Overseas travelers visiting Shanghai during the past week as the lunar New Year celebrations were underway saw a less crowded but more boisterous city than usual.

The number of foreign visitors who came to the city for Spring Festival holiday was less than that of last year, according to top four local travel agencies, which provided services to a total of 5,300 inbound visitors in the weeklong holiday.

Taking Shanghai Airlines Tours International Co Ltd as example, it received only 190 overseas tourists during this Spring Festival, much less than some 1,000 in last festival.

The other three agencies are the Shanghai CYTS Tours Corporation, the Shanghai CTS (Group) Co Ltd and Shanghai International Holdings Co Ltd.

"There were several factors that kept foreign guests away this year," said Wang Zhiwei, vice president of the Shanghai CYTS Tours. "One problem is that the festival took place at the end of January when most Western countries have no public holidays. The outbreak of bird flu didn't help either."

Representatives from the four travel agencies added that they are less busy during Spring Festival than the other so-called Golden Weeks, when the May Day and National Day holidays occur.

Not all foreigners, though, kept a distance. Among those who could not resist was a German couple, Edith and Uwe Kraus.

"We have become hooked to the Spring Festival," said Edith. "It's typical China. To really understand Chinese culture, you have to delve into this tradition."

During their two-week stay in Shanghai, their local friend, Gu Yimei, invited them to her colleague's wedding ceremony. They also toured to the Chongming Forest Park in Chongming Island and the neighboring water village of Zhouzhuang, which they said was breathtakingly beautiful.

(Shanghai Daily January 30, 2004)