Spring Festival injects hope for stellar economic year

BEIJING -- The week-long Spring Festival holiday, which ended Thursday, is an engine for consumption as well as a time for the Chinese to refresh and prepare for the Year of the Rooster.

Holiday economy

The number of visitors in Beijing's municipal parks hit a record high during the holiday, according to the municipal park administration center. Beijing's 11 municipal parks and a garden museum received 2.27 million visitors, 470,000 more than expected.

In previous years the parks were mainly visited by locals, while this year has seen more than 800,000 visits from tourists.

During the holiday, around 3,000 personnel were arranged to manage visitors to the parks. Sixty-six temporary ticket selling areas were added to meet demand.

Chinese people have become increasingly keen to travel, and 344 million tourist trips were made during the holiday, up 13.8 percent year-on-year.

China's tourism industry took 423.3 billion yuan ($61.6 billion) in revenue during the holiday, a year-on-year increase of 15.9 percent, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

Overseas travel has gained increasing popularity, with 6.15 million Chinese people traveling abroad during the holiday, up 7 percent year-on-year.

As a time for traditional family gathering, businesses do well over the holiday as people swarm to shops and restaurants.

Sales in the catering and retail reached 840 billion yuan during the holiday, up 11.4 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

Spring Festival is a great time for movie lovers as many movies are released over the holiday.

China's film market had box office takings of 3.347 billion yuan from Jan 27 to Feb 2, a new record, according to industry figures.

Back to work

The end of Spring Festival means the start of work for the new year, and many Chinese people have bid farewell to relatives in their hometowns and headed back to work.

Early on Thursday, migrant worker Wang Xinrun arrived at the station in Lingyun County in China's southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region to head back to work in Guangzhou city, Guangdong province.