Trips to rural areas are expected to help boost China's tourism recovery from the COVID-19 epidemic in autumn.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Development and Reform Commission released the second list of 680 villages as the country's key rural tourist attractions on Saturday, eying the golden week of the National Day Holiday in the beginning of October.

Local governments nationwide pledge to strengthen their support to these villages by rolling out preferential policies and providing them with more financial and market support, trying to give full play to their exemplary and leading role.

According to the ministry, over 1.2 billion people made trips to rural villages in the first eight months this year, and tourism to urban outskirts has become many people's first choice. From July to August, the total rural tours and the gross income generated both restored to more than 90 percent of the same period of the previous year, and the number of employees largely reached the level of the same period last year as well.

In Qibie Village of Tacheng Town in Weixi of southwest China's Yunnan Province, golden sunflowers are in full bloom, attracting tourists to dance together with local villagers while enjoying the scenery.

"It is my first time to experience the culture here, especially the culture of ethnic minorities. The sky is blue and the air is exceptionally good here," said Ms. Zhang, a tourist.

Southwest China's Chongqing has launched a consumption festival which is among the city's various themed consumption and promotion campaigns to stimulate citizen's expenditure.

A consumer service platform has been put into operation, through which citizens can get coupons from merchants on a WeChat official account to obtain various consumption information.

"From January to July, the city's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 630 billion yuan (about 92.18 billion U.S. dollars). Starting from April, it has achieved positive growth for five consecutive months," said Peng Heliang, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce.

The consumption festival will focus on 37 events on seven themes with a lot of consumption benefits for citizens and tourists. More than 3,000 firms are involved, putting up more than 300 supporting activities.

Shanghai is tapping its cultural and architectural resources to promote the recovery of its tourism industry, with the 31st Shanghai Tourism Festival opening lively on Saturday night.

Shanghai boasts 1,039 historical buildings that open to the public. Scanning the QR code on the outer wall of the buildings one could learn history of these buildings.

This year's tourism festival will feature 16 night tours in Shanghai and 103 unique architectural micro-travel routes.

"We hope that after arriving in Shanghai, visitors could learn about the cultural heritage and stories behind our city from these buildings, understand the profound culture of Shanghai, and then fall in love with the city. 'Making Architecture Readable,' which is arguably a typical case of Shanghai's efforts to integrate culture with tourism. It is to truly combine culture and tourism, and is a transformation from resources to industry," said Ou Xiaochuan, deputy director of the Cultural Relics Department of Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.

Shanghai has also opened a market during the tourism festival to display hundreds of related cultural and creative products, offering more ways for people to learn the city's history and culture.