'Cyberstar' cities pulling in the crowds

Another report, by the China Tourism Academy, showed that 415 million trips were made by Chinese during Spring Festival this year. Of these, the number made to Chongqing ranked eighth nationwide, according to the report, which did not provide specific figures.

Covering 80,000 square kilometers, one-third the land area of the United Kingdom, Chongqing was the only municipality in China to make the top 10 on the list. All the other top 10 destinations were large provinces such as Guangdong (180,000 sq km), Sichuan (480,000 sq km), Hunan (210,000 sq km) and Guangxi (240,000 sq km).

Statistics from the Xi'an culture and tourism bureau show that domestic and international travelers made some 2.5 billion trips to the city last year, a rise of 36.7 percent year-on-year. The city's tourism revenue last year reached 255 billion yuan ($38 billion), a year-on-year rise of 56.4 percent.

Jia Linlin, director of the tour guide management department at major online travel agency Ctrip, said its bookings for trips to Xi'an reached 30,000 last year, double the number in 2017, when the city had yet to become an "internet celebrity".