Chinese tourists flock to cool resorts amid heatwaves

TAIYUAN, July 12 (Xinhua) -- A group of people from Beijing visited the Yungang Grottoes in north China's Shanxi Province, a world heritage site featuring Buddhist statues, this summer.

"We drove to Datong City two days ago to enjoy the pleasant weather and grand cultural heritage," said Wang Quanshun, one of the tourists.

The World Meteorological Organization said that El Nino conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years, setting the stage for a likely surge in global temperatures and disruptive weather and climate patterns.

In the first six days of July, Beijing has recorded two consecutive days of temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, which is very unusual.

But in Datong City, only a three-hour drive from Beijing, the average temperature in the hottest period of this summer is just around 26 degrees Celsius.

"Compared to the same period in 2019, the number of daily visitors has increased by nearly 50 percent," said Xia Lijun, a ticket seller at the Yungang Grottoes.

The continuous heatwaves are pushing the summer resort tourism to a higher level. The overall travel intention of high-temperature cities reached 94.6 percent in the third quarter, according to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

"After nearly a decade of development, summer resort tourism has entered a new stage of policy promotion and commercial practice," said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy.

Popular travel destinations are actively attracting tourists, pledging to meet their diversified needs.

Three renowned scenic spots in Datong are offering free entrance tickets to students from surrounding areas until the end of the third quarter. In Enshi, central China's Hubei Province, the local government has incorporated intangible cultural heritage elements at scenic spots, and launched regular performances and visitor experience programs, while Heilongjiang Province in northeast China has built a series of well-equipped campsites to attract self-driving tourists.

China's summer resort tourism and related markets have reached 1.2 trillion yuan (about 167 billion U.S. dollars) to 1.5 trillion yuan in value, according to a report released by the China Tourism Academy.