Yesterday marked the end of May Day holiday. According to initial statistics from National Holiday Office, major tourist attractions and scenic spots received a total of 14 million travelers. The total earnings of entrance tickets alone are estimated to top 500 million-yuan.

The figure shows a big rise as compared with that of previous years with number of travel agencies and charter planes or trains set a record high in history.

Many cities promoted their tourism by taking the great advantage of the holiday. Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin province, received more than 100,000 travelers at its zoo and Nanhu Park.

Dalian earned 372 million yuan from travel, an increase of 39.2 percent over the same period of last year. In the meantime, major restaurants and foodstuff groups made 63.4 million-yuan in turnover, a rise of 13 percent. Star-scaled hotels registered 85 percent of occupancy.

The city of Nanjing made a profit of 1 billion yuan for the first time, an increase of 11 percent over the same period of last year. Hubei province made 560 million yuan, a rise of 26.3 percent.

Shenzhen received a total of 27.578 million people during the seven days, up 8.57 percent over the same period of last year with travel revenue to reach 1.8 billion-yuan.

Zhangjiajie, Zhouzhuang, Jinggang Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, Wuyi Mountain, Wutai Mountain, Putuo Mountain, Dunhuang Grottoes and other hot spots are on sustaining rise in traveler volume and tourists are satisfied with services in those tourist attractions. According to person in charge of the holiday office, traffic is still busy even on the last day of the week-long holiday. Flights and trains to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Harbin, Shenyang are still in short supply.

( People's Daily People's Daily May 9, 2002)