HAIKOU ATTRACTS OVER ONE MILLION TOURISTS DURING CHINESE NEW YEAR HOLIDAY

 
 

^{Changying Wonderland in Xiuying District, Haikou City, Hainan Province, China saw a big jump in visitors during the Chinese New Year holiday.}  


HAIKOU, China, Feb. 24, 2021 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/ --
 
Recently, China celebrated its grandest annual event -- the Chinese New Year. In Hainan, a major tourist province in southern China, citizens' enthusiasm for traveling continued to surge. According to Haikou Tourism Development Commission, the capital Haikou received a total of 1,171,100 visitors during the seven-day holiday, raking in RMB 1.291 billion.
 
During the holiday, a variety of activities were carried out in major attractions in the city. At the public dock for Haikou National Sailing Base, sailboats, sailboards, rowing boats and yachts were provided for visitors to have fun with the seawater on the west coast of Haikou. At the century-old Haikou Clock Tower, the city's landmark, a large-scale light show was launched for the first time. With three-dimensional sound and light effects, the show presented Haikou's sea culture and Nanyang culture, becoming a "new hotspot" at night for citizens and tourists in Haikou.
 
In terms of rural tourism, Haikou held the Wenshan Xinpo Winter Fruit and Vegetable Picking Festival, which offered countryside picnics, "Gongdao" meals, and other rural activities; the Haikou Lianlizhi Fisherman's Guesthouse rolled out activities such as mangrove tours, snack making, and long table barbecues, gaining wide popularity among tourists.
 
This year, duty-free shopping also became a "trump card" that attracted visitors to Haikou. During the seven-day holiday, the duty-free stores in Haikou received 32,712 visitors, up 51.8% year-on-year, with sales revenue of RMB 157 million and per capita expenditure of RMB 4,805, up 225.5% and 43.81%, respectively.
 
Source: Haikou Tourism Development Commission
 
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   Caption: Changying Wonderland in Xiuying District, Haikou City, Hainan Province, China saw a big jump in visitors during the Chinese New Year holiday.

Hong Kong Tourism Board bullish notching up cherished traditions for Chinese New Year

 KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 -- Hong Kong is set to welcome the Chinese New Year (CNY) festival in its own style by bridging traditional elements with innovative ideas, making the Year of the Ox a blissful and enjoyable year to remember, even though it is likely going to be a little different.

Although there will be no physical events because of the COVID-19 situation, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is turning the CNY celebrations up a notch by infusing the cherished traditions with online, innovative elements, sending festive blessings in a whole new fashion.

According to a statement, a three-week ‘Fortunes in Hong Kong’ CNY campaign will be held in ‘online+offline’ format ending Feb 26.

The campaign features a creative online market, offering CNY delicacies and specialties, alongside plentiful contents, including games, lucky feng shui tips and festive e-cards to allow participants to feel the festive vibe across boundaries.

At the creative online market, a collection of delightful crossover products, jointly created by traditional local brands and trend-setting brands, is available for those hoping to enjoy the CNY celebrations in style.

Not to be missed is a collaboration between the 73-year-old Kung Lee Sugar Cane Drink and chic candy brand Papabubble. Together, they created handmade candies with different herbal tea flavours to bring these old-fashioned, sometimes bitter drinks to a new level.

With all the festive activities in town, Hong Kong is ready to welcome the Year of the Ox with joy and blessings.

-- BERNAMA

THE SUCCESSOR OF THE 600-YEAR-OLD "ORIENTAL CHOCOLATE" SEEKS INHERITANCE PATH IN HAIKOU

 

^{The worker pours the boiled brown sugar syrup into a mold and waits for it to be air-dried into sugar cubes.}


HAIKOU, China, Feb. 8, 2021 /Xinhua-AsiaNet/ --

The Spring Festival, the most significant festival in Chinese culture, was just around the corner. Wu Qizhen, the 66-year-old successor of a traditional sugar-making technique included in the intangible cultural heritage list, was busy instructing workers to manufacture the brown sugar for the last "sweet" order before the festival on February 3.
 
Mr. Wu's brown sugar workshop was established in Zuntan Town, the south of Haikou, Hainan province. According to historical records, the traditional sugar-making industry has existed in Zuntan Town for over 600 years. The local sugarcane provides the raw material for the Zuntan brown sugar, which is manufactured through such procedures as juicing, boiling and solidifying. It is known as the "Oriental Chocolate" with high nutritional and medicinal value.
 
Mr. Wu told us that his brown sugar is made with an ancestral technique, including juice extraction, filtration, boiling and crystallization. The process of turning raw sugarcane juice into syrup takes about 8 to 12 hours. After the boiling, the syrup is poured into molds to get cubes after solidification and air-drying. Those sugar cube has the attractive shape and color of chocolate, but the taste is refreshingly sweet after it rapidly melts in the mouth.
 
According to Mr. Wu, the locals have regarded the traditional sugar-making technique as a sweet but hard-working skill with a low yield. Now, there are only five traditional sugar technique successors in Zuntan Town, all of whom are over 50 years old.
 
Mr. Wu's traditional brown sugar workshop has been listed as an intangible cultural heritage project in Haikou (at the provincial level). In addition to the traditional product portfolio of the ginger brown sugar, the rose brown sugar and jujube brown sugar, Mr. Wu planned to invent a new variety with Hainan characteristics, the coconut brown sugar. He also upgraded the production equipment in 2020, and began to train his son to be the sixth generation of traditional sugar technique successor. "Perhaps, there will be more people willing to learn the traditional art of sugar-making when the sugar workshop gains more growth," said Mr. Wu.
 
Source: Wu Qizhen's brown sugar workshop
 
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   Caption: The worker pours the boiled brown sugar syrup into a mold and waits for it to be air-dried into sugar cubes.