In the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, Qingdao was well sought after tourists with traditional Chinese cultural elements. According to data, Qingdao is among the top 10 tourist destinations in China on Tuniu, an online travel platform in China, the top 10 inbound tourist destinations on C-trip and is the third most popular Chinese city on Tujia homestay platform.

Quite a few foreign tourists spent the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in Qingdao. As shown by data from C-trip, the number of bookings for inbound destined for Qingdao in the holiday saw a year-on-year increase of 21%. The bulk of foreign tourists are from the US, the UK, Australia, South Korea and Malaysia.

Citizens and tourists began the holiday by taking a stroll in the Dabaodao Cultural Leisure Block. Then they came to the Qingdao Liyuan Memory Museum to learn from professional teachers how to perfume satchels, wormwood pendants and other handcrafts listed among intangible cultural heritage. The event themed “Our Dragon Boat Festival-Colored Woven Bracelet Knitting”, which took place in the Museum of the Former German Governor’s House in Qingdao, has drawn the participation of enthusiastic citizens and tourists. Staff members in the museum patiently explained knitting methods and asked citizens and tourists to experience Dragon Boat Festival culture.

The Mangrove Tree Resort World Qingdao launched a variety of “immersive” Chinese folk-custom activities. Intangible cultural heritage programs, folk Chinese culture-themed fairs, performances on traditional Chinese culture and hair flower parades were put on one after another. A Dragon Boat race on land was held in the Qingdao Mingyue Shanhaijian Resort Area, where tourists could personally see Chinese customary rites on the Dragon Boat Festival. More than 30 kinds of handicrafts listed among intangible cultural heritage including Jimo lacework, Daou bird cages, which were put on display in the Jimo ancient city, captured the attention of citizens and tourists.

The Laoshan Mountain Scenic Area, where Dragon Boat festival activities such as making Zongzi (traditional Chinese rice-pudding) and perfume satchels, and drawing with realgar on forehead were spoken highly of among tourists, welcomed a total of 117,000 tourists in the three-day-long holiday, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%.  (Ma Xiaoting)

The old urban area of Qingdao was packed with people in the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. By Liu Dong