniu reported similar trends, with families traveling with children accounting for more than 65 percent of those trying to escape the summer heat. Major source markets include Beijing, Nanjing in Jiangsu province, Shanghai, Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Chengdu in Sichuan province, Tianjin, Wuhan in Hubei province and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province — all areas experiencing intense summer heat.

Popular destinations include Guiyang, Guizhou province; the Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture and Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region; Dalian, Liaoning province; Kunming, Dali and Lijiang in Yunnan province; and the Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province. These offer a combination of plateau climates, grassland scenery and mountain landscapes, the platform said.

Zou Jialing, a 35-year-old from Changsha, Hunan province, set off on July 11 with three other families in four vehicles, traveling west through Chongqing to the Xizang autonomous region and then on to Xinjiang.

"It's perfect for escaping the heat," she said. "On the Tibetan Plateau, it's mostly cold — you need a windbreaker. The roads are all paved now, making for a smooth drive, and the scenery is breathtaking."

Shi Xiao, a 26-year-old from Chongqing, spent a week traveling solo from Dali to Lijiang in Yunnan province starting July 28.

"It's very cool here, though the weather hasn't been great. Yunnan is in its rainy season," with temperatures around 20 C, she said. "Chongqing is scorching hot, and Yunnan is so cool and relaxing, making it a great place for a summer retreat."

While domestic travelers are leading the trend, China is also seeing a noticeable increase in foreign visitors seeking relief from summer heat.

According to Qunar, Swedish travelers purchased 3.3 times as many flight tickets to China in July as they did a year earlier, while the number of inbound visitors from southern European countries, such as Greece, tripled.

Meanwhile, tourists from Southeast Asia have fueled a "summer getaway" boom in Yunnan province. Since the start of summer, growing numbers of visitors from Southeast Asia have sought relief from the heat, boosting demand for destinations such as Lijiang and Kunming.

Qunar data shows that inbound travel bookings to Lijiang rose 120 percent year-on-year in July. The number of Vietnamese visitors to Lijiang jumped 450 percent, while those visiting Kunming increased 240 percent. Flight bookings from Singapore and Malaysia to Yunnan increased more than 40 percent.

According to the National Immigration Administration, China received 22.914 million inbound foreign visitors in the first half of the year, up 20.4 percent year-on-year.

Yin Ping, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University's School of Economics and Management, attributed the surge in inbound interest to four factors: the global extreme heat wave as a direct driver, China's continued visa facilitation policies that lower entry barriers, well-developed urban infrastructure that offers good value for money, and diverse cultural and tourism experiences that extend beyond simply escaping the heat.

"The trend is not fleeting. As China continues to open up and improve its inbound travel services, 'China Cool' will gradually evolve from a seasonal buzzword into a regular feature of cross-border tourism," she said.

zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn