Early winter travel can mean hard going through cold and snow in the far north. But in east China's Anhui province it's the golden season for sightseers. This week over 20 thousand tourists turned up for the opening ceremony of the 12th Huangshan Mountain International Tourism Festival.
The opening took the form a spectacular. There were songs and dances, featuring performances by some of the country's best artists and entertainers.
The week-long festival includes an international forum on tourism development on Huangshan Mountain. New travel routes are being promoted. There're photography exhibitions focused on Anhui, Tibet and Dunhuang. And to add to the air of festivity itinerant foreign performers are in town to entertain. The festival encourages visitors to participate in the activities. There're contests in cooking and calligraphy as a couple of examples.
The tourism festival takes the theme of "Charming Huangshan, Harmonious Anhui". Officials from UNESCO, the World Heritage Management Center, and a number of foreign ambassadors are there.
The Huangshan International Tourism Festival, also known as the Hui Culture Festival is organized by the National Tourism Bureau and the Anhui provincial government.
