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The “ice metropolis” of Harbin, the snowy capital of northeast China‘s Heilongjiang province, attracted a report variety of guests over the New Yr vacation, lots of them drawn by the grand and complicated ice sculptures of its annual Ice and Snow Competition.
The towering ice constructions, illuminated in a blinding array of lights at evening, are constructed from ice blocks harvested from the frozen Songhua River close by.
This 12 months’s pageant helped draw 3.05 million guests to Harbin in the course of the three-day New Yr vacation that ended on Monday, producing 5.91 billion yuan ($826 million) in tourism income, state media company Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
These numbers exceeded the variety of pre-COVID visits in 2019.
Development within the metropolis’s lodging and catering sectors in the course of the vacation interval greater than doubled from 2019, native newspaper Harbin Each day reported. The town’s tourism division attributed the expansion to Harbin’s rising recognition on social media platforms, Xinhua mentioned.
The tourism growth occurred as China’s companies exercise expanded on the quickest tempo in 5 months in December, lifting optimism within the sector to a three-month excessive.
Harbin’s authorities have rolled out actions to draw vacationers together with stay performances and concert events, theme parks and fireworks shows, in addition to enhancing eating, lodging and purchasing companies, Xinhua mentioned.
The Ice and Snow Competition park acquired 163,200 guests over the New Yr holidays, over 5 instances greater than a 12 months in the past, with virtually 40% of these vacation makers visiting on New Yr’s Eve, Heilongjiang provincial tv mentioned in a social media put up.
That generated 46.18 million yuan in earnings, practically six instances larger than a 12 months in the past, the provincial TV station mentioned.
Heilongjiang welcomed 6.619 million vacationers over the three-day interval, practically triple from a 12 months in the past, producing tourism income of 6.920 billion yuan, virtually 5 instances the 12 months in the past determine, the station reported.
The town authorities introduced a particular public vacation, the Ice and Snow Vacation, for Friday, to coincide with the pageant’s official opening.
The surge in home winter tourism has benefited native firms within the sector. Shares of ChangBai Mountain Tourism Co, a journey service firm based mostly in northeast China, have soared by 26% in Shanghai buying and selling because the final week of December, beating benchmark shares.
($1 = 7.1558 yuan)