E-commerce

Bookings for trips during the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday, also known as the Spring Festival holiday, continue to soar on online travel platforms. Statistics from e-commerce service platforms Meituan and Dazhong Dianping indicated that tour orders booked half a month in advance for the holiday increased about five times year on year, with Beijing, Shanghai, Sanya, Harbin, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Xishuangbanna, and Beihai becoming popular tourist destinations. Tourists play at an ice-and-snow carnival held at a scenic area in north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee) Data from online travel agency LY.com revealed that searches for flights from Feb. 8 to 17 rose nearly two times year on year. In particular, the search volume for outbound flight tickets increased about seven times from the same period last year, surpassing the 2019 level. The search volume for "where to go for the Spring Festival" surged 350 percent in the past week on Chinese travel service and social networking platform Mafengwo. Traditional Spring Festival customs like lantern shows, temple fairs, and markets have long been main themes for Spring Festival tourism. Alibaba's travel platform Fliggy showed that cultural tours, folk custom tours and theme park tours are popular…

Photo shows calligraphy brushes from Wengang township, Jinxian county, Nanchang city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Wu Siyu) With a population of less than 50,000, Wengang township in Jinxian county, Nanchang city, east China's Jiangxi Province produced 820 million calligraphy brushes in 2023, with a total output value of 2.32 billion yuan ($319.5 million). In the same year, the sales revenue of calligraphy brushes and related cultural products reached 8.25 billion yuan. Photo shows calligraphy brushes from Wengang township, Jinxian county, Nanchang city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Wu Siyu) A craftsman makes a calligraphy brush in Wengang township, Jinxian county, Nanchang city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Liu Lixin) Wengang has a long history of producing calligraphy brushes. Introduced during the Eastern Jin Dynasty 1,600 years ago, the craft of making calligraphy brushes took root in Wengang and flourished. By the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Wengang calligraphy brushes became a local tribute to the imperial court. A craftsman makes a calligraphy brush in Wengang township, Jinxian county, Nanchang city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Liu Zhankun) Li Xiaoping works on a calligraphy brush in Wengang township, Jinxian county, Nanchang city, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Liu Lixin) Photo shows a calligraphy brush culture museum in…