Chenzhou is located in the southeast of Hunan province and covers 1 city, 2 districts and 8 counties with 19400 square meters of areas and a population of 5.06 million. It is the south gate of the world by contacting with Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau. It is also the excellent tourism city of China, hot spring city of China, decoration city of China, and mineral crystal city of China. Last June, Chenzhou was awarded with the favorite tourism destination for the Cantonese in the second session of the 25th Hong Kong International Travel Fair.
Chenzhou is full of tourism resources with over 64% forest coverage. Its main sceneries are: Dongjiang Lake which is named as “the south Dongting Lake” for its graceful scenery and excellent water quality; Mountain Mang – the top original ecological mountain in China; Suxianling- the 18th blessing place in China; Wuga Mountain- the exclusive opening international hunting ground in south of China; Wanhuayan which is famous for its marvelous cave wonders; Feitian Mountain- a national geological garden; Yongxing county- the industrial tourism demonstration pilot of China; Rucheng hot spring which is named as “king of hot springs in south of China” with the temperature of 98°; Yangshan ancient village, Banliang village, and Xiaobu ancient village which are full of classic south China residents’ features; Yuhou street- an ancient street with the history of more than one thousand years; Shatian, Guidong , the promulgated place of “three disciplines and six notices” of the Party, etc.. All these resources enabled Chenzhou to be an excellent destination for ecological leisure trip.
In 2000, Chenzhou municipal party committee and Chenzhou government successfully held the first China Chenzhou ecological tourism festival to assist Chenzhou’s opening-up by this kind of tourism festival. From 2000 to 2007, there were 8 ecological tourism festivals held in Chenzhou, and the one in 2005 was awarded as the top 50 festivals of China. From then on, China Chenzhou ecological tourism festival becomes a nationwide famous festival.
In 2011, Chenzhou tourism development was positioned as “city in the forest, leisure city” by Chenzhou municipal party committee and Chenzhou government. In the same year, Chenzhou city successfully held the first international leisure tourism festival with the theme of “city in the forest, leisure city”, which indicated a new stage of Chenzhou’s tourism development. It would be not only helpful for showing and promoting Chenzhou tourism resources, but also helpful for Chenzhou’s development worldwide by holding the international leisure tourism festival.
According to the decision of Hunan provincial party committee, Hunan government and organization committee of Hunan tourism festival, the opening ceremony of 2012 Hunan international tourism festival will be held in the beautiful lakeside of Dongjiang Lake, Zixing, Chenzhou city. The opening ceremony will be centered with the theme of “dating with Hunan province, seeking beauties in Dongjiang Lake” to show Chenzhou’s ecological culture, blessing culture, agrarian culture, red culture and leisure culture.
It will reach the tourism cultural resource cooperation across regions by realizing the international cooperation between Dongjiang Lake and Lake Geneva and establishing the alliance cooperation with northern latitude 25°hot springs worldwide. All of these may strengthen the influence and brand competitiveness of China Chenzhou international tourism festival and show the “city in the forest, leisure city”- Chenzhou’s unique charm to people in the world.