Tourism in China continued to boom throughout this year's week-long National Day holiday as major sites across the country tally staggering numbers of visitors from the first half of the vacation period.
The National Day holiday, which runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7 this year, is a peak travel and tourism season in China.
In the first four days of the holiday, the 11 parks and China Garden Museum in Beijing continued to see a surge in visitors, receiving a total of 2.58 million visitors. Among them, the average daily visitor flow of Beihai Park in the first four days reached nearly 70,000.
The Baishishan scenic spot in north China's Hebei Province has attracted many visitors with its peak forest landform, thrilling experience projects, and stunning autumn scenery. As of Oct. 4, the scenic area has served over 100,000 visitors.
Impressive drone shows have also been staged over Luohe City, central China's Henan Province, wowing the spectators. The formation displays a great variety of shapes to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
During this holiday, the Lushan Mountain scenic spot in Jiujiang City, east China's Jiangxi Province, entered its peak season for tourism, with over 730,000 visitors in the first four days, including 132,900 visitors to the core scenic area on the mountain.
To ensure a smooth experience during the area's peak tourism season, the scenic spot has implemented a series of measures such as increasing shuttle buses and extending operating hours to ensure a smooth experience for visitors.
At the same time, Wuyishan scenic spot in southeast China's Fujian Province witnessed a peak in visitor numbers during the holiday. To ensure a smooth and orderly tourism market, various departments in Wuyishan conducted coordinated patrols while also providing guidance services for parking.
In the first four days of the holiday, Wuyishan City received a total of 484,000 tourists, achieving a total tourism revenue of 588 million yuan (about 83 million U.S. dollars).
Five fashion shows on Yi embroidery, one of China's intangible cultural heritages, have been held each day during the holiday period by the Yi Embroidery Museum in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Yunnan Province, and visitors have been welcomed to enter the museum for free to watch. The prefecture received more than one million visitors in the first four days of the holiday.
Meanwhile, one of the highlights of the spectacular 2024 Shanghai International Light Festival was a nighttime parade on a pedestrian street themed around fantastical depictions of the Sanxingdui civilization, which thrived some 3,000 years ago and is famous for its unique bronze masks and artifacts. The parade has wowed audiences and received high praise.
Tourism continues to boom during National Day holidays
Tunisian on Friday voiced mixed expectations as they prepare to head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president from three candidates, including the incumbent Kais Saied.
Among the major issues facing voters is the state of the economy, but many said that they have already lost faith in the system and will not participate.
On July 25, 2021, Saied dismissed the government and suspended parliament.
Two years later, new members of parliament and of other political institutions were elected. Many voters believe that such political change was necessary to ensure much-needed social and economic reforms after the 2024 presidential elections.
"The Tunisian president has helped the Tunisian citizens in restoring their confidence by leading a war against monopolies and others which ruined our country's society. President Kais Saied supports the social role of the state by pushing for better projects," said Saber Jelassi, Tunisian member of parliament.
"We have been through a very tough period during the past few years, God willing we'll not experience it again, during that period our youths have suffered unemployment," said Sarra Jaffeli, a resident in the Tunis metropolitan area.
Many others, however, said that they feel disillusioned by all politicians and will not vote for any candidate on Sunday.
"Young people are only thinking about leaving the country. The young people do not care about presidential elections, they don't care who comes and who goes, they're leaving anyway because they don't see any future here," said Mehdi Ben Rached, a student.
Political analysts said the North African country has remained stable and safe, despite the various political, security and economic challenges.
"Tunisians today are looking for a concrete transformation in the country following deep political changes, aiming to apply it into an economic and social achievement. I believe this is the challenge of the next phase. It looks like the Tunisian people are going towards the continuity, but it's conditioned with improved livelihood, growth rates, economic indicators and acceleration in the pace of projects achievements," said Khalil Rekik, a political analyst.
The polling centers for the Tunisian presidential elections opened on Sunday in the 24 provinces of Tunisia, Tunisia's Independent High Authority for Elections said.
Voting started at 08:00 local time (0700 GMT) and will close at 18:00 local time (1700 GMT) at over 5,000 voting centers and more than 9,600 polling stations across the country.
More than 9.7 million people are eligible to elect a new president between three candidates: incumbent President Kais Saied, who is running for a second five-year term; Zouhair Maghzaoui, secretary-general of the People's Movement party; and Ayachi Zammel, secretary-general of the Azimoun Movement, who remains in detention for alleged election-related irregularities.
The final results of the presidential election are expected to be announced by Nov 9 at the latest.
Tunisia holds presidential elections every five years.
Voters voice hopes, doubts as Tunisia prepares for presidential elections
