More than 2.79 million tourists visited Shanghai during the week-long Spring Festival holiday which began on Feb. 18, a year-on-year increase of 12.98 percent.

The huge influx of tourists brought the east China municipality 2.13 billion yuan (US$274 million) in tourism revenue from the Golden Week, sources from Shanghai Municipal Holiday Affairs Office said Saturday.

China extended the duration of the traditional Spring Festival or Chinese lunar new year, May Day and National Day holidays to seven days each in 1999, creating three Golden Weeks for tourism.

The Shanghai company of China Mobile monitored 1.95 million sets of incoming cell phones registered in areas outside Shanghai between zero hour on Feb. 17 through to zero hour on Feb. 24, a rise of 36.15 percent over the same period of the previous year.

In the meantime, the Shanghai company of China Unicom monitored 1.38 million sets of incoming cell phones registered outside Shanghai in the same period.

Different kinds of shows in the parks of Shanghai to celebrate the Chinese lunar new year, which falls on Feb. 18 this year, attracted many tourists.

On the other hand, many Shanghai citizens chose to spend their holiday in the suburban areas, where traditional customs for the new year are better kept, according to the municipal holiday affairs office.

Shanghai, which is situated at the estuary of the Yangtze River, is the financial and commercial hub of China. Tourists traveled to the city by highway, railway, air, sea or inland waterways.  

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2007)