Chongqing - Statistics from Chongqing municipal culture and tourism authorities show that the city's A-level scenic areas received a total of 4.36 million tourist visits during the now concluded three-day Qingming holiday, bouncing back to 83.4% of the pre-pandemic level in 2019. What's more, the number of bed & breakfast tourists also returned to 97.5% of the pre-pandemic level in 2019.

Also widely known as Tomb Sweeping Day, the traditional Chinese festival of Qingming (lit. pure and brightness in Chinese) falls on April 4 this year. Together with the preceding weekend, the Qingming Festival granted a combined three-day holiday to the hardworking Chinese people.

However, since the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't been cleared in most parts of the world and has actually seen a new surge of cluster cases in the southwestern Yunnan Province, residents are still encouraged to spend the holiday within the city.

During the holiday, the Zhuoshui scenic spot in Southeast Chongqing's Qianjiang District received a total of 36,000 tourist visits; the Small Three Gorges scenic spot in Northeast Chongqing's Wushan County received a total of 33,000 tourist visits; the karst scenic spot in Southeast Chongqing's Wulong District received a total of 23,000 tourist visits; the Changshou Lake scenic spot in West Chongqing's Changshou District received a total of 12,200 tourist visits; the Hongya Cave scenic spot in downtown Chongqing received a total of 24,100 tourist visits.

Many of the city's red tourist areas, which focus on historical sites associated with the Communist Revolution, also saw swarms of visitors paying respect to martyrs and attending memorial ceremonies during the three days. For instance, the five red tourism hotspots of Chongqing Gele Mountain Martyrs Cemetery, Chongqing Hongyan Revolutionary Memorial Hall, the Former Residence of Yang An'gong in Tongnan, Youyang Nanyaojie Red Tourism Classic Scenic Area, and the Tongliang Qiu Shaoyun Memorial Hall saw 73,000, 19,000, 14,000, 14,100, and 7,000 tourist visits respectively.

The various literary and artistic institutions, theater companies, and performance troupes were also dedicated to bringing citizens a unique Qingming Festival with cultural deposits. On April 5, the last day of the three-day holiday saw a "Glorious Kangjian House" themed academic seminar, which invited the country's top researchers on the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression war drama specialists to supervise and contribute ideas.

The city's 43 public libraries and 41 cultural centers provided online services better to facilitate people's needs during the Qingming Festival. A total of 115,400 on-site visits and 229,600 online inquires were recorded during the time period. Some 200,000 residents have participated in a total of 106 online and offline cultural activities held in the counties and districts of Chongqing.

In order to attract more tourists, the city's official online culture and tourism general services platform, Huiyou Chongqing, integrated the discount information and promotion activities of more than 100 tourism companies ranging from scenic spots, hotels, restaurants to creative products manufacturers. Customers were able to snap up a five-star hotel booking with as much as a 71% discount, live in nearby inns of a national AAAAA scenic spot with less than 100 yuan per night, and purchase special-edition Chongqing cultural creative products with as low as 29.9 yuan.