West Lake, a major tourist attraction in Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, attracted more than 827,500 visitors from both home and abroad during this year's week-long Spring Festival holiday, a local tourism official said Sunday.
As one of the most beautiful and famous scenic spots in China, the lake is known for its abundance of lotus flowers in the summer and its beautiful surroundings with classical gardens and green hills.
Figures released by the Hangzhou Tourism Bureau show that the lake's 27 parks, which require the purchase of tickets, received about 50,000 visitors every day. A record high was reached on Feb.5 with 60,100 sightseers.
The tourism official said that the on-going westward project of the lake, which began last year to spread a few patches of water to the west of the current West Lake, enlarged its capacity to receive tourists as well as pleased tourists by providing them with unexpected pleasant surprises.
West Lake, covering some six square kilometers, is on the country's key scenic area list. More than 23.7 million Chinese and overseas tourists visited the spot last year.
(People's Daily February 10, 2003)
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