Huaihua International Land Port
On May 19, the 14th China Tourism Day, the 3rd Hunan Tourism Development Conference announced at a press conference that Huaihua will hold the 5th Hunan Tourism Development Conference in 2025. Huaihua has been looking forward to taking the advantage of the event to boost its tourism industry.
Huaihua, the home of 187 well-preserved traditional Chinese villages, is known for its tourism featuring a farming culture with a long history. Gaomiao Relics found in Hongjiang County-Level City of Huaihua dates back to 7,800 years ago, making it one of the important birthplaces of farming civilization in southern China. The city has taken initiatives to boost the popularity of the tourism golden triangle of “Anjiang Agricultural Culture Tourist Area - Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town - Qianyang Ancient Town”, making them Instagram-worthy locations.
Huaihua is the birthplace of hybrid rice. Academician Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice, lived and worked in Anjiang of Huaihua for 37 years. The city has witnessed the legend of the seed that changes the world.
Currently, Huaihua is promoting 54 projects such as the Hybrid Rice Birthplace Museum, China Anjiang Citrus Distribution and Trading Center and Anjiang Farming Culture Tourism Area. The focus is on the building of the Gaomiao National Archaeological Site Park and the application of globally important agricultural heritage to raise the city’s tourism profile.
The city has rolled out measures to build leading tourist attractions so as to increase the competitiveness of its tourism industry, including upgrading Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town to Huaihua’s first 5A tourist resort and the Qianyang Ancient Town-Qingjiang River Tourist Resort to a national tourist resort, and building the tourism golden triangle of “Anjiang Agricultural Culture Tourist Area - Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town - Qianyang Ancient Town” as a core tourist product.
Anjiang Hybrid Rice Memorial Park
Located in the west of Hunan Province, Huaihua has 59 A-level and above tourist attractions, 345 scenic spots and 210 ancient towns/villages. The city also has rich historical tourist resources as it witnessed famous historical events such as the Tongdao Red Army Long March Transfer (1934) and the Acceptance of Japan’s Surrender at Zhijiang (1945).
Huaihua has taken the advantage of its geographic location to develop the tourism industry. According to Hunan Xuefeng Mountain Cultural Tourism Development Plan, four world-class tourism demonstration zones will be developed, among which three are located in Huaihua.
Huaihua will give full play to the ecological and cultural advantages of Xuefeng Mountain to develop tourism demonstration zones combining cultural tourism and rural revitalization through the prioritized development of several scenic spots such as the Chuanyan Mountain, Huangyan Ecotourism Area, Xuefengshang National Forest Park and rice terraces.
In the past two years, Huaihua has invested a total of 12.2 billion yuan on 177 key tourism projects, including the Chinese Book Mountain, Hongjiang in Misty Rain, cloud sea at the top of Xuefeng Mountain and Gaomiao Relics. The city has successfully held two tourism development conferences, raising the profile of its scenic spots. Last year, the city received about 58.38 million tourists with a total tourism revenue of 53.481 billion yuan, representing an increase of 44.19% and 41.18% respectively.
The tourism industries of Huaihua City, Zhangjiajie City and Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture are complementary to each other. Huaihua hosting the tourism development conference will boost the development of tourism in the west of Hunan and create the most distinctive regional tourism in Hunan.
Huaihua is located in the middle of Zhangjiajia and Guilin, two world-class tourist destinations and is close to other scenic spots such as Fanjing Mountain and Zhenyuan Ancient Town in Guizhou Province. Its geographic location supplemented with convenient transportation system formed with highways, high-speed railways and airlines provides a good opportunity for Huaihua to dock with Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and ASEAN countries to jointly construct a world-class tourism corridor, through which Huaihua’s tourist attractions will be introduced to ASEAN countries and the world at large.
At present, the city is riding on the momentum to build itself as a central city in the neighboring area of five provinces, which will influence more than 20 million people in 44 counties/districts/cities, and is fully capable to become a regional tourism distribution center.
Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town
Huaihua, a multi-ethnic settlement, was once the main battlefield for poverty alleviation in the Wuling Mountain Area.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Huaihua has actively explored new ways to carry out tourism-driven poverty alleviation, creating 3 national and 19 provincial villages and towns for rural tourism. The tourism economic community of Xuefeng Mountain Model, which helped nearly 200,000 people shake off poverty, has been selected as one of the World Tourism Alliance’s poverty alleviation cases.
The CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and the Hunan Provincial People’s Government have given Huaihua a new positioning and a new mission, requiring Huaihua to rely on the international land port to make new contributions to the reform and opening up of Hunan as a highland in the inland area, and to drive the high-quality development of the western Hunan region. Huaihua hosting the tourism development conference will facilitate the coordinated development of various regions in the province and the implementation of the Three Highlands and Four New Missions Strategy.
Huaihua holding two tourism development conferences in Hongjiang Ancient Commercial Town (2022) and Yuanling County (2023) have raised the popularity of the Twin Ancient Towns by the Yuan River and the Chinese Book Mountain and strengthened the construction of tourism infrastructure at scenic spots. The city will take the advantage of hosting the 5th Hunan Tourism Development Conference to build itself into a national tourism destination with upgraded scenic spots and services.
(Translated by Yang Hong)