Curious tourists flock to Hangzhou

Visitors wait for a fountain show of light and music in Hangzhou.[Photo by Xu Kangping/For China Daily]

"We've never launched a one-day Hangzhou tour before. The tour product was created upon consumers' request, and the 200 openings were snapped up quickly," said Xu Xiao, a tour guide in Shangrao, Jiangxi province, with Shanghai Wenrui International Travel Agency.

"The information about this new route to Hangzhou published on our company's WeChat platform was viewed more than five times the aver-age. We estimate that the route will be popular for at least half a year," she added.

Xu guided a tour of about 100 people from Shangrao to Hangzhou on Friday. She said most of the visitors had been to Hangzhou before, but they wanted to watch the performance based on the G20 gala.

Security guards at the scene said more than 100,000 people watched the performance during the national holiday from Thursday through Saturday.

"Hangzhou was overloaded with tourists on those days, and we had a hard time finding a seat in the restaurant and a parking place," said Xu. "We intended to watch another fountain show with lights and music after dinner, but we missed it because of traffic congestion."

Tao Jinxian was one of the tourists guided by Xu. She said there also was an amazing light show on both banks of the Ganjiang River, a major branch of the Yangtze River, in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, but the one in Hangzhou was different because the summit venue is in the background.