Shanghai tourism recovering quicker than expected

More than 20 French graduate students Thursday visited Shanghai's Jinmao Tower, the tallest building in China, when they arrived in the east China metropolis as the first group of European tourists to Shanghai since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic was brought under control.

Following a welcome ceremony, the visitors reached the 88th floor of the 420-meter-high skyscraper to get a panorama view of the city.

So far, daily tourists to the top of the Jinmao Tower are about 70-80 percent of the peak level, a situation better than expected, said Shao Jian, a manager of the Jinmao Group, which is the investor of the building.

The top floor brought in more than 800,000 yuan (some 96,000 US dollars) in income from visitors during the 10 days since it reopened on June 20 after being closed on May 10.

The turnover is much higher than expected, said Shao.

The average occupancy rate of local hotels has risen to an average of 50 percent, as against 17 percent in early May.



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