Blending culture, history to attract more visitors

The city of Nanchong in China's Sichuan province is putting its weight behind its rich history and culture by integrating them with its tourism industry to provide unique experiences for visitors.

With a history of more than 2,200 years, Nanchong is known for being the cradle of China's silk industry and the place most associated with culture from the Three Kingdoms period (220-280).

In modern times, the city has become renowned in China as a demonstration for promoting local culture and for being home to five national-level intangible culture heritage and 29 provincial-level intangible cultural heritage.

"Culture and tourism are complementary," said Peng Qinghua, Party secretary of Sichuan province. "Together they can bring out the best in each other, with culture as the soul of tourism and tourism as the carrier of culture."

He added that the government should continue to advance the all-round integration of culture and tourism across various sectors.

To date, Nanchong has two national-level demonstration counties for leisure agriculture and rural tourism, two provincial-level tourism resorts, four provincial-level pilot zones for ecological tourism and three provincial-level demonstration counties for rural tourism. The city is integrating cultural tourism into key industries such as agriculture, forestry, irrigation, manufacturing and internet.

"By promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism and offering high-quality tourism products and services, we will better provide for visitors, " said Song Chaohua, Party secretary of Nanchong.

"With the goal of becoming a vital center for cultural tourism in Sichuan province, Nanchong is building five cultural brands - red culture, Three Kingdoms culture, silk culture, Jialing River green culture and Spring Festival culture," Song said.

Zhao Xiuqing, head of the Nanchong culture, radio, television and tourism administration, said that focused cultural tourism practices including tourism around museums, tourism around intangible cultural heritage and tourism around art performances have become a new driving force for the development of Nanchong's tourism industry.

And these efforts are paying off in Nanchong. Last year, the city welcomed 57.4 million visits, ranking fourth in the province, up 19.6 percent year-on-year.

The overall revenue generated from the cultural and tourism industries surpassed 75 billion yuan ($10.65 billion), up 17 percent year-on-year.

Nanchong recorded 3.87 million visits during the four-day Labor Day holiday in May, up 42.3 percent year-on-year with total tourism turnover reaching 1.87 billion yuan.

One of the most popular destinations in Nanchong is Langzhong Ancient Town built in 314 BC, which is one of the only ancient towns in China retaining its original name.

Although it is a major tourist attraction in Sichuan and is surrounded by a large modern city, the town is very well maintained and has not been spoiled by commercialization.

Many tourists come to the town for its traditional architecture, slow pace of life and cultural experiences. Visitors enjoy taking photos with the sculpture of Zhang Fei, a famous military commander during the Three Kingdoms period and walking around the antique examination compound.

One of the most famous cultural icons in Langzhong is its Spring Festival tradition.

At the town, people could see white-haired old men wear antique costumes and act as Luoxia Hong, an astronomer born in Langzhong during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), sending hongbao, or red envelope, to visitors and to bring best wishes, peace and good fortune for the New Year.

Luoxia Hong is renowned as the Spring Festival Old Man as he was the first man to name the first month of the year as Spring Festival in the Chinese lunar calendar.

Other experiences in Nanchong include attending traditional folk dances or puppet shows and buying specialties such as Zhang Fei beef, Baoning pancakes and local vinegar.

For those who are more interested in historical events can visit the Wanjuan building, where Chen Shou, a historian in the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316), wrote the Record of the Three Kingdoms, a biographical series of the Wei, Shu and Wu dynasties during the Three Kingdoms Period.

In the silk museums, visitors can experience the rearing of silkworms and reeling silk.

To further boost development in cultural tourism, the government has initiated a series of projects over the past few years.

One example is the 10 billion yuan beer town project in the city's Shunqing district, which is a new urban complex combining food, shopping, sightseeing, beer culture and recreational activities.

When completed, the project will help to drive development in the local economy, boost related industries and improve the city's influence in the region.

Another key project is the 233-hectare Langzhong town, which has attracted investment of 8 billion yuan. Construction on the town started in March and consists of eight sport competition zones, three tourism routes and six recreational centers.

Last year, Nanchong carried out 46 key projects on culture and tourism with a total investment of 19.7 billion yuan.

By 2021, the city is expected to construct a batch of demonstration zones and tourism spots for cultural tourism with expected annual revenue growth surpassing 15 percent year-on-year.

wangjinhui@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/17/2019 page26)