BEIJING: The “ice metropolis” of Harbin, the Snowy capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, attracted a file quantity of site visitors over the new 12 months vacation, many of them drawn by using the grand and difficult ice sculptures of its annual Ice and Snow competition.
The towering ice systems, illuminated in a outstanding array of lighting at night time, are built from ice blocks harvested from the frozen Songhua River close by.
This 12 months’s competition helped draw 3.05 million traffic to Harbin for the duration of the three-day New year vacation that ended on Monday, producing 5.91 billion yuan ($826 million) in tourism revenue, state media agency Xinhua said on Wednesday.
Those numbers exceeded the variety of pre-COVID visits in 2019.
Increase in the metropolis’s lodging and catering sectors all through the vacation length more than doubled from 2019, nearby newspaper Harbin every day said. The metropolis’s tourism branch attributed the increase to Harbin’s growing reputation on social media platforms, Xinhua stated.
The tourism boom befell as China’s services activity extended on the quickest pace in 5 months in December, lifting optimism within the sector to a three-month high.
Harbin’s government have rolled out sports to attract tourists such as live performances and live shows, subject matter parks and fireworks presentations, as well as improving dining, accommodation and buying services, Xinhua stated.
The Ice and Snow competition park acquired 163,200 visitors over the new 12 months vacations, over 5 instances greater than a yr in the past, with nearly 40% of these holiday makers visiting on New year’s Eve, Heilongjiang provincial tv said in a social media post.
That generated forty 6.18 million yuan in earnings, almost six times higher than a year in the past, the provincial tv station said.
Heilongjiang welcomed 6.619 million travelers over the three-day period, almost triple from a year ago, producing tourism revenue of 6.920 billion yuan, nearly five times the 12 months in the past discern, the station stated.
The town government introduced a unique public excursion, the Ice and Snow vacation, for friday, to coincide with the festival’s authentic opening.
The surge in home iciness tourism has benefited nearby groups in the zone. stocks of ChangBai Mountain Tourism Co, a journey provider agency based in northeast China, have soared with the aid of 26% in Shanghai buying and selling for the reason that remaining week of December, beating benchmark stocks.
China’s ‘ice city’ draws record tourists over New Year holiday
