Traditional Chinese New Year Pingyao style

Pingyao county, in Shanxi province, a great historical site, attracted a larger number of visitors for this year's Spring Festival, even amidst the rains and snow, for a variety of reasons, such as plenty of festive events of the "Chinese New Year", free national highway passes, free entry to the Ancient City of Pingyao for locals, and a 75-percent discount on tickets for the experiential play 'Ancient Pingyao Once More'—only 50 yuan ($ 8).

The county tourism bureau calculated that, during the Feb 18 - 24 period, they saw about 240,000 tourists, up more than 26 percent from the same period last year, and brought in 5.4 million yuan in revenues, up just over 47 percent. The majority of visitors were from Shanxi and neighboring areas, such as the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, Hebei and Shaanxi provinces, and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Most of them were on family or DIY tours and around 20,000 came by high-speed railway.

The popular experiential play opened on the second day of the lunar New Year, Feb 20, and ran for 17 sessions over five days, bringing in about 2.2 million yuan. China Central Television did a 4-minute live report on the local "Chinese New Year" and several news spots on Spring Festival events. Other mainstream media, such as Sina, Chinanews, Shanxi TV, and Yellow River TV did their own reports on the celebration in Pingyao, where most folk activities were praised by the visitors, especially, a steamed bun competition, a special lunar New Year customs experience, and the traditional Chinese opera in the central square.

To ensure fire safety during this peak Spring Festival tourist week, the county prohibited the selling and setting off of fireworks and the use of high-power heaters and put police and firemen on a permanent 24-hour rotation basis, while traffic police work overtime to ensure a good transportation.