Rural tourism rebounds in China with more packages, services during Qingming holiday

China saw a rebound in rural tourism over the three-day holiday for Tomb-sweeping Day, or Qingming Festival, offering travelers more packages and services.

During the holiday, rural areas in Beijing received 1.02 million tourists, a recovery to about 90 percent of the same period in 2019, and the city’s Miyun, Yanqing, and Huairou districts were the top three tourist destinations, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.

Aerial photo taken on April 4, 2021 shows tourist visiting a Chinese crabapple garden in Handan City, north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Hao Qunying)

Zou Lili, a Beijinger, and her family swept the tombs of their deceased relatives in a cemetery in Yanqing on April 3, the first day of the holiday. After that, they visited the Longqingxia valley scenic spot in the district and checked in to a rural homestay they had booked in advance. The family spent the entire holiday enjoying the blossoms, going sightseeing, and visiting rural fairs in Yanqing. “We enjoyed a leisurely trip,” Zou said.

Like Zou, the majority of tourists in Beijing combined tomb-sweeping with a spring outing and chose to book rural homestays or boutique hotels. They also showed a preference for in-depth and leisure tours in rural areas.

Zou Qingling, CEO of China’s online tour agency Lvmama.com, said there was higher demand from tourists for high-quality rural tourism products and services during the three-day holiday.

Beijing is a microcosm of the rural tourism rebound taking place across the whole country. To attract tourists with rural tourism products, local governments have rolled out a wider variety of products and services for tourists on parent-child trips and family trips, exploring agritainment, folk customs, and distinctive homestays.

Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong province, released the first list of 10 boutique homestay hotels in September last year. During this year's tomb-sweeping holiday, the homestays organized activities including rice transplanting, harvesting, and making green rice balls, a popular Qingming festival delicacy. These activities proved popular with tourists and also contributed to the business of nearby agritainment restaurants.

Leping city in east China's Jiangxi province, known as the home of China's ancient stages for opera performances, held a cultural festival featuring Ganju opera for visitors during the holiday. One stage for the performances of the local opera in the city received more than 10,000 tourists during the holiday.