With the opening of the 9th Asian Winter Games, Harbin City in northeast the Chinese mainland's Heilongjiang Province has become a focal point, driving a surge in tourism and business activity.
Gao Fei, head of a flagship merchandise store at the Asian Winter Games, told CMG that over 1,700 products are on sale. He said sales for some items have increased five to sixfold compared to previous sales, with many hot sale items selling out quickly.
Data from Ctrip, a leading the Chinese mainland's online travel agency, revealed a 388 percent rise in Harbin-related tourism packages during the Games. Meanwhile, inbound travel orders to Harbin as a tourist destination grew by 157 percent, with significant increases in visitors from Russia, the U.S., Hungary, South Korea, and Thailand.
The boom in consumption and travel has been evident since the beginning of the year. the Chinese mainland's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.5 percent year on year in January, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Sunday. The data also showed that the national Producer Price Index (PPI) dropped by 0.2 percent month-on-month.
Addressing the decline in PPI, NBS chief statistician Dong Lijuan attributed the drop to factors including the Spring Festival holiday, where industrial production remained at a seasonal low. Dong attributed the CPI growth to the Spring Festival holiday.
\"The year-on-year increase in CPI was mainly driven by higher prices in services and food due to the Spring Festival, along with a rebound in gasoline prices,\" Dong said.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
