The urban area of Huaihua City adheres to the creation of national key counties and cities for leisure agriculture, comprehensively releases and accelerates the transformation of Hecheng’s agricultural and tourism resources advantages with innovative development models, and strives to build Hecheng into a well-known leisure agricultural center in the country. On December 29, 2022, Hecheng District was acknowledged as a national key county for leisure agriculture after local recommendation and expert review and evaluation.

Huaihua Jiufeng Agricultural Expo Park is a modern agricultural industrial park integrating vegetable planting demonstration, production and processing, technology research and development, and tourism. It is the largest ecological vegetable planting center and characteristic ecological agriculture demonstration complex in Huaihua at present. In the smart sightseeing greenhouse of the park, there is a green area with various vegetables, melons and fruits in order. The passage is covered by green vines, and hung with colorful characteristic melons and fruits. All kinds of off-season fruits and vegetables meet the needs of the local people all year round. “We will continue to develop a training for local vegetable growers and promote high-quality seedlings,” said Feng Shuzhen, General Manager of Huaihua Jiufeng Modern Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.

Huangyan Tourist Resort takes advantage of ecological resources, develops tourism industry according to local conditions, and creates more than 30 entertainment projects such as Stone Forest, Flower Sea, Huaihua Grand Canyon, etc. Tourists can not only enjoy flowers in spring, harken to rain in summer, appreciate colorful leaves in autumn and be immersed in snow in winter, experience the ecological scenery of the four seasons, but also take a sojourn in the scenic spot, watch the sea of clouds, and have a good relaxation. Zhou Gang, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and director candidate of Hecheng District Agriculture and Rural Bureau, said that the funds for agriculture-related projects such as development and reform, finance, agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, rural revitalization, tourism, urban investment and so on should be integrated every year to support the development of leisure agriculture. It is a must to adopt the “seven actions driving together” model of “Party leading, policy driving, green motivating, investment accelerating, industries collaborating, vanguard spearheading, and champion encouraging”, comprehensively enhance the endogenous power of leisure agriculture development, and explore a Hecheng model of leisure agriculture development.

It is reported that Hecheng District, relying on the advantages of good ecological environment and rich agricultural resources, has concentrated on creating characteristic leisure and sightseeing agriculture, cultivating and forming five leisure and agricultural boutique tourism routes in the east, west, south, north and middle. It has built five leisure and tourism agricultural parks, including Huaihua Jiufeng Modern Agricultural Expo Park, Huaihua Grand Canyon, Baima Flower Sea, Shuangcun Jialu Mountain Villa, Shanxia Flower Sea and Happy Valley. By means of “migrant employment+share participation and dividend+specialty sales+land circulation”, the villagers’ multiple income and stable income increase have been realized. In 2022, it received 13.06 million tourists in total and achieved a comprehensive tourism income of 11.266 billion yuan.

(Translated by Tian Xia)