For Chinese people, the Spring Festival marks the best occasion for “all things change from old to new and make a good beginning”. In the just-concluded eight-day holiday celebrating the Chinese Year of the Dragon, Qingdao has welcomed a total of 3.7571 million tourists, surging by 118.83% year on year.

Well sought after in the Spring Festival holiday, Qingdao’s historical urban area was packed with people and full of hustle and bustle. In the Dabao Island new spring fair, traditional performances such as dragon dance, lion dance, Quyi shows, face-changing and fire-spitting have won a continuous outburst of applause, and increased human touch in the century-old street. The Yinyu Alley filled up with festive atmosphere is a gathering place of youth. A cup of coffee and a plate of delicious food can instantly make emotional value fulfilled. In the eight-day-long holiday, the historical urban area was visited by a daily average of 550,000 people. The highest number of visitors on a single day has amounted to 750,000, 2.5 times as many as the level last year.

In the holiday, citizens and tourists one after another hurried to keep an early spring appointment: that was strolling around the Zhanqiao Pier to meet seagulls, their old friends flying all the way from Siberia. The Xinzheng Folk Custom and Culture Fair in Tianhou Temple appealed to young and old to try handcrafts listed as intangible cultural heritage, play traditional folk games and pray for New Year blessings. In the ancient city of Jimo where red lanterns hung in the air, tourists either rang bells for New Year blessings or watched local operas to feel cultural connotation. People strolled around markets and tasted snacks in Taidong Pedestrian Street. From an aerial view at nighttime, streets and alleys, which look like the Milky Way, put urban vitality and prosperity into spotlight.

It is always advocated to climb famous mountains to pray for New Year blessings. Thanks to its unique natural endowments and traditional culture, the Laoshan Mountain Scenic Spot has launched a wide range of cultural activities and draw 200,000 tourists from across the country. People laughed heartily in the snow amusement park and the carnival in the Qingdao World Horticultural Expo Park.

(Ma Xiaoting)

In the Year of the Dragon Spring Festival, citizens and tourists experience a distinct charm stemming from the integration of traditional Festival and modern trends. By Zhao Jianpeng