Dear readers, we’d like to send our greetings to you all at the beginning of this first issue of Chongqing Stories in 2023. Did you and your family go out during the past Spring Festival holidays?

On December 26, 2022, the Chinese government announced the plan of downgrading management of COVID 19 from Class A to Class B from January 8, 2023. Therefore, the Spring Festival of 2023 is undoubtedly special, whether it is for Chongqing or other cities. Many people are rubbing their hands with hesitation in exploring a trip without restrictions on travel.。

Travel platform Fliggy released a tourism report on January 27, showing that people are highly interested in ice and snow tours and island tours. With the promotion of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, many Chinese people who have never touched snow and ice were beginning to enjoy the cold. The island tour was a traditional choice in winter, and many northerners even choose to migrate like migratory birds, living in Hainan in winter for warmth and returning to the north for summer.

In addition, long-distance urban trips were also picked by a plenty of tourists. Cities such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing were also mentioned in that report released by Fliggy as popular destinations. An important attraction for Chongqing during the latest holidays is the successful “New Era, New Journey, New Chongqing” light and shadow drone fireworks show on New Year’s Eve.

On that night, 3,000 drones took off at the same time, painting an over 200-meter-high and 100-meter-wide three-dimensional picture above the confluence of Yangtze and Jialing River. The drones, with their changing postures, first show the magnificent nature landscape of Chongqing, and then the bustling city, turning Metro Line 2 into a train bound for spring, shuttling between the romantic mountains and flowers and the sea of misty clouds. Finally, the audience’s thoughts were loaded with the sailing ship, rolling east along the Yangtze River, the river of life in Chongqing, towards the all-encompassing and ever-changing sea.

At the same time, lights were placed on skyscrapers in Chaotianmen and Jiangbeizui. Hundreds of light converged above the Yangtze River and Jialing River, shaking, jumping, changing colors, adding elegance to the already attractive night scene.

At midnight, fireworks, which lasted for 20 minutes, soared into the air from the river pontoon. The fireworks were rich in color, and unique in shape. All kinds of fireworks rushed into the sky as arrows, and poured town as the Milky Way, shining the night sky of the mountain city, as well as viewers’ faces.

The fireworks show attracted tens of thousands of people from the city and visitors to watch. The Chongqing government boldly closed the bridges and roads, leaving the best viewing spots — Jiangbeizui, Nanbin Road, Chaotianmen, Qiancimen Bridge — to the spectators and banning motor vehicles. In addition, measures were taken to increase the capacity of public transport at midnight to ensure the safe return of viewers, including extend the operation hours, and provide free rail transport to the masses. 

In addition to the fireworks display, some other places in Chongqing were also crowded with tourists including the Hongyadong homestay area with Chongqing characteristics, the Yangtze River cableway, Dazu Rock Carvings and Jinfou Mountain National Forest Park. At the same time, each district and county also carried out their own unique cultural activities to celebrate the new year, such as the Tongliang Dragon Dance, Liangping Plank New Year Pictures, Gaotai Lion Dance, Yuwang Temple Fair and other popular intangible cultural heritage projects.

In addition to domestic travel, people are also expecting outbound trips. According to the latest announcements issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Jan. 20 and Feb. 3, a pilot program of guided tours by travel agencies to Hong Kong, Macao and other countries will be resumed from Feb. 6. Although the choice is still limited, it is believed that there will be more and more countries welcoming Chinese tourists in the near future.

Dear readers, thank you for your continued interest in Galileo Galilei Italian Institute. There will be more fun stories to share this year.

《震撼全球！重庆焰火表演2023 高清4K》<Chongqing 2023 New Year Fireworks HD>

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《光影璀璨！重庆除夕夜的焰火表演美！翻！了！》——华龙网

光影璀璨！重庆除夕夜的焰火表演美！翻！了！–华龙网 (cqnews.net)

Written by Zhang Yangxin