Over the week-long Spring Festival holiday, Kunshan, Jiangsu province received 760,000 tourists bringing in 9.93 million yuan ($1.52 million) in gate receipts at local tourist spots, reported the Kunshan Daily.
Compared with the same period in 2015, the number of visitors rose by 26.6 percent and the gate receipts generated by the boost in visitor numbers increased by 7.7 percent.
From New Year's Eve to the night of the 15th of the first lunar month, ancient water towns in Kunshan arranged many traditional activities, including folk performances such as Tiaohualan (a dance with a basket of flowers), Dalianxiang (a coin stick dance) and Danghuchuan (rowing a fake boat).
Zhouzhuang town welcomed 210,000 people for the Spring Festival. It saw a peak in visitors on Feb 11, the fourth day of the first lunar month, with 52,000 visitors.
Qian Ying, an owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Dianshanhu town, said all guest rooms were booked up before the festival. Most guests came from the neighboring cities for laid back local atmosphere and natural scenery.
The city's parks proved popular as well with the number of visitors to the national 4A tourism site Tinglin Garden increasing by 41 percent over the same period in the previous year to 130,000 this year.
Edited by Owen Fishwick