NANNING, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Standing on a paddle board with a tailwind as his ally, Wang Chao paddled away from the riverbank and covered a distance of about 30 meters in less than two minutes.

 

Wang, a 30-year-old sales manager from Guangdong Province, is among a growing number of stand-up paddle boarding enthusiasts opting to enjoy this once niche pastime in Du'an County, known for its turquoise water and a massive network of underwater caves and sinkholes.

 

Formerly an impoverished and isolated area in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Du'an has transformed into a magnet for tourists from across the country following the opening of its first train station on the newly-launched Guiyang-Nanning high-speed railway on August 31.

 

"I learned about Du'an a while back but was deterred by the long road travel required to get here. The new high-speed rail line, plus the availability of a long holiday, prompted me to make the decision to come," said Wang.

 

The 482-km line is the first high-speed railway with a maximum speed of 350 km/h in both Guangxi and neighboring Guizhou Province, cutting travel time between the cities of Nanning and Guiyang from over five hours to about three hours.

 

Passengers on the new line are in for a special treat as the route passes through a vast expanse of Karst landscape, characterized by majestic mountains that rise abruptly from the terrain and also featuring lush fields of sugar cane and other subtropical crops.

 

Such attractions are likely to catch the eye of tourists searching their maps for destinations for this year's extended "golden week" holiday that combines the National Day holiday and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and places along the newly-unveiled railway are set to experience spectacularly high levels of tourist arrivals.

 

Liang Xinyue, head of the tourism center in Du'an, said the opening of the railway was a timely boost for the county's popularity ahead of the eight-day holiday that began on Sept. 29.

 

"All of our attractions are free-of-charge and world-class, and the number of visitors has risen sharply since the new rail line came into the picture," said Liang. "Nearly all hotels were fully booked for the holiday, and we expect daily visits to Du'an to surpass 31,000 during the holiday period, doubling the figure of 2019."

 

Wei Liang, a Du'an local who quit his job at a construction site and converted his house near a scenic sinkhole into a 20-room hostel in 2020, said his hostel had been almost fully booked about two weeks before the start of "golden week."

 

"Nearly half of my guests arrived via the high-speed railway," Wei said.

 

The unprecedented influx of tourists has put the Du'an local government on alert, as the county's tourism capacity in terms of accommodation and catering is still limited.

 

"We are bracing for a massive wave of travelers coming in for the first 'golden week' holiday after people took off their masks," said a local tourism official. "We will see if we are adequately prepared to handle the influx and what improvements we will need to make."

 

China is expected to see 190 million railway trips during the travel rush for this year's "golden week" holiday, according to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. On Sept. 29, the first day of the holiday, China's railways handled about 20.1 million passenger trips, setting a new record for daily trip numbers.

 

Footage circulating on Chinese social media has shown traffic jams on multiple highways and packed train stations as millions make journeys home or to tourist attractions.

 

"For me, it will be a super hectic holiday season, as the railway has made it possible to visit several places," said Li Shanshan, a university student from Nanning, Guangxi's capital, who was traveling to her hometown in Mashan, a small county that has opened a station on the new rail line.

 

After festive gatherings with her family, Li will hop on a bullet train to Libo, a picturesque county in Guizhou, where she will join her classmates for sightseeing.

 

The rail line also passes through over 30 ethnic enclaves in mountainous areas, including Huanjiang, a geographically remote and economically underdeveloped county in Guangxi. Home to the vast majority of the Maonan people, one of the smallest ethnic groups in the country, Huanjiang was removed from the poverty list in 2020.

 

Wu Mengyao, a local Maonan woman who runs a craft workshop focusing on making ethnic wear, bamboo weaving and clay sculpting, saw the new high-speed rail link as a boon for the local economy.

 

"The workshop was booked solid two weeks before the start of the 'golden week.' Business has never been this hot before, because many potential tourists used to be discouraged by the grueling travel hours by road," said Wu.

 

"It's just the beginning of a grand transformation," said Wei, who has been discussing the possibility of expanding his business by renovating a couple of old family estates in the village with his brothers. "We expect more opportunities to come, and we'd better be prepared to seize them."