Escaping Summer Heat
by Guo Cheng/XinhuaAugust 4, Sanya, Hainan Province: Tourists enjoy water activities near Wuzhizhou Island. Sanya attracted countless tourists during summer vacation. A report by China Tourism Academy and Ctrip.com, a leading travel website, estimated that Chinese tourists spent more than 300 billion yuan (US$45 billion) this summer on traveling to escape the heat and about 500 million trips were made in July and August.
Seniors, teachers and students on summer break, as well as residents of some Chinese cities with extremely hot weather, were the central contributors to the “summer economy,” said the report.