Chongqing to pull in crowds for May Day holiday

Chongqing, a southwestern metropolis of more than 30 million people, is anticipating a huge influx of tourists over the coming May Day holiday after becoming one of the country's hottest travel destinations.

Chongqing Daily reported that based on the data from Meituan, a major services platform in China, Chongqing, Xi'an, Changsha, Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao, Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou are the country's 10 top destination cities.

Tourism this May Day holiday — which falls this year from April 29 to May 3 — is expected to boom now that epidemic controls have been eased, with hotels already sold out in advance and outbound group trips fully booked, according to data from various travel service platforms.

Domestic bookings for the five-day holiday on Meituan increased 200 percent compared to 2019, the highest figure in five years, while Chongqing has seen the bookings up by 350 percent.

The mountainous city became the fourth national municipality after Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin in 1997 and is bordered by the Yangtze and Jialing rivers.

Many visitors are drawn by its delicious food and distinctive scenery, but its futuristic skyline and 3,000 years of history, and preservation of local culture and lifestyles have all helped make it a popular destination in recent years.

Home to the most hotpot restaurants in the country, Chongqing was named "China's hotpot city" by the China Cuisine Association in 2007.

Bian Guyue, a college student from the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, plans to travel to the city with her family during the holiday.

"Chongqing is a magical city with an interesting soul," she said. "I want to try delicious local food and ride the famous monorail trains."

In recent years, Chongqing has launched a series of measures to ensure visitors have a good time during major holidays, including shutting down traffic on a major bridge across the Jialing River and temporarily turning it into a pedestrian bridge so that visitors can enjoy the view unmolested.

City residents also receive text messages from the public security bureau and tourism committee suggesting they avoid visiting popular scenic spots to ease traffic and make room for visitors. Such considerate measures have gone viral and been welcomed by tourists, and many netizens now refer to Chongqing as one of "the most hospitable cities in China".

According to statistics from the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Culture and Tourism, in the first quarter of 2023, the city's 120 A-level tourist attractions received a total of 30.219 million tourists.