Cherry Blossom Park in Suxian District, Chenzhou 

 

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the added value of the cultural tourism industry accounted for 10% of the city’s GDP, becoming a 100-billion-yuan industry to support both the city and the people to be more prosperous. And its cultural tourism brand has become a well-known business card of Chenzhou.

 

“As a hub of opening up and a big tourist city, Chenzhou always takes the development of the cultural tourism industry as an important path and a key move to build a hub of opening up in inland areas and promote the high-quality development of Chenzhou.” Liu Zhiren, secretary of the CPC Chenzhou Municipal Committee, 

noted that the city took the lead in formulating and implementing special plans to develop Red tourism. The city makes joint efforts to promote the integrated development of culture and tourism and develop industries, in a bid to promote the high-quality development of the economy. 

 

Chenzhou City

 

Chenzhou has abundant, diverse and unique tourism resources, forming a colorful picture integrating Red culture and natural landscapes. 

 

Chenzhou is the place where the “Half A Quilt” story took place and the first army regulations was issued, and is the birthplace of the Xiangnan Uprising, the training site of Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team which won the championships for five consecutive years, and the location of 711 Mine Institution, the first meritorious uranium mine in China. All of its 11 counties, cities or districts in Chenzhou are old revolutionary areas, with 161 main sites for Red tourism. 

 

Distribution map of Red tourist attractions in Chenzhou 

 

The spirits of Two Bombs and One Satellite and women’s volleyball team are perceived as an important part of the spiritual pursuits of Chinese communists. 

Chenzhou is also an important ecological barrier in South China. The forest coverage rate of the whole city is close to 70%. It has 8 national forest parks, 4 wetland parks, and more than 150 parks and amusement parks in the urban area. It has won multiple honorary titles, such as China’s excellent tourism city, national forest city and one of China’s top 50 oxygen bar cities. 

 

Dongjiang Lake  Photo by Zhu Xiaorong 

 

Chenzhou is a beautiful place with rich natural resources, such as Mangshan Mountain, Feitian Mountain, Dongjiang Lake, Yangtian Lake Grassland and Reshui Hot Spring. 

 

Chenzhou is also a place where Shennong taught farming and cultivation. Kunqu Opera and Anren Ganfenshe Festival are on the list of the world intangible cultural heritage. It’s also a place where writers and scholars have gathered. Farming culture, opera culture, mining and metallurgy culture complement each other. Kun opera, Qi opera, Beijing opera and Yue opera have long been famous. 

 

Chenzhou is the “South Gate” of Hunan, adjacent to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area, the largest tourist market in China. It enjoys convenient transportation with air, high-speed rail and highways. Beihu Airport operates 12 air routes. The Chenzhou-Guangdong-Shenzhen high-speed train bound for Yangtian Lake Grassland is in operation. And the city has integrated into the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan City Cluster and “one-hour economic circle” of the GBA. 

 

Yangtian Lake Grassland Scenic Area

 

Wu Jupei, mayor of Chenzhou City, said that 80% of tourists received by the city came from the GBA. Chenzhou has an important strategic position in connecting the province with the GBA, Southeast Asia, smoothing the Belt & Road Initiative, and developing the international tourism market. 

 

In recent years, relying on large venues such as the city’s sport center which can hold 36,000 spectators and the International Convention & Exhibition Center with an exhibition area of 180,000 square meters, Chenzhou has successively held many events and festivals, such as China (Hunan) International Mineral & Gem Expo, China (Hunan) Tourism Industry Expo, and the 7th National Self-Driving Tourism Development Summit. 

 

9th China (Hunan) International Mineral & Gem Expo

 

The mining expo held in Chenzhou attracted foreign dignitaries, guests from all over the world and international merchants, and drew the world’s attention. By holding high-end and international exhibitions, Chenzhou learned “how to improve the service and hold exhibitions better”. 

 

As the south gate of Hunan, Chenzhou has showed its comprehensive strength through these exhibitions, as well as its charm. 

 

To build a 100-billion-yuan cultural tourism industry, the city has vigorously implemented actions to promote excellent product supply and marketing, signed strategic cooperation agreements with Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities, and established a regular promotion mechanism for culture and tourism. 

 

Such promotional videos as “Visiting Chenzhou in 60 Seconds” and “Integration of Red and Green Resources, Picturesque Chenzhou”, has received more than 18 million hits and more than 5 million likes. 

 

Last year, the city’s tourist arrivals and tourist revenue increased by 21% and 25% respectively year on year. 

 

Tourism industry cannot make it without projects. This year, the city gives priority to projects and focuses on quality and efficiency. It set a goal to reorganize funds of more than 6 billion yuan and attract social investment of more than 60 billion yuan in 6 months to create a batch of classic and quality tourist projects. 

 

Commencement ceremony of 13 key projects

 

To promote project construction, 16 special headquarters were set up for key projects in the city. On February 18, a total of 131 key projects with a total investment of 46.3 billion yuan started construction, and the annual planned investment is 22.7 billion yuan. Among them, there are 90 tourism-related projects to be completed within 3 to 5 months. 

 

“Up to now, the construction of 226 tourism-related projects have been started.” Chen Wenjun, director of the local cultural tourism department, said that these projects cover 13 categories, like Red cultural tourism, renovation and upgrading of scenic spots, and cultural tourism driving rural revitalization. 

 

To promote the integrated development of culture and tourism, Chenzhou accelerates the establishment of Chenzhou Culture and Tourism Group, improves the fund management of cultural tourism industry, strengthens the functions of cultural venture capital, tourism venture capital and financial guarantee, attracts more social capital to invest in the city’s cultural tourism industry. 

 

Chenzhou reorganized various special funds of 480 million yuan, and attracted social capital of 1.175 billion yuan to establish 4 industrial funds in the first phase, which are mainly used to support cultural tourism, sustainable development and other fields. It also took a series of preferential policies and measures to promote the healthy, stable and rapid development of tourism.