Holiday haven set to bloom
Wuxi, known across the country as the "Sparkling Pearl of Taihu Lake", is trying to take advantage of its scenic lake views and well-established tourism facilities to become a leading leisure tourism center.
The city introduced an industrial development program for leisure tourism in April, becoming the first in the country to draft such a blueprint.
According to the program, the city is divided into four functional parts, called the Urban Leisure Tourism Zone, Taihu Lake Leisure Tourism Zone, Yixing Leisure Tourism Zone and Jiangyin Leisure Tourism Zone.
Tourists and business people will be able to enjoy sightseeing, shopping and sports activities in these areas.
The landscape of the city is enriched by the beauty of the Yangtze River, the Grand Canal and the Taihu Lake. The most beautiful section of Taihu Lake lies in Wuxi, with many famous parks scattered around its shores. For example, in the Taihu Lake Leisure Tourism Zone, tourists are able to visit the Wuxi Taihu National Tourism and Recreation Area, which has a few large sightseeing and amusement projects such as the International Angling Center, the Moon-bay Vacation Village and the Linshan Scenic Spot.
The beautiful lake scenes have inspired China Central TV station (CCTV) to choose Wuxi for the building of a special base for shooting movies and TV series. The base, known as the CCTV Wuxi Location, has built theme parks such as "City of Europe", "City of Tang Dynasty", "City of Three Kingdoms" and "City of Water Margin".
Besides attractive lake views, the city also has a rich treasure of fountains, caves and gardens.
In the Yixing Leisure Tourism Zone, for example, visitors can visit several mountain caves to see centuries-old stalactite. Besides this, tourists are also able to have a close look at the manufacturing of boccaro teapots, which have become a popular handicraft in the international market.
The city's long history and rich human resources have added great value to its ambition of becoming a leisure tourism center.
As early as 3,000 years ago, in order to give the throne to his brother Jili, Taibo, the eldest son of Emperor Zhouwu of the northern tribe, came here from Shaanxi with his younger brother Zhongyong and set up the State of Gouwu (now Meicun Town of Xishan city).
Taibo promoted the combination of central and southern Chinese culture and created the Wu Culture. In the 5th year of the West Han Dynasty (202BC), Wuxi County was formally established. The name Wuxi, literarily meaning "no tin", was given due to Tin Hill's dwindling resources of the metal.
As the birthplace of Wu Culture, Wuxi has given rise to a galaxy of talented personalities who have made contributions to the development of China's economy and culture.
The city's ambition of developing leisure tourism has taken the needs of international tourists into consideration.
Wuxi is only 128 km away from Shanghai and it focuses on the metropolis as an important source of international tourists.
The World Expo 2010, which is to be held in Shanghai, will provide a golden opportunity for Wuxi to attract international travelers.
Wuxi's tourism authorities have also traveled overseas to hold promotion campaigns, telling people around the world about tourist attractions there. For example, the city government held a large-scale event in Japan last January to celebrate the traditional friendship between Wuxi and some Japanese cities.
The city has formulated special policies tailored to meet the requirements of different overseas markets.
In Asia, Wuxi has also enlisted the cooperation of travel agencies in Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and China's Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan to attract more people to visit Wuxi.
Big international names in the hotel industry, such as Sheraton, Kempinski and Shangri-la have already entered the local market, providing good accommodation facilities for both domestic and overseas travelers.
Besides international hotels, the city also encourages the development of China's chain hotels, to increase its abilities to host more tourists.
(China Daily 09/07/2007 page37)
