Moon Cakes

[danb]

Hi Everyone!!  Happy Mooncake festival!!!  Aka,  Happi Mid-Autumn Festival!!!  I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  I wish I could be in China.  Enjoy!!  Danb.

[Randy W]

Mid_autumn Festival Lunar Month 8, day 15 - this year is May 29.

A woman dressed as Chang’e, goddess of the moon, performs at Wuhan Polar Haichang Ocean Park to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in Wuhan, Hubei province, Sept. 27, 2023. IC

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from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
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Edited September 29, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Amid the first Golden Week without travel restrictions, Chinese tourists are seizing the opportunity to explore the world: From nearby Asian hotspots to distant European locales.

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Golden Week: Chinese Tourists Flock to Destinations Near and Far
Amid the first Golden Week without travel restrictions, Chinese tourists are seizing the opportunity to explore the world: From nearby Asian hotspots to distant European locales.

Quote

 

This year’s Golden Week, running from Friday to Oct. 6, combines both the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, and is the first extended break in this season without pandemic-induced outbound restrictions. Amid the festivities, WeChat, China’s most popular social app, is awash with photos of travelers exploring overseas, from close locales like Japan and South Korea to farther destinations such as Australia and New Zealand.

Among the global destinations favored by Chinese travelers, Trip.com lists Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, and the United Kingdom as the top picks. Thailand, in particular, has become an even more attractive destination recently, particularly after the Thai government announced that Chinese tourists would be exempt from visa requirements for five months starting Sept. 25.

 

 

[Randy W]

Beijing Oct. 1, 2023

https://www.toutiao.com/video/7284841492756188479/?app=news_article&timestamp=1696156377&wxshare_count=1&tt_from=weixin&utm_source=weixin&utm_medium=toutiao_android&utm_campaign=client_share&share_token=f3197799-dbc5-49a1-a238-3e4e49d96129

 

 

 

 

 

[Randy W]

https://www.toutiao.com/video/7284988315525254434/?app=news_article&timestamp=1696201730&wxshare_count=1&tt_from=weixin&utm_source=weixin&utm_medium=toutiao_android&utm_campaign=client_share&share_token=a894bfd0-3def-4898-bd80-e2d014acb732
 

Wugongshan in Jiangxi

 

 

 

 

[Randy W]

Holiday tourism reached 753.43 billion yuan ($104.68) during the 8-day Mid-Autumn Festival & National Day holidays, up 1.5% from 2019.

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[Randy W]

China’s disappointing Golden Week holiday—the first after the end of COVID-zero—shows the country’s consumers are still holding back

from Fortune via Yahoo/Finance

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Data released by China’s culture and tourism ministry on Monday reported 826 million trips with a revenue of about $103 billion for the eight-day holiday period starting Sept. 29. The ministry said the figures represent a 4.1% increase in the number of trips and a 1.5% increase in tourism revenue compared to 2019.

The return in Golden Week consumption gives some "positive signals on some aspects like tourism spending, consumption, and retail sales," suggesting a "steady recovery of domestic consumption for this year,” Hunter Chan, a greater China economist at Standard Chartered, says.

Still, officials had hoped to see a larger recovery this year. Before the holiday began, officials forecast just under 900 million trips generating revenue of about $107 billion.

In 2019, the last Golden Week before the COVID pandemic disrupted travel, Chinese travelers made 782 million domestic tourism trips, according to China's tourism ministry.

International travel is also recovering but is still below pre-pandemic levels. Outbound travel was at 85% of 2019 levels, according to data from China’s National Immigration Administration. Travel to popular long-haul destinations like Switzerland, the UK, and France experienced the fastest growth compared to the earlier Labor Day holiday in May, according to data released by travel booking firm Trip.com.

A visa backlog and a lack of international flights are constraining the recovery in international travel, Boon Sian Chai, vice president of international markets for Trip.com Group, says. Flights to and from China are still not at pre-pandemic levels, while foreign countries have been slow to approve a flood of new visa applications from interested Chinese tourists.

While state media celebrated the "Golden Week" numbers, Chan is only cautiously optimistic about China's economy, noting weak consumption data in other areas, like box office revenue.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

Oh my God. This is how The Great Wall on Chinese National Holiday look like! So scary. Literally flooded with people. 
#ChinaTourwithCici  #chinatravel #china #Beijing #greatwall

from Cici Wang on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ciciwangqw/videos/264402696003917