Harbin sees tourism boom during National Day holiday

Harbin in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province saw a surge in tourist revenue during the National Day holiday.

Dubbed the "Golden Week", the National Day holiday usually runs from Oct 1 to 7.

This year, the holiday was prolonged to eight days, as it coincided with Mid-Autumn Festival. The longer duration of the holiday enabled more people to take trips.

Statistics from Harbin tourism committee revealed that Harbin received 1.39 million tourists nationwide during the holiday, generating 1.88 billion yuan ($283.4 million) in revenue representing a year-on-year increase of 34.7 percent and 17.1 percent respectively.

Taiyang Island scenic area, Erlong Mountain scenic spot, Wanda City, Jinglong Mountain tourist holiday resort, as well as Poseidon Kingdom, were the most popular destinations in Harbin.

About half of the tourists were from Heilongjiang province, and tourists outside of Heilongjiang were mainly from Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Hebei, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces.

Some 281,000 one-day road trips were made during the holiday, with self-drive tours accounting for 26.8 percent, to hit a new record on the number of road trips and the rate of self-drive tours.

Railway transport still had the largest passenger flow, with tourist arrivals of 726,000 over eight-day period.