Festive vibes envelop China ahead of National Day

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The festive atmosphere across China is on the rise as roads, scenic spots, and landmarks are decorated with red flags, creating splendid scenes that attract flows of tourists ahead of the National Day.

China's National Day falls on Oct 1 and the National Day holiday lasts from Oct 1 to 7. 

The seven-day holiday also gives the Chinese a break to travel around the country to enjoy beautiful sceneries and entertain themselves.

With the holiday approaching, China has already seen signs of rising travels. During a ten-day period from Sep 15 to 24, over 56 million tickets were sold to National Day holiday travelers, according to the data released by China Railway.     In Lanzhou, the capital city of northwest China's Gansu Province, streets and the Zhongshan Bridge, a landmark steel structure of the city, have been decorated with national flags and traditional lanterns.

"The streets are tinted red by national flages and the Zhongshan Bridge is decorated with lanterns, all these create a strong festive atmosphere," said Li Shengli, a tourist.

Even for those who travel to remote villages, the atmosphere is no less strong than the urban regions. In east China's Huangshan City, Anhui Province, the hundreds-year-old buildings along the ancient Tunxi street have been adorned with national flags, attracting flocks of tourists and locals.

"Walking on the ancient street and seeing the beautiful brightly red national flags, I wholeheartedly wish my country enjoy prosperity and people live in harmony," said Fang Ying, a tourist.

In Macao Special Administrative Region, national flags and holiday banners are seen all over the streets. The decorations stand for the city's best wishes for the motherland and for Macao to thrive in shared development with the mainland, accoring to a youth representative of Macao.  

"As the youth in Macao we are all thrilled at and proud of our country's development. I wish prosperity to the motherland and further development to Macao. I hope our country will march steadily towards national rejuvenation," said Jau Wing-hou, vice president of the Macao Youth Federation.

Festive vibes envelop China ahead of National Day

Greece is concerned that the recent escalation in the Middle East situation may trigger a new refugee surge to Europe, Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos said Thursday in Athens.

In an interview with China Media Group (CMG), Panagiotopoulos said Greece is paying close attention to the recent near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and the Hezbollah group in Lebanon. He expressed the Greek government's deep concerns over a potential Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon, which may risk dragging the entire Middle East into war and result in the exodus of illegal migrants and refugees from conflict-hit areas.

Greece, as the main point of entry for refugees fleeing into Europe, may bear the brunt of a potential migrant wave, he said.

"The dramatic turn of events in our wider region, like the escalation in Lebanon for example, would probably result in much bigger flows of refugees fleeing war zones. So, obviously, Greece will be affected," Panagiotopoulos said.

Should a refugee influx occur, the minister said, all members of the European Union should share the burdening of taking in the asylum seekers and set up a new mechanism to tackle the problem.

"There is a considerable increase [in] migration flows. That's for sure. I estimated that the flows are about 50 percent higher this year. As a transit country, as an entrance country to the European Union, all countries like Greece should engage in more comprehensive dialog in order to solve the problem. We have to act as one and not in unilateral ways," he said.

From the beginning of the year to Sept. 22, UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, had registered a total of 38,452 migrants and refugees in Greece - with nearly 90 percent of them arriving by sea, almost reaching the number reported in the entire year of 2023.

Greece concerned over refugee influx from in Middle East amid escalating situation: minister