Tourists flock to city in Yunnan to experience unique sites, local cuisines

Tourism cities across China are entertaining their long-awaited visitors with delicacies, custom dancing and beautiful sites after the country relaxed its epidemic restrictions, with a city in Yunnan seeing a record 590,000 visitors during the week-long Chinese New Year holiday.

Mangshi City in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, has joined the list of the many emerging tourist hot spots after seeing a surge in visitors during the Spring Festival holiday.

As the city shares a long border with Myanmar, many of its sites boast attractive exotic features. This includes the local Menghuan Golden Pagoda, a landmark of the city and a must-see for tourists.

"The local customs and cuisine are all special. And some hot spots like the pagoda offer an exotic style. It seems like we are traveling abroad to, say, Thailand," said one tourist.

"I feel that most things here are cheap and fine. For example, strawberries cost 30 to 40 yuan (about 4.50 to 6 U.S. dollars) per kilogram. But they only cost around 10 yuan (about 1.48 U.S. dollars) here," said another tourist.

Aside from cheap prices, Mangshi has also been luring tourists with the local food. The dishes offered by the Jingpo ethnic group -- hand-grabbed rice, roasted pork, ghost chicken and edible wild herbs, all come in the brightest of color and best of smell.

Mangshi has also been working hard on late-time entertainment, arranging night fairs and dances to fulfill every moment of the tourists' stay.

Mo Hanlei, deputy chief of the Mangshi Culture and Tourism

Bureau, said so far they've seen a good start, but many challenges still lay ahead as the city expects more to come once its brand awareness spreads.

"Next, we will work to develop new tourism products, further improve our tourism facilities and services. We hope the kindness, passion and hospitality of the local people will greet more tourists," said Mo.