Spring Festival holiday boosts tourism

With fast increases in personal wealth and a growing middle class, many Chinese have chosen to spend the ongoing Spring Festival holiday making tours with families. Thanks to its tropical beaches and lush forests, the country's southernmost Hainan province is always one of the most popular choices for Chinese travellers. Driven by the increasing number of travelers, the price of Hainan tours doubled during the week-long holiday, said Yang Jiezhen, manager of the Overseas International Travel Service Co. The Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower, the world's third tallest TV and ratio tower, received 22,000 visitors on Monday, representing a year-on-year increase of 16 percent. In addition to Hainan and Shanghai, Hangzhou in east China was another hot tourist destination. Its Lingyin Temple, one of the most famous Buddhist temples in China, received 58,200 tourists on Monday, up 38.9 percent year-on-year, and generated 1.31 million yuan (208,253 U.S. dollars) in revenue, up 36.1 percent from one year earlier, official data showed.