MORE than 5 million tourists from home and abroad visited Shanghai during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, up 15 percent from last year.

Tourism revenue topped 6.6 billion yuan (US$979 million), a surge of 34 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.

Major tourist attractions received 4.8 million visitors, a rise of 25.2 percent.

The Sheshan National Tourism Resort welcomed 270,000 visitors, up 28.5 percent, while the Shanghai International Resort saw 450,000 visitors, a drop of 5 percent.

A total of 84 museums received 600,000 visitors, up 30 percent. A Chinese Zodiac exhibition at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum was popular with visitors.

At the Yuyuan Garden, a colorful lantern exhibition is under way, while Guyi Garden features a number of traditional cultural activities such as paper cutting and riddling, as well as dragon and lion dances.

The new 45-kilometer Huangpu riverfront was visited by 4.3 million people.

More than 520 Huangpu River cruise tours drew 125,000 tourists, soaring 50.7 percent from a year earlier.

Close to 3 million people visited city parks, a drop of 4.2 percent, which was blamed on the bad weather. The peak was on Wednesday, a sunny day, when the parks welcomed 600,000 people, according to the Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau.

Historical towns such as Fengjing, Qibao, Xinchang and Zhujiajiao were also popular. The hotel occupancy rate was 50.6 percent.

Shaoxing, Tonglu, Wuxi, Wuzhen and Yangzhou on the Yangtze River Delta were the top destinations for those heading off from Shanghai Tourist Bus Center, which sent 21.3 percent more tourists on their way this year.

More than half a million passengers arrived back by train yesterday, according to Shanghai Railway Station, about 200,000 more than on an ordinary day.

Zhu Ziqiang, a businessman from Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, brought his two daughters and parents with him. He was pleased to see self-service information facilities installed at every arrival gate at Hongqiao Railway Station.

“People unfamiliar with the station like my daughters can easily check the directions to bus and Metro stations,” said Zhu. “The first couple of times I came here, I often got lost.”

For those reluctant to wait for a cab, the Metro kept on operating until well after normal hours. Metro Line 2 kept running until 1:30am this morning between Hongqiao and Longyang Road Station. Line 10 ran until midnight.

More than 20 temporary bus routes at the weekend carried footsore and weary passengers back to work today. Most operated all night.

The market watchdog received 1,500 complaints during the holiday with catering, accommodation and transportation topping the list, a 12 percent increase from last year.

A total of 334 complaints involved dishonest practises, poor quality food, smoking and booking disputes, the Shanghai Market Supervision and Management Bureau said.

One Shanghai tourist complained about a mouse in a hotel in Jiangxi Province. Another diner complained when the crab-meat filling of shengjian, a pan-fried dumpling, turned out to be pork.

Clothes were also a source of complaint, with one consumer saying a 1,640 yuan down jacket bought from a shopping mall had obviously been mended at the cuff.

Complaints about transportation, culture, entertainment and sports soared by more than 50 percent from the same period of last year, with rail tickets, movies and gyms especially irksome.

A few complaints were related to nianyefan, or Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner, concerning delivery, hygiene and smoking. One customer paid a 1,000 yuan deposit in November, only to find the restaurant closed on New Year’s Eve.

Nearly 87,000 tons of domestic garbage was handled during the holiday, down 16.3 percent from a year earlier. The more than 7,600 tons of kitchen waste, soaring 52.8 percent, was a measure of the success of the garbage sorting scheme. About 30,000 sanitation workers were on duty during the holiday, cleaning up 1,500 tons of garbage daily.