Opening ceremony of the tourism development conference.
On the evening of October 25, the opening ceremony of the 5th Huaihua Tourism Development Conference was held in Xiaoping Town, Chenxi County. Liu Xiao, former vice-chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and former chairperson of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, attended. Wei Zhaohui, secretary of the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee, declared the conference open. Gao Jingsheng, deputy secretary of the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee and acting mayor, delivered a speech. Yuan Yueping, a member of the Leading Party Members Group and deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, addressed the ceremony. Also in attendance were He Zunqing, deputy secretary of the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee and secretary of the Municipal Political and Legal Affairs Commission; Li Wanqian, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Huaihua Municipal People’s Congress; and Peng Yanmin, secretary of the Leading Party Members Group of the Huaihua Municipal Committee of the CPPCC.
Wei Zhaohui, secretary of the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee, declares the conference open.
On behalf of the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee and the Huaihua Municipal People’s Government, Gao Jingsheng extended a warm welcome to the leaders and guests attending the conference and expressed sincere gratitude to friends from all sectors who have long supported Huaihua’s development. He said that the land where they stood had transformed from a town with a military industrial past into a major cultural tourism hub, offering a vivid example of how Huaihua uses conferences to drive urban development and tourism to boost industry. Since the first tourism development conference, Huaihua has addressed the two imperatives of integration. Its cultural tourism landscape has been reshaped, its cultural tourism industry is poised for growth, its cultural tourism brand has gained renown, and new cultural tourism offerings have flourished, delivering impressive results in building momentum for cultural tourism and extending its benefits across the region. Taking this year’s conference as an opportunity, Huaihua will continue to let culture enrich tourism and tourism promote culture, develop tourism across the board and throughout the industry, and encourage participation across society. It will actively contribute to the development of the Greater Zhangjiajie International Tourism Area and work to create a world-class Zhangjiajie-Huaihua-Guilin tourism corridor, striving to build a first-class tourist destination in China with even greater appeal, character and quality. Huaihua warmly welcomes guests and talented people from near and far to visit, invest in and make their home in the city, to enjoy the scenery of the Wuxi region, share the benefits of cultural tourism and pursue success together.
Gao Jingsheng, deputy secretary of the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee and acting mayor, delivers a speech.
In his address, Yuan Yueping said that Huaihua is a dynamic part of Hunan’s cultural tourism landscape and an important growth engine for the Greater Zhangjiajie International Tourism Area. In recent years, the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee and the Huaihua Municipal People’s Government have worked toward the goal of making the city a first-class tourist destination in China. Huaihua successfully hosted the 5th Hunan Tourism Development Conference, helping bring about significant advances in the city’s cultural tourism industry, range of offerings, market vitality and brand value. He expressed the hope that Huaihua would further optimize its development layout, enrich its tourism offerings, energize the market and improve services, and integrate more deeply into the Greater Zhangjiajie area’s coordinated development framework, making new and greater contributions to building Hunan into a strong province in culture and tourism and to developing it into a world tourism destination.
Yuan Yueping, a member of the Leading Party Members Group and deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, addresses the ceremony.
Also in attendance were Huang Donghong, deputy director of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of the Hunan Provincial People’s Congress; Shi Yazhou, former member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Committee and vice-president of Minzu University of China; Zhang Xia, Party secretary and chairwoman of Hunan Performing Arts Group; Xiang Hong, deputy Party secretary, vice-chairman and general manager of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd.; Lin Chengge, former deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; Tang Yaoshan, Party secretary and director of the Hunan Reservoir Resettlement Affairs Center; Luo Haowen, deputy Party secretary and director of Hunan Performing Arts Group; Chen Chunhua, second-level inspector of the Hunan Provincial Forestry Department; Yu Xinzheng, chairman of Guangxi Yijianyou Digital Culture and Tourism Industry Group Co., Ltd.; and Zheng Shouping, Party secretary and chairman of the Guilin branch of Guangxi Tourism Development Group. Attendees also included officials from relevant provincial departments and other cities and prefectures, as well as representatives of chambers of commerce and associations, travel agencies and related businesses from across China. Huaihua city leaders Yin Peiguo, Hu Chen, Huang Jianxin, Zuo Hong, Zhou Yangpin, Wu Hanming, Zhang Gong, Zhou Wei and Xiang Rulian were also present.
At the opening ceremony, Chenxi County gave a cultural tourism presentation. The program also featured events including the 3rd Huaihua Arts Showcase.
Before the conference, attending guests visited several major cultural tourism projects in Xiaoping Town, including the 1938 Xiaoping Ordnance Battalion Visitor Center, the Rice Fish Park, the Ordnance Cave Coffee, the “A Century of Ordnance, the Xiaoping Miracle” exhibition hall, and The Story of the Xiangxi Bandit Suppression Campaign.
Wei Zhaohui and other attending guests tour the “A Century of Ordnance, the Xiaoping Miracle” exhibition hall. (Photo by Wu Tao and Pan Yu/Huaihua Daily)
The conference was hosted by the CPC Huaihua Municipal Committee and the Huaihua Municipal People’s Government, and organized by the Chenxi County Party Committee and County Government. Under the theme “Making Huaihua a New Star in the Greater Zhangjiajie International Tourism Area and Supporting the Development of the Zhangjiajie–Huaihua–Guilin World Tourism Corridor,” the two-day event included the 2026 Huaihua Conference on High-Quality Cultural Tourism Development and Investment Promotion, the opening ceremony of the 1938 Xiaoping Ordnance Battalion, and the Chenxi Men’s Basketball Invitational Tournament.
(Translated by Yang Hong)