Govt institutions open up facilities to tourists

An increasing number of government institutions are opening up their parking spaces and facilities free to tourists during holidays.

About 782 million people traveled during the recent National Day holiday, with 30.5 percent doing so by car, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Multiple provinces have encouraged government organs and institutions to open parking spaces to the public during the nonwork periods.

Government institutions, including those in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province; Chaozhou, Guangdong province; Dujiangyan, Sichuan province; and Quzhou, Kaihua and Qiandaohu in Zhejiang province opened up their restrooms as well as their parking, dining and water facilities to visitors. They also set up places for tourists to enjoy local culture and purchase special local products.

During the holiday, institutions in Chaozhou, including schools and government organs, provided 2,149 parking spaces.

Quzhou also provided spaces for about 3,500 cars, which helped alleviate traffic pressure during the holiday, according to Beijing News.

The Yangzhou city government opened its internal parking lots and canteen for free during the three statutory holidays in China: Qingming Festival in April, May Day holiday in May and National Day holiday in October.

Meng Qingguo, a professor at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, said that allowing the public to use government facilities is a critical manifestation of the openness of government services.

He said government departments should allow the public to make use of their resources as long as doing so does not have an impact on the operation of administrative organs.

The government is providing more services to society because of the improvements in high-quality development and openness in past years, he said.