It was learned that Beihu district was awarded as “national demonstration county (district) of leisure agriculture and rural tourism” by the Ministry of Agriculture currently.

Beihu district where is with convenient transportation and rich tourism resources is the largest commerce and logistics center of South Hunan. In the process of the promotion of leisure agriculture and rural tourism, Beihu district kept the leading role of industry and improved well with different means, which benefited the agricultural industry and farmers with good results of the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism.

Aishangsanhe Farm which is located in Sanhe village, Huatang town, Beihu district covers with over 2000mu lands. Some zones as vegetable theme restaurant, vegetable sightseeing park, farming work experience zone, and etc. were set there. It worked together with Fengling Vegetable Professional Cooperative to cultivate over 5000mu fruits and vegetables with unified technology, seedling, and marketing. The rural leisure tourism based on agricultural plantation contributed over 30million yuan sales volume and over 40million yuan tourism revenue to the district.

With the “catalyst” of leisure agriculture, Beihu district agriculture industry was being improved rapidly, especially the land transfer based on farm construction. The farmers can be favored with bonus by placing lands as shares or rents by leasing the lands. They also have the priority to be hired on same condition according to the contract. As shown on the statistics, the farmers were favored with the increase of income of 10,000yuan/year/family by the 48 leisure farms and 130 rural inns.

After the integration of land resources, Beihu district helped to promote large-scale and qualified agricultural production with the main parts of farms. The hundreds mu and thousands mu big leisure farms are cultivated with different fruits and vegetables as strawberry, mulberry, Chinese cabbage, and etc. Series modern agricultural bases as Huatang Tangchang Strawberry Base, Tonghe Pomelo Base, Tashui Golden Pear Base, Tianhu Goose Base, and etc. were built there.
In order to avoid the homogenization of development, Beihu district figured out “planning for the development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism” and laid out different characteristic leisure agricultures accordingly.

Many visitors were enjoying their time in the Ecology Park of Xiaobu Ancient Village when the reporters arrived there. Natural sceneries, farming work, golf, cycling, ad etc. are available there. Wu Guang who is the principal of Ecology Park said to the reporters: “Xiaobu is working on the plan of a project named ‘green heart, children village’ which is aimed to build a rural leisure tourism zone for children.” Till then, the Ecology Park would become a more characteristic tourism destination.
Based on multi-variant development, three characteristic leisure agriculture and rural tourism plate were shaped in Beihu district gradually: “Longnv plate”- leisure fishing, mainly relying on its water resources for the development of “water funs and leisure fishing brand”; “Xiaobu plate”- leisure sightseeing, mainly replying on beautiful natural sceneries for the development of “leisure tourism and sightseeing brand”; and “Shigaitang plate”- breeding, mainly replying on its rich agricultural resources for the development of “breeding brand”

In order to solve the narrow-neck problem of capitals which hindered on the way of further development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism, Beihu district encouraged different economic organizations as professional cooperatives, industrial and commerce proprietors, and leading agricultural companies to place investments on leisure agriculture projects with different forms as sole proprietorship, share, cooperation, and etc.

“We will place more attention on perfecting planning and enhancing guidance and innovate more methods and carriers to promote the sound development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism,” said Ouyang Jianhua- Secretary of Beihu District Party Committee. The first Hunan Chenzhou Beautiful Rural Ecological and Leisure Tourism Festival will be undertaken by Beihu district in this year, which will help to further popularize the fame and influence of Beihu rural tourism.
Thanks to the prosperous development of leisure agriculture and rural tourism, Beihu district’s tourism industry and tertiary industry were improved greatly. In 2015, 6.169million visitors traveled to Beihu district, contributing 4.17billion yuan tourism revenue, up 16% and 16.6% respectively. The added value of tertiary industry hit 20.945billion yuan, up 14.6%.