A three-day food festival held at Ueno Park in Tokyo, Japan has featured specialty dishes from various regions of China, attracting swaths of curious visitors eager to expand their palates.
According to the organizers, the event presented the offerings of 14 Chinese restaurants and 16 Japanese restaurants, as well as five other businesses.
The specialty Chinese dishes at the festival covered the country's diverse culinary spectrum, from the mutton kebab of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to the big steamed stuffed buns from east China's Shandong Province, and the Peking roast duck of the Chinese capital.
"I'm about to start tasting. I usually love to eat xiaolongbao (steamed soup dumplings), dumplings, and Hong Kong-style dim sum," said a Japanese local.
"I hope that through this grassroots exchange event, more Chinese guests will learn about our cuisine and it will also help enhance mutual understanding [between Chinese and Japanese peoples]. I also hope there will be more and more activities in the future," said Kazuhiko Tsuna, owner of a Japanese restaurant.
Alongside the delicious food, cultural performances presented by both Chinese and Japanese artists also provided entertainment for visitors.
A photo exhibition featuring a pair of beloved giant pandas who long inhabited Tokyo's Ueno Zoo -- Shin Shin and Ri Ri -- also attracted many visitors. The bears returned to China for medical treatments on Sunday.
China's diverse culinary delights on offer at food festival in Tokyo
China is expecting a surge in outbound trips during the upcoming week-long National Day holiday and an even greater increase of 60 percent in inbound travels thanks to the country's 144-hour visa-free transit policy.
The National Day holiday, which starts Oct 1 and is known as 'Golden Week', is one of China's biggest annual public holidays.
According to the data from Qunar, a leading Chinese online travel platform, the placed orders for flights and hotels for the holiday have covered 1,597 cities in 144 countries.
Among the destinations, most are within the five-hour flight, with Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and Osaka at the top.
The Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region estimates that about 10.03 million people will enter the city by sea, land and air from Sept 28 to Oct 7, and the Hong Kong Airlines will handle 14 percent more passengers than in the same period last year.
In the meantime, the declining ticket prices due to the rapid resumption of international flights will also lead to a higher number of long outbound trips during the holiday, with African countries claiming more than half of the newly added destinations.
"Many popular long-haul tourism products for the holiday to Europe, the Middle East and Africa have been sold out over one month ahead. The sales of tickets for flights to Egypt, Türkiye, Hungary and Kenya have increased by more than three times year on year," said Teng Hao, a senior researcher.
At present, foreign nationals from 54 countries such as the United States, Canada, and Britain are eligible for the 144-hour visa-free policy at 37 entry ports across China for the purpose of short-term activities such as travel and business visits.
In addition, traditional tourism cities such as Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong, Xi'an in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, and Zhangjiajie in the central province of Hunan, have constantly increased international flight routes to attract more foreign tourists.
Zhangjiajie's sources of tourists have increased from 133 countries and regions in 2019 to the current 171 countries and regions.
"We are from Thailand. Zhangjiajie is a natural world heritage site with a breathtaking scenery. Each tour group has 35 members. We came together in five groups with more than 100 people," said a tour guide from Thailand.
"The Zhangjiajie port has been hustling since the Mid-Autumn Festival, with around 1,200 people entering the city per day. Based on the current trend, this figure is expected to rise to around 1,500, an increase of 20 percent," said Zhuo Xing, a border inspection officer at the port.
China expects surges in entry-exit trips during upcoming National Day holiday
