The awarding ceremony for Netizens' Favorite Ten China Cultural Tourism Cities was held on April 25, at the opening ceremony of the 2012 China's Network Media Tour of Changsha, themed "happy tour of Changsha and communication of happiness by the Internet". Bozhou was selected as one of Netizens' Favorite Ten China Cultural Tourism Cities.

The event was hosted jointly by the Changsha municipal tourism administration and China Travel Network Media Alliance (CTNMA). It was voted online by netizens and graded by the editors-in-chief of the CTNMA members.

Finally, Beijing, Changshan city of Hunan province, Chengdu city of Sichuan province, Zhengzhou city of Henan province, Kuqa city of Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region, Danzhou city of Hainan province, Hulun Buir of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Taizhou city of Jiangsu province, Bozhou city of Anhui province, and Jiujiang city of Jiangxi province have won the honor.

Bozhou is located in the northwestern part of Anhui province. It has a profound historical and cultural foundation and contains very rich resources of cultural tourism. Bozhou has a history of over 3,700 years since the establishment of the capital of the Shang Dynasty (c.16th centuty-11th century BC).

It's among the first batch of China's excellent tourism cities and has been well-known as "China's Famous Historical and Cultural Town", "China's Town of Longevity", "China's Town of Martial Arts", and "China's Town of Herbs". Many sages and celebrities, such as Laozi, the founder of Taoism; Zhang Liang, famous prime minister of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24); Cao Cao, Emperor of Wei (one of the Three Kingdoms); expert physician Hua Tuo, and heroine Hua Mulan, were all born here.

Huaxilou, a treasure in Central China, well preserves the finest brick carvings and wooden engravings in China. Cao Cao's underground tunnel for maneuvering the soldiers is known as the "Underground Great Wall".

In recent years, with the support of the governments, Bozhou's cultural and tourism have developed rapidly, and the popularity of its city brand has improved.

In 2008, Bozhou ranked on the list of China's 200 Beautiful Cities; in 2009, it won the third place in China's competitiveness in development costs in the Blue Book of China's City Competitiveness prepared by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; in 2010, it was assessed as the most happy city in Anhui province by the survey jointly conducted by the CCTV Finance Channel, National Bureau of Statistics of China, and China Post; and in 2011, it was rated as one of China's 100 Happiest Cities.

Winning the title of the Netizens' Favorite Ten China Cultural Tourism Cities proves that the unique appeal of the ancient city of Bozhou has been recognized by more and more netizens, said Ma Lu, vice-mayor of Bozhou.

Greater efforts will be made to develop the tourism of Bozhou and to build it into a famous historical and cultural town. Bozhou will enhance online publicity, said Yang Limin, director of Bozhou municipal tourism administration.

Online assessments may enable more netizens to understand the history and culture of a place. Yang would like to hold a touring event of Bozhou with CTNMA so that the netizens from across China can travel everywhere in Bozhou to learn, recognize and understand Bozhou.