Construction of a town featuring time-honored Chinese liquor culture kicked off yesterday in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Located in the center of Sichuan, Tuopai in Shehong county is an idyllic town lined with willows. Together with the Tuopai Yeast Liquor Co., LTD, one of the six top liquor producers in Sichuan, Shehong will raise 3.5 billion yuan (US$556 million) to build a liquor culture park and a liquor culture street in the town.

Tourists taking a stroll in the street will come across traditional distilleries and traditional small workshops where they can appreciate the process of liquor production and taste newly-brewed liquor while enjoying beautiful sights of the town.

Shehong, hometown of Chen Zi'ang, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty (AD618-907), has been famous for its liquor culture since Chen took liquor from his home county to Chang'an, capital of the dynasty, and shared it with other famous poets.

Yesterday also witnessed the ground-breaking ceremony of the automated liquor filling center of the Tuopai Yeast Liquor Co., LTD.

With a construction area of nearly 5.5 million square meters, the center with an investment of about 26 million yuan ($4.1 million) will increase the company's annual liquor filling capacity by 50,000 tons.