The mainland saw 344 million domestic tourist trips during the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday, a rise of 13.8 per cent from last year, and total tourism spending jumped 15.9 per cent, the China National Tourism Administration said. Many attractions were forced to restrict entrance because there were too many visitors to handle. The Shanghai Disney Resort was forced to cancel on-site ticket sales twice during the holiday, which began on January 27. Zhangjiajie in Hunan province was so overcrowded that the provincial tourism authority issued an urgent notice asking all tourist facilities not to oversell tickets. The Tianzhu Mountain park in Anhui, which has a capacity of 36,000 tourists a day, saw the actual number reach 850,000 on the first day of the Year of the Rooster, Xinhua reported. Tourism and sightseeing have become the way to celebrate the Lunar New Year for many Chinese families, along with the traditional banquets and fireworks.
