Tourists make up for lost time

People across the country hit the trail again, much to the relief of travel agencies, Yang Feiyue reports. 

Zhang Guangqi indulged his wanderlust with a vengeance after he got back on his feet from a COVID-19 infection. The Beijing resident boarded a plane to Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan province, on Dec 21, about a week after his full recovery.

"I just felt like I needed to get out of my apartment," says Zhang.

He was assured that he wouldn't catch the virus again, at least, in the near future, which convinced him to see other parts of the country.

After enjoying the sunlight, zoning out by the sea, soaking in the hot spring and savoring the distinctive local cuisine, Zhang went on with his journey, traveling to Guilin in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and then Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province, in the southwest of the country, to experience what those places had to offer.

He wrapped up his journey at the end of last month, just in time to celebrate the New Year with his friends in Beijing.

"We had a nearly five-hour hotpot dinner at Haidilao restaurant to usher in the New Year, and caught up with one another face-to-face," Zhang says. "Everything finally feels like it's getting back to normal."

Zhang is just one of many people whose wanderlust has been reignited by the relaxation of the country's travel controls that were put in place to curb the spread of the pandemic.

For the past New Year's Day holiday, a robust recovery took the tourism market by storm, as the major domestic online travel agency Trip.com Group saw nearly 60 percent of its customers purchase cross-provincial trips during the holiday, as opposed to 40 percent in the same period last year.