Visitors walk, run and ride to Binhu

Local government recognizes and protects tourism's potential as guests throng to the picturesque area's natural attractions

Binhu district of Wuxi, in East China's Jiangsu province, will host the 2017 Wuxi Marathon on March 19.

Huang Xia, an amateur marathon runner in Wuxi, said that once the organizers of the 2017 Wuxi Marathon started receiving participants' registrations, the entry limit was quickly reached, as too many people want to take part in the race.

One explanation for this rush of runners' passion is the draw of "the most beautiful scenic racing track in China".

Just imagine the sensation of running under blooming cherry trees near a beautiful lake, the Yantouzhu Scenic Area, Lihu Lake's Lakeshore Fountain and the Changguangxi Wetland Park. The route was designed to give marathoners the sense of running through a picturesque landscape painting.

Binhu, because of its natural environment, also hosts the Tour of Taihu Lake bicycle race, the Yangtze River Yixing Hiking Competition, the Lihu Lake Dragon Boat Competition and the Taihu Cup Sailing Race. The combination of sports and tourism is a major brand of Binhu's leisure tourism sector.

The district covers an area of 629 square kilometers in the heartland of the Yangtze River Delta, of which 50 sq km are situated in forests and mountains and 371 sq km are covered by water.

There are three national 5A Scenic Areas, six 4A Scenic Areas, four 3A Scenic Areas, one national-level city wetland park and five national-level agricultural tourism model spots along the 112 km of lake shoreline in Binhu.

Binhu district government plans to turn local tourism resources - about 80 percent of Wuxi's key tourism spots - into a pillar industry and transform the area into a beautiful lakeside town to serve as a tourist destination.

The government promotes the "whole-regional tourism" model in Binhu, which involves planning and developing the district as an integrated tourism destination, and as a complete industrial chain in terms of management and sales, to attract more tourists.

Song Xiaoyu, director of the Binhu Tourism Bureau, said the National Tourism Administration added Binhu to a list of the second batch of candidates for national whole-regional tourism demonstration areas in October last year.

Song vowed to make the Binhu tourism enterprise alliance stronger, integrate tourism elements into the social and economic development of the district, expand tourism transportation networks and relevant public service systems and consolidate comprehensive supervision to make Binhu into a national-level demonstration area for whole-regional tourism.

Wuxi tourism and transport authorities joined hands with the Binhu Tourism Alliance and tourism service website lvmama.com to launch the first tourism bus connecting all major scenic areas in Wuxi on Dec 30, building on the model and experience of sight-seeing buses in Suzhou and Shanghai. Thanks to the bus, it is now more convenient for travelers to reach remote scenic spots in Binhu, such as Nianhua Bay in Lingshan town.

Binhu Party chief Yuan Fei said: "To help everyone to cherish Binhu's unique natural tourism resources, the authority remains focused on ecological preservation in Binhu. Now 75 percent of Binhu's area is under the protection of the government's 'ecological red line'."

The district government spent more than 2.5 billion yuan ($362 million) planting nearly 4,400 hectares of forests and constructing a 7.6-km green ecological corridor around Taihu Lake. It has also closed down more than 2,000 polluting enterprises.

"A big challenge is developing industries in the mountains and near the water," Yuan added.

"We focused on two key industries: cultural tourism and high technology, as we have rich tourism resources and a number of educational and science and technology research institutions in aerospace and aviation, electronic information, biological industries and equipment manufacturing."

The government also plans to support the district's development through four aspects, using the manufacturing industry as the foundation, the service sector as support, with emerging industries and cultural tourism giving the area a distinctive edge.

liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 03/03/2017 page20)