The Year of the Wood Dragon is approaching, and many Chinese tourists plan to celebrate at the country’s most iconic locations, booking data from travel platform Fliggy revealed.

The Spring Festival period, also known as the Lunar New Year, will take place between Feb. 10 and 17 and see millions of Chinese families travel far and wide to spend time together.

While many city residents take this opportunity to visit extended relatives in their hometowns, a growing number of Chinese holidaymakers are reversing this flow by taking trips to China’s largest cities.

Tourism destinations in the countryside are also gaining traction, offering a range of landscapes from ancient waterways to snowy vistas.

With this in mind, many travelers book earlier to secure their place.

During the New Year’s Day holiday rush this month, Chinese tourists bought domestic air tickets and set travel itineraries more than 10 days in advance on average, according to Fliggy, and the latest platform data suggests holidaymakers will opt for a similar approach this Lunar New Year.

Scroll down to journey with Alizila to some of China’s most popular Spring Festival destinations.

The eastern province of Zhejiang is home to popular attractions like an island-dotted lake, historical canal towns and famed pagodas. During the Lunar New Year holiday this year, it will also play host to droves of tourists from across China.

The number of travel bookings throughout the province is over five times greater than last year’s Spring Festival holiday period, according to Fliggy, and we are still nearly a month away. Many tourists making Zhejiang bookings on the platform are from major cities including Beijing and Guangdong, data shows.

Jiangsu province is Zhejiang’s neighbor to the north, where you will find quiet gardens, lily pad-lined canals and the ancient capital city of Nanjing. These attractions and more are drawing Chinese tourists to celebrate the Lunar New Year there.

Tour bookings in the province during the 2024 Spring Festival are already 15 times higher year-on-year, Fliggy reports. When they aren’t out exploring wider Jiangsu, many visitors will be based within Nanjing’s famed city walls, where hotel reservations over this period have also increased by over 1,000%.

For those Chinese holidaymakers in search of bright lights and cityscapes, Shanghai is the place to be. Spring Festival visitors are snapping up hotel rooms at a rate far exceeding 2019 levels on Fliggy.

From promenades along the Bund to sampling the city’s tasty soup dumplings, there’s something for everyone. Shanghai destination tourism bookings have jumped five times year-on-year for the Lunar New Year period, and the number of ticket reservations in the city has grown by over 1,000%, Fliggy data shows.

China’s northernmost province dazzles visitors – and quite literally too in the winter when sunbeams bounce off its giant ice sculptures.

Capital city Harbin, host of the annual International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, has already recorded a 16-fold rise in hotel bookings year-on-year for the upcoming Lunar New Year week, according to Fliggy. This is on par with province-wide growth in hotel bookings on the travel platform during the festive period.

Harbin’s Art Nouveau-style railway station, pedestrian main street and nearby Yabuli ski resort are the most popular areas for visitors, Fliggy booking patterns reveal.

The capital of China is on many travel itineraries this Spring Festival and for good reason. Beijing is the domain of imperial palaces, temples and museums and serves as a launchpad for Great Wall tours.

As a whole, tourism bookings in Beijing during the festivities are more than six times higher than last year, Fliggy reports. Ticket bookings to attractions like the Forbidden City complex have seen a 20-fold spike over this same period, while hotel bookings so far are also much higher than in 2023.

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