Tourists hit peak stride, thanks to high tech

Robotic exoskeletons powered by artificial intelligence became good partners for Chinese tourists on their way to conquering towering mountains during the just-concluded Qingming Festival holiday, with the auxiliary equipment epitomizing China's progress in developing "smart tourism".

During the three-day break, which ended on Sunday, the tourism sector showed strong performance, although the holiday is not traditionally a busy season for the industry.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed that domestic attractions recorded about 126 million tourist visits during the holiday, marking year-on-year growth of 6.3 percent. The visits generated consumption of about 57.5 billion yuan ($7.9 billion), a 6.7 percent increase year-on-year.