The Chinese mainland is seeing a surge in inbound trips, partially driven by growing numbers of residents from the country's Hong Kong, Macao Special Administrative Regions and Taiwan region returning to worship their ancestors during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday from Saturday to Monday.
The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a traditional Chinese festival for honoring the deceased and paying tributes to ancestors. It fell on Sunday this year.
Along with a surge in travelers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Hangzhou City in east China's Zhejiang Province is also receiving more international travelers during the holiday.
In order to facilitate immigration checks, the Hangzhou border inspection station has increased personnel and channels and offered guidance services at the Xiaoshan International Airport.
"My ancestral home is Wenzhou City. I'm returning home to worship my ancestors. Hangzhou has changed a lot, and the customs clearance was easy," said Ms. Zhu, a traveler from Hong Kong.
The airport is expected to handle more than 250 international flights and 45,000 passengers during the holiday, up 5.5 percent and over 16 percent, respectively, year on year.
Meanwhile, the "mini three links" ferry route between Xiamen City, east China's Fujian Province, and Kinmen Island is also seeing a peak in passengers from Taiwan during the holiday.
The mini three links, launched on Jan 2, 2001, cover direct trade, mail and transport services between Fujian and the Taiwan region-administered Kinmen and Matsu islands.
On Sunday, the four ferry routes handled 6,200 passengers aboard 36 ferries, up 15.84 percent year on year, according to the Fujian Maritime Safety Administration.
The most popular route was the one between Xiamen and Kinmen, with 24 ships transporting more than 5,500 people, up 15.59 percent year on year.
"Coming here for Qingming is a must for us, most importantly because we want our kid to grow up knowing that our roots are here," said Li Yonghong, a traveler from Taiwan.
The mini three links are expected to handle nearly 20,000 passengers during the three-day holiday, with a daily average over 12 percent higher than that in March.
Chinese mainland sees surge in inbound trips from HK, Macao, Taiwan for Qingming Festival
