Chongqing-style hot pot  Photos: VCG

"I have never seen so many tourists in Chongqing before, and the number of tourists visiting major scenic spots well exceeded the number seen during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays in October 2023," a driver surnamed Zhang who works for an online ride-hailing app told the Global Times. 

On a separate trip to the renowned Hongyadong scenic area located in the Yuzhong district in Chongqing, the Global Times reporter observed a crowd of tourists flocking to the scenic spot to secure the best locations for taking photos. 
 
Standing on the congested streets near Hongyadong, the Global Times reporter also witnessed a wide range of vehicles from diverse regions across the country such as from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and South China's Guangdong Province, driving on the streets. 

The travel orders for Chongqing on domestic booking platforms surged 91 percent year-on-year, with the orders recording an annual growth of 306 percent, local news outlet Chongqing Daily reported. 

People perform a fire dragon dance on the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Feb 9, 2024. Photo:Xinhua

Similar scenes were seen in Quanzhou city, southern Fujian. The local cultural tourism has been gaining more popularity, which further bolstered tourism-related businesses, a local ride-hailing driver surnamed Wang told the Global Times. 

Wang said that he has been working day and night during the long holidays. "I have my breakfast at 6:30 in the morning and don't even have time for a sip of water until 5 pm." 

Meanwhile, many tourists have rushed to the Shaxian county in Sanming city, Fujian - which is well-known for its Shaxian delicacies. 

Chen Xiangyong, a tourist from South China's Hainan Province, told the Global Times that he and his family specifically came to Shaxian for local delicacies, and tried out various kinds of local cuisine. He also thumbed up for convenient local transportation facilities. 

Originating from a small county with a population of about 230,000, Shaxian delicacies have swept across city streets in China since the 1980s, with locals traveling afar setting up family-run outlets. 

Shaxian delicacies, dubbed as the Chinese McDonald's-like food chain, has gained popularity and emerged as one of the county's leading cuisines with great varieties and widely acclaimed flavors and reasonable prices, including dishes such as peanut butter noodles, wontons filled with juicy meat, fried rice noodles and meat soup.

Data showed that the number of visitors to key cultural tourism attractions in China has reached 123 million, an increase of 22.8 percent over the same period of 2023, which also demonstrates the strength of this year's chunyun, or the Spring Festival travel rush.

Observers expected the consumption boom during the Spring Festival holidays will play a vital role in boosting China's economic development in the first quarter of 2024, and the bustling start to the new year will pave the way for economic development throughout the year of the dragon.

People have a family reunion dinner in Huangtian Village of Yongchun County, Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, Feb. 9, 2024. People across the country enjoy the festive atmosphere with family reunion dinners on the eve of Chinese Lunar New Year on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

All-round upgrades 

Driven up by the growing market demand, both Chongqing and Shaxian county have ramped up efforts to advance their corresponding industrial development, which significantly elevate local appeal for domestic and international sightseers.   

The expansion of the Shaxian delicacies has helped improve local industrial integration and all-round development, as more than 88,000 Shaxian eateries have been opened across China. The output for the food processing industry exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in 2022,  Wang Jianyun, deputy director of the Shaxian snack industry development center, told the Global Times. 

Wang added that the operation of a local cultural district themed around Shaxian delicacies went into full swing, while the whole Shaxian county now attracts more than 5 million visitors annually. The added value of local tertiary industry, including logistics and distribution, food processing and tourism, exceeded 12 billion yuan.

Wang noted that local authorities have strengthened professional guidance and financial support to involved enterprises and other market participants. 

The Chongqing municipal government in January released a guideline to promote high-quality development of the local hotpot industry covering 11 aspects, which has set up the goal of achieving an industrial output value of 500 billion yuan by 2027, with a slew of measures taken to back up the development for the whole industrial and supply chains. 

Currently, more than 30,000 hot pot stores operate in Chongqing city, and the output value of the whole industry chain exceeded 300 billion yuan last year, according to media reports.