Rural tourism gets a boost in Shandong county

Tourists take photos with beautiful peonies. [Photo by Liu Yongxia for chinadaily.com.cn]

During the recent May Day holiday, a Chinese flower farm near Hongxin Road in Juancheng county – administered by Heze city in East China's Shandong province – proved to be a real feast for the eyes with more than 200 mu (13.33 hectares) of Chinese peonies coming out in stunning full bloom.

With the deepening of its rural vitalization and the development of the beautiful countryside in Juancheng county, the landscape now boasts ravishing vistas everywhere and rural tourism continues to heat up.

The Fengzhuang Ecological Park is ever popular, especially during the recent May Day holiday. [Photo by Song Yusong for chinadaily.com.cn]

The Fengzhuang Ecological Park, which is also located near Hongxin Road, was crowded with tourist during the recent break. This spring, the park underwent a large-scale upgrade. Its owners invested in building a fairy-tale world, setting up a series of amusement parks such as a pet-themed park, a castle-themed park, a peacock garden and a bird garden.

A newly completed zoo is a particular source of pride, with a total investment of more than 20 million yuan ($2.89 million) and more than 2,000 animals, attracting tens of thousands of tourists every day.

According to Zhao Chuanjin, the operations manager of the Fengzhuang Ecological Park, it hosted more than 20,000 tourists every day during the May Day holiday.

In recent years, Juancheng county has been vigorously promoting its rural vitalization strategy and cultivating its rural tourism industry.

To that end, it has established various forms distinctive rural tourism clusters, developed rural tourism around scenic spots and gone into specialized agricultural experience tourism. (Edited by Fan Yuanyuan)