Further south, in Foshan, a city renowned for its martial arts legacy and Cantonese cuisine, international tourists arrived in impressive numbers.

　　"This year, foreign visitors and tour groups booked our New Year"s Eve dinner well in advance to experience the traditional, lively holiday atmosphere," said Liang Weimian, a restaurant manager, noting that reservations for dinner tables were fully booked nearly a month earlier than in previous years.

　　In the eastern city of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, travel agencies reported a 20 percent increase in bookings for foreign-language guides compared with last year.

　　Local authorities also introduced new routes linking major attractions, allowing visitors to experience the festive charm in the water town, where they can participate in making intangible cultural heritage handicrafts and savor local traditional delicacies.

　　In late 2024, UNESCO inscribed "Spring Festival, social practices of the Chinese people in celebration of the traditional New Year" on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

　　The National Immigration Administration earlier projected that daily inbound and outbound traveler numbers will average 2.05 million throughout the holiday period, a 14.1 percent increase from last year.

　　Bookings from international travelers on Ctrip, one of China"s leading online travel platforms, rose significantly during the festival, with visitors from Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Russia leading the surge. In particular, Russian bookings alone jumped 471 percent from a year earlier.

　　According to Qunar, another major online travel platform, domestic flight bookings made by non-Chinese passport holders rose 20 percent year-on-year during the festival period, with trips spanning 102 cities nationwide.