During the just-concluded May Day holiday, two of China's biggest cities, Beijing and Shanghai, emerged as popular destinations by offering diverse cultural experiences, collectively welcoming a significant number of tourists.
According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the capital city welcomed an impressive 16.96 million visitors during the five-day holiday period which ended on Sunday. Among them, 6.75 million were tourists from other provinces, highlighting Beijing's appeal as a national tourist hub.
Rural tourism in Beijing saw a remarkable surge, with a total of 2.86 million visitors recorded, representing a 22.9 percent increase compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, Shanghai, known for its cosmopolitan allure, also experienced a bustling holiday season. Shanghai tourism big data monitoring system revealed that the city welcomed 16.24 million visitors, demonstrating a steady growth rate of 3.77 percent compared to the corresponding period of last year.
To enhance the holiday experience, Shanghai presented an array of nearly 180 cultural and tourism activities across eight major categories, including captivating exhibitions at various cultural venues, art galleries and theater performances.
Notably, the Shanghai Longines Global Champions Tour and other sport events added an extra touch of excitement to the holiday festivities. Cruise tourism also remained popular, with over 32,000 individuals entering and exiting Shanghai's cruise terminals.
In one of Shanghai's vibrant districts, Xuhui District, an enchanting retro-themed market attracted numerous visitors. Over 100 branded shops were nestled within traditional Shikumen buildings (a style featuring Western and Chinese elements), presenting a nostalgic ambiance where visitors could explore unique items such as vinyl records and vintage cameras.
"For me, I like accessories and vintage cameras," said a tourist surnamed Feng.
In addition, traditional art forms, including Kunqu Opera, found their place in the trendy market, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the charm of traditional Chinese culture while enjoying a shopping experience.
"I take my kids to experience traditional culture here. While strolling through the streets, they can come into contact with traditional art," said another tourist surnamed Zhu.
The fusion of traditional culture and contemporary designs at various art markets garnered significant attention from young consumers, who can not only have the opportunity to appreciate diverse themed illustration exhibitions but also actively engaged in creating their own artworks during their visits.
"I especially love showcasing my uniqueness through this kind of thing, and I enjoy expressing it with the Chinese culture," said a visitor.
Beijing, Shanghai attract significant number of tourists during May Day holiday
South Korea' seven million individually-owned businesses are wrestling with survival amid the throes of high inflation and souring costs, which are mainly engaged in catering and retail industries, representing over 20 percent of the country's total employed population.
According to South Korea's Real Estate Research Institute, the store vacancy rate hit a record high of 13.7 percent across the country in the first quarter of this year. Even capital city Seoul's glitzy districts such as Gangnam and Itaewon are filled with empty restaurants and shops.
Ryu Deok-hyun has been running a restaurant for six years in Seoul and won regular customers largely thanks to affordable food prices.
However, the 60-year-old businessman has recent felt the pinch of high inflation. This March, the price of cabbage, an important ingredients in Korean dishes, hiked by 36 percent compared to one year ago. Similarly, chili powder, radish, onion and pork also reported year-on-year price increases between 10 percent and 30 percent, and labor costs, rents and water and electricity bills are also on the rise.
Faced with meager profits, Ryu is still hesitant to raise prices on menu items.
"I'm worried that increasing food prices will lessen customers dining here. But if I don't raise prices, it's hardly profitable. It's really nerve-wracking for me. As of now, I am living on loans. But now the loan interest rate has risen from two percent to six percent, coupled with the huge increase in fixed expenditures, I find it hard to survive it," he said.
Unlike Ryu, many restaurant owners choose to frequently increase menu prices in response to the ever-rising costs, which has resulted in customer decline and business closure. As of now, the cost of dining out has been higher than the overall price increase rate for 35 consecutive months in South Korea, and the closing rate of restaurant businesses stood at 10 percent last year, the highest since 2005.
Most of the small businesses sustaining operation are heavily debt-ridden. Data showed that nearly 60 percent of individually-owned businesses rely on loans to maintain operations, and at the end of this March, the total debt of South Korea's individually-owned businesses came in about 1,112 trillion Korean won (about 821.03 million U.S. dollars), an increase of 51 percent from 2019.
As international oil prices remain at high levels, the Korean won continues to weaken, the trend of rising prices is set to persist and the country's central bank -- Bank of Korea continues to maintain high benchmark interest rates, individually-owned businesses are burdened with loan repayments and are likely to stay financially distressed in the short term.
Industry insiders called for increased efforts to support the small businesses.
"South Korea should flexibly adjust the rate of increase in the minimum hourly wage, and relevant departments should introduce measures to reduce or exempt rental fees of individually-owned businesses," said Cha Nam-soo, the head of the support department at the Korea Federation of Small Businesses and Workers.
S Korean small businesses wrestle with survival in throes of high inflation
