Shanghai attracts millions of visitors during Qingming holiday

With vibrant spring scenery and a diverse range of cultural tourism activities on offer across the city, Shanghai received over 7 million tourists during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, which ended on Sunday.

The city's main tourist attractions drew 4.57 million visitors, growing 14 percent year-on-year. Also, the city saw a thriving cultural tourism market, with consumption transactions totaling 11.72 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) over the holiday period, up 6.4 percent year-on-year, official data shows.

Among the landmark tourist attractions, The Bund, which is a must-see destination to admire the city's night scene along the Huangpu River, received over 328,000 visits cumulatively, an increase of 3.5 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, large crowds of young tourists flocked to the Hengfu historical block to check out the historic Wukang Building. The block welcomed 210,900 visits during the holiday and kept its popularity among Thai and South Korean tourists. Other cultural tourism destinations such as Shanghai International Resort, Century Park, Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai L+SNOW Indoor Skiing Theme Resort, have also exploded in popularity.

In addition to the landmarks, the vibrant spring flowers across the city were also drew massive number of visitors. The Shanghai Cherry Blossom Festival introduced a nighttime cherry blossom viewing activity for the first time, while other festivals also immersed visitors with rape flowers, peonies and peach blossoms.

Meanwhile, diverse activities such as the Doraemon exhibition, street musical performances, markets and pop-up events in shopping malls, theme parks, as well as leisure and cultural blocks also injected momentum into the city's cultural tourism consumption during the holiday. While the Shanghai Disney Resort attracted more families, Shanghai Happy Valley received over 60,000 visits with a cultural festival blending traditional Chinese culture and modern fashions.