Following the commencement of the 11th edition of the Dunhuang Tour Silk Road International Tourism Festival in Northwest China's Gansu province on April 26, Zhangye's Ganzhou district experienced a tourism boom during the Labor Day holiday.

The district welcomed a total of 750,146 tourists and generated a tourism revenue of 397.7 million yuan ($57.7 million) during the five-day holiday period, marking year-on-year increases of 67 percent and 88.9 percent, respectively, compared to the figures of 2019. Notably, rural tourism played a significant role in this surge, with 488,000 visitors and tourism revenue of 146 million recorded, representing respective year-on-year increases of 35.63 percent and 35.18 percent compared to 2019, according to the publicity department of Ganzhou district.

At the Zhangye Desert Sports Park in Ganzhou district, visitors can bask in the desert landscape beneath snow-capped mountains. They can partake in a wide range of outdoor activities, such as careening down a 300-meter-long slide with a height difference of 43.8 meters, venturing off-road into the desert, driving go-karts and even camel riding. The park offers a thrilling experience for adventure enthusiasts looking to savor the joys of outdoor sports in the heart of the desert.

"I love outdoor sports and adventure activities, so I came to experience the long slide at Zhangye National Desert Park with my friends. It was truly amazing, and we felt the thrill of speed and excitement," said a tourist from Xining, Northwest China's Qinghai province.