Regarded as
the starting point of China's modern tourism development, Huangshan, a
city in the eastern province of Anhui, has been working hard to upgrade
the sector in the new era. Tangyue
village in Huangshan's Shexian county has long been famous for its
complex of seven well-preserved ancient arches that run along an old
road at the center of the village. In 1996, the
Tangyue Memorial Archway was listed as a key national cultural
protection unit as it is the largest and best-preserved arch complex in
the province. Several
hundred meters from the entrance to the arches lies a 130-hectare
agriculture leisure park, which features an agricultural science and
technology museum, a greenhouse containing tropical plants and other
vegetable and fruit cultivation bases that provide visitors with
hands-on experience. Though it will
not officially open to the public until October, about 5,000 people got
an early glimpse when they visited the site during the five-day Labor
Day holiday, which began on May 1, according to Zhu Sheming, general
manager of the park, whose name, April Village, is derived from a famous
pastoral poem. Construction
started in 2019 on land transferred from local villagers. The same year,
Tangyue received nearly 1 million visits, mostly to the arches,
according to the county government. On May 1, the
management committee of the Huangshan Mountain Scenic Spot warned that
the number of online appointments for the next day had reached the upper
limit of 35,500. Though a
further 2,000 tickets were reserved for people who had no access to
online platforms, such as seniors, many others had to wait at the
entrance or visit other destinations. "Huangshan
enjoys abundant natural and cultural tourism resources, and local
residents and visiting tourists want to enrich their experience here,
especially as they care greatly about their children's enjoyment," said
Zhu from the agriculture park. Before the
COVID-19 outbreak, the daily limit for visits to Huangshan Mountain, aka
the Yellow Mountain, was 50,000, equivalent to half the entire number
of visits in 1979. In July 1979,
Deng Xiaoping, China's leader who initiated the reform and opening-up
policy in 1978, visited the mountain as one of about 104,000 trips made
that year. During his visit, Deng urged local officials to develop the mountain into an internationally renowned tourism destination. Since then, Huangshan's tourism sector has grown rapidly, benefiting local people. Inspired by
Deng's ideas, residents of Shangzhang, a village in Tangkou township at
the foot of the mountain, founded Feicuigu Tourism Co in 1987. The villagers
named the collectively-owned scenic spot Feicuigu, or "Emerald Valley",
because the water in the brooks and pools is crystal clear with a green
tinge like an emerald. By the end of the first year of operation, the company had earned more than 100,000 yuan from entrance fees. In 2019, about
74 million visitors came to Huangshan-about seven times the number of
visitors to Hawaii the same year-while visitor numbers from outside the
Chinese mainland were 2.87 million, about twice those to Hainan
province, according to local government statistics. In a recent
Guangming Daily report, Sun Yong, Huangshan's mayor, said the city's
tourism sector has had to be upgraded. Many measures have been taken,
including preventing unreasonable rises in ticket prices, improving
facilities at the growing number of hostels and enriching the tourism
content, which is the aim of Zhu's agricultural park project. Hu Weimin, a
marketing executive with Yixian Huihuang Tourism Group, a State-run
company in Yixian county, said hardly any towns and villages are not
benefiting from Huangshan's tourism sector, while competition among them
and with other attractions nearby is becoming fiercer. "Tourists keep
coming, but sightseeing is just an old-fashioned way of traveling-we
have to think about how to attract people to stay for as long as
possible and really enjoy their stay," Hu said. His company
runs 13 of the 17 major tourist attractions in the county, including
Xidi and Hongcun villages, which are jointly listed as a UNESCO Cultural
Heritage Site. The villages are known for their history and the
preservation of residences built during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing
(1644-1911) dynasties. "In the
daytime, visitors can enjoy every piece of delicate carved artwork on
the old buildings, while we want them to have more fun at night," Hu
said. With
investment of 30 million yuan ($4.6 million), the company installed a
water screen film in Xidi village in 2019, which straddles several ponds
and brooks and lights up all the outdoor areas. Xu Dahe,
director of the Huangshan Culture and Tourism Bureau, told Guangming
Daily, "Extending the tourists' visits also extends the scope for
tourism consumption."
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