The new Shanghai Natural History Museum was one of the city's most popular attractions over the holiday. The museum has won rave reviews for its interactive displays. (Photo: Shanghai Daily/Zhang Suoqing)
Showers on Saturday led to a drop in the number of visitors to many of the city's top tourist attractions over the holiday weekend.
Century Park in the Pudong New Area had 53,000 visitors, a 40 percent drop on the same period last year, and the 75,600 people who braved the rain to visit Fengjing Water Town in Jinshan District was 21 percent down on 2014's figure, the Shanghai Tourism Administration said.
Jinjiang Amusement Park in Minhang District had 31,300 visitors over the weekend, down 24 percent, while Shanghai Wildlife Park figures had declined almost 13 percent.
Even indoor attractions, such as the China Art Palace and the Moon Boat — the Saudi Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo — saw significant drops of 32.7 percent and 43 percent respectively.
However, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Lujiazui had 69,000 visitors, about the same as last year, while the Jinmao Tower and Madame Tussauds Wax Museum reported a 6 percent increase.
The new Shanghai Natural History Museum had 45,500 visitors over the three days after it raised the limit on the number of people allowed in. It had been stopping admissions when there were 4,000 people inside as a safety measure.
But it raised the number to 4,300 during the holiday period. Despite that, the museum still had to halt admissions several times.
Shopping proved popular, with retail sales in Shanghai totalling 3.68 billion yuan (US$593 million) in the three days from Friday, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Shanghai Commission of Commerce.
Gyms and health care centers said their revenue surged 42.5 percent during the holiday, while cinemas said sales were up 38 percent.
The Shanghai Sightseeing Bus Center catered for 7,741 tourists over the three days, with Zhouzhuang Water Town, Haiwan Forest Park in Fengxian and Nanxun Old Town the favorite destinations.
Over 1.5 million people took trips by rail.
On Thursday, the city's subway had a record 10.3 million passengers, but that had dropped to 8.7 million and 6.7 million over the following two days. Measures were in place at 10 stations to prevent overcrowding.
