Spring blossoms attract holiday visitors, travel agencies say

Short trips to admire the beauty of spring flowers were popular among Chinese during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, which lasted from Sunday to Tuesday, according to travel agencies.

A report released on Tuesday by leading online travel agency Ctrip showed that people were keen to take short trips around their home cities to enjoy spring blossoms during the three-day holiday.

In cities like Beijing and Chongqing, short trip packages to suburban areas or city outskirts with blossom-viewing opportunities were among the best-selling, the report said.

Apart from seasonal flowers like cole flowers and sakura, peach flowers also attracted lots of attention, thanks to Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, a TV serial romance that has gone viral recently among young people.

Ctrip's finding was echoed in a report by online travel agency lvmama.com, which found that people were passionate about spring outings during the holiday, due to the sunny and warm days. Bookings of short trips on Lvmama tripled that from the same period last year.

The report also found that apart from some traditionally hot tourism destinations, like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, other major cities, including Nanjing and Suzhou of Jiangsu province, Hangzhou of Zhejiang province and Wuhan of Hubei province, also attracted large numbers of tourists during the holiday.