Shanghai Tourism Festival to open in September

This year's Shanghai Tourism Festival, the city's largest tourism-related event, will last from Sept 10 to Oct 6, the organizing committee announced on Aug 15.

A total of 56 events will be organized to entertain visitors and promote the integration of tourism, commerce, sports and culture.

The festival has a huge range of activities including hiking around Shanghai, sailing, car racing, a shopping festival, a sculpture exhibition, comedy performances, and many other activities. Here are some of the festival's key events:

The premier of Our Shanghai, a promotional film

The city's tourism board releases their latest promotional video entitled Our Shanghai. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The filming process took four months to complete and a multitude of nearly 80 shots stich together Shanghai's most well-known spots like a beautiful quilt. The film captures the excitement of the newly built Shanghai Disney Resort, the majestic Shanghai Tower, the iconic Bund, and the historic Binjiang Avenue.

The film star Hu Ge, a well-known Chinese actor, guides the viewer through the visual tour of Shanghai. The experience is enhanced further through the use of virtual reality (VR) technology.

Opening ceremony's grand parade

Guests are greeted by Buzz Lightyear at Shanghai Disney Resort's float for the opening parade of 2015 Shanghai Tourism Festival. [Photo/IC]

A spectacular opening parade, consisting of 32 performance teams and 25 floats, will be launched on Sept 10 to mark the opening of this year's festival

In the true spirit of Shanghai an abundance of different nations will be represented and in total 22 nationalities will be on show. There will be performances from six different Chinese groups and others from countries such as the United States, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Costa Rica, and Argentina.

The Chinese floats at the opening ceremony will represent a variety of different provinces and cities. Shanghai Disney Resort's float will lead the parade.

Half-price tickets offered to tourists

Tourists who travel to Shanghai during September will have the opportunity to benefit from this year's festival, as 60 of the city's popular tourist destinations will offer half-price tickets for a limited period of time.

For instance, tourist destinations such as Shanghai Wild Animal Park, Happy Valley, Madame Tussauds wax museum, and the Shanghai Film Museum, will offer five-day half-price tickets from Aug 10-14.

Shanghai Tower to host closing ceremony concert

The hanging garden in the Shanghai Tower will be used for the closing ceremony of this year’s Shanghai Tourism Festival. [Photo/eastday.com]

The festival will sign off with a musical recital held in the hanging garden of the Shanghai Tower. The building, China's tallest building at 632 meters, has been open to the general public since April and has quickly become one of the city's leading attractions. Visitors can take an elevator up to the 118th floor and enjoy a magnificent view of the city.