Dragon Boat tourists gladly bring wealth to Zhuhai

More than 577,100 tourists (up 25 percent from last year), 199,000 of whom stayed overnight (a rise of 15.4 percent), spent 451 million yuan ($66 million) during the May 28-30 Dragon Boat Festival holiday, according to the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau.

Jinwan District proved to be the most popular, drawing in some 80,000 visitors. Some 30,000 were attracted to Golden Beach, where a carnival featuring intangible cultural heritages such as the Sanzao Crane Dance and Sanzao Weaving were held. Long-popular lion and dragon dances were also staged.

Dragon dance at Golden Beach in Jinwan [Photo by Zhang Zhou / Zhuhai Daily]

Huatian Water Village, Silver Beach, AVIC Flight Club (AVICLUB), and Green Home scenic spot recorded nearly 10,000 visitors. In the meantime, Yangguangzui Beach in Sanzao Town, the beach to the east gate of Jilin University, Haicheng Village, and Sanban Village chalked up 40,000 arrivals.

One of the highlights came on May 30 when Qi'ao Island in the Zhuhai Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (Tangjiawan) hosted the opening ceremony for the 8th Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival. Festivities coincided as usual with the Qi'ao Dragon Boat Festival Blessings Parade.

Activities such as the presentation of certificates to seventh-batch intangible cultural heritage inheritors, an intangible cultural heritage performance, provincial folk customs photography exhibition, and municipal intangible cultural heritage exhibition were also held. The most appealing was the Qi'ao Blessings Parade, which was designated as a municipal intangible cultural heritage item in 2013.

Thanks to improved facilities and a greater range of activities, the number of visitors to Guishan Island was also on the rise, with guests enjoying sightseeing, cycling, and homestays.

Visitors also toured around Zhuhai downtown areas on tour buses, pulling up at sights such as Lovers Avenue, the Zhuhai Grand Theatre, Love Post Office, City Parlor, Xianglu Bay, Fenghuang Bay Beach, and Haibin Park.