The 2020 Songjiang Tourism Festival, part of the annual Shanghai Tourism Festival that will be held from September 12 to 27, will present the autumnal scenery at its best while the suburban district showcases a post-epidemic self-image of a safe, warm and comfortable city.

“This year’s Songjiang Tourism Festival features four characteristics: to integrate cultural confidence into tourism; to add commercial activities to boost the cherry festival mood; to create interactive experience for participants and to promote the Yangtze River Delta integration strategy and raise the regional public service quality,” said Gu Qian, an official with the publicity department of the Songjiang Culture and Tourism Bureau.

To exert cultural confidence, the festival committee has prepared a series of garden parties, the 2nd Shanghai Seal Carving Exhibition, the 2020 Zuibai Pond Park Autumn Cultural Festival and the Cangcheng Ancient Town Nostalgic Memories Exhibition. In addition, regional cultural heritages, including the life stories and literary achievements of Lu Ji (AD 261-303) and Lu Yun (AD 262-303), Songjiang natives and renowned scholars in the Western Jin Dynasty (AD 265-317), will be further explored and presented to visitors.

A snack festival will be held and coupons will be distributed to lure residents and visitors to the district’s commercial complexes.

The 2020 Shanghai (Sheshan) Aviation Carnival, among the district’s efforts to raise the level of tourists’ participation, will include a series of highly interactive and original activities.

Online live broadcasts featuring outstanding theatrical performances by private drama troupes from the Yangtze River Delta G60 High-tech Corridor Vision participant cities will be launched during the festival.

Activities of the 2020 Songjiang Tourism Festival include five sections, namely, humanity and culture, nature, broadcasting, goods recommendation and coupon distribution.

In the humanity and culture section, an opening ceremony of the tourism festival will be launched at the district’s Yun Jian Granary Cultural and Creative Park. Meanwhile, Wang Rugang, a renowned local comedian, will open his comedy studio inside the park during the ceremony.

In the nature section, a water lily exhibition at Chenshan Botanical Garden is ongoing as scheduled. Besides ordinary water lily varieties, multi-pedaled blue or purple water lilies rarely spotted inside the country have been added to this year’s exhibition list.

The 2nd Yangtze River Delta private drama troupes’ online performances are being staged from September 10 to 27 as part of the broadcasting section programs.

Goods recommendation and coupon distribution will be supplemented to the tourism festival to introduce high-quality culture or tourism-related products and well-planned tourism routes.

“I am busy preparing for upcoming business. As a ranch owner, I am agog with what this year’s tourism festival will bring to us in the agricultural sector,” said Xing Yingwei, owner of Ord Farm in Songjiang.

As tourism gathers pace, the hospitality industry in Shanghai is also gradually recovering. Statistics released by the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism shows that by mid-August the occupancy rate of Shanghai’s hotel industry had recovered to 65.8 percent.

Hu Chendao, deputy manager of InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland, revealed: “We are carrying out online marketing and are targeting domestic customers. In a broadcasting event held on Ctrip’s online platform, the Shimao Hotel Group achieved hourly sales revenue of 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) and we sold 5,000 tourism packages in half an hour, with sales revenue reaching 15 million yuan. Family tour customers are our major clients.”

“I have been living and working in Shanghai for five years and there are still quite a few scenic spots in Songjiang and the city that I haven’t been to. I will have great fun during the tourism festival after so many days of confinement due to the COVID-19 epidemic,” said a Songjiang resident surnamed Zhao.

“Tourists are advised to wear face masks, wash hands frequently, avoid crowd gathering, cooperate with temperature checks and show their health codes before entering any site,” said Pan Qiang, head of the market management department of the Songjiang Culture and Tourism Bureau.