A total of 1.19 million tourists visited Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, which ran from June 22 to 24, achieving a year-on-year increase of 34.3 percent, officials of the Liuzhou culture, radio, television and tourism bureau announced on June 24.

The city's tourism consumption value reached 916 million yuan ($127 million), an increase of 36.8 percent year on year. When compared to the same period in 2019, the number of tourists increased by 54.9 percent, and tourism consumption figures went up by 30 percent.

Liuzhou has become popular on the internet in recent years; enticing domestic and international tourists to come to the city to try its specialty: Liuzhou river snail rice noodles.

Although it continued to rain for several days during the holiday, the city's tourism surge did not decrease. Many tourists braved the rain to visit the Qingyun Market to feel Liuzhou's lively atmosphere and lined up to experience the water buses.

In addition to downtown Liuzhou, the appealing activities held in the city's counties also attracted tourists. Of note, 200 teams traveled to Rongshui Miao autonomous county to compete in a lusheng competition. This read pipe playing competition attracted 10,300 tourists on June 22, which indicates an increase of 151.22 percent year on year.

People wearing ethnic customs pose for a group photo in Liuzhou. [Photo by Liu Juncong/China News Service]