Folk-custom activities, short-distance trips favored during holiday

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, is a traditional and statutory holiday which originated in China. It is held to remember the ancient poet Qu Yuan. 

It's celebrated in many traditional – and not so traditional ways – across the country

Aerial photo taken on May 27, 2017 shows a dragon boat competition in Ningguo City of Xuancheng, east China's Anhui Province. Sixteen teams took part in the competition on Saturday. [Photo: Xinhua/Li Bo]

In the west of Jiangxi Province, people hold traditional Dragon-boat races, and lively percussion performances.

You'll also find children in Jiujiang city painting eggs by hand, as symbols of health and good, a tradition that goes back almost a thousand years. 

"When I was little, my parents would weave this kind of bag for me. They would dye the eggs with red paper to represent different blessings for us. Now, the children use differently colored pens to draw different colors, which also represent different blessings and meanings,” said Xiong Fang, a local resident.

Children show "zongzi", a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, in Zigui County of central China's Hubei Province, May 26, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua/Xiong Qi]

In the city of Bijie, southwest China's Guizhou Province, local community members made 400 rice dumplings, a staple treat of the festival, for older people who can't work or lack financial support. 

Apart from getting involved with charming cultural traditions, many people this year have decided to take a short-distance trip.

"After the Dragon Boat Festival, people have to wait until October 1st for the next holiday. As the interval is long, lots of people come to our travel agency for consulting, because they want to make full use of this 3-day holiday. But tourists need to be aware that accommodation and ticket prices for some tourist attractions will be adjusted during the holiday,” said a travel agent in Sucheng City, in east China's Jiangsu Province.

According to the National Tourism Administration, China is expecting to see around 80 million visitor trips during the holiday.

A dragon dances with a shark underwater in an amazing show to celebrate the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, at the Yantai Haichang Whale Shark Aquarium in east China's Shandong province, May 27, 2017. [Photo: VCG]

The domestic tourism sector could gross over four billion US dollars over the three-days from May 28th to 30th.

One survey shows that excursions to suburban areas is a top choice for most Chinese travellers.

The cities of Xi'an, Chengdu, Suzhou and Guilin are the most popular destinations in terms of domestic trips.

To meet the needs of the surging number of travellers, the country's transport system has already made comprehensive preparations.

"To ensure all the visitors can get on their way, we've added another 22 pairs of normal-speed trains, along with 41 pairs of high-speed trains. It's expected that at its peak there will be half a million people traveling, about 100,000 more than usual. Basically, we can meet the travel needs of passengers,” said Guo Xuehua, the deputy director of the passenger traffic department of the Nanchang Railway Bureau.