Series of reports on the 70th anniversary of Tongdao County:
Part four "Three Colors" is the foundation for a grand blueprint--- A vivid practice of Tongdao in building an all-for-one tourism development pattern
Here lies Wanfo Mountain Scenic Area, featuring the largest peak cluster and Danxia landform in Asia; here is Huangdu Dong Cultural Village, a tourist town with Hunan folk customs praised by countless literati as a haven of peace and tranquility; here stands the Ancient Youtou Dong Village, known as the "Little Potala Palace of Dong Townships" and hailed by experts as a "living museum" of Dong architecture; and here is also the Tongdao Turnaround Memorial Site, a nationwide destination for red cultural tourism...
This is Tongdao Dong Autonomous County.
Live performance of "Wuliang Love Song" at Huangdu Dong Cultural Village
Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, located at the juncture of Hunan, Guangxi, and Guizhou provinces, is known as the "Polar Region of Southern Chu Kingdom" and the "Throat of the Baiyue Peoples". It boasts rich ancient Dong customs, picturesque landscapes, and a glorious red cultural heritage. With four national 4A scenic spots, four 3A scenic spots, 14 sites under the protection of key national cultural relics (distributed across six locations), and four national-level intangible cultural heritage items, Tongdao is a strong tourism county in Hunan province, a key county for characteristic county economy (cultural tourism) in Hunan, a national best leisure tourism county, hometown of Chinese folk culture and art, and a demonstration county for all-for-one tourism in Hunan province.
In recent years, Tongdao, with its distinctive beauty encompassing red, green, and ancient colors, has fully promoted the tourism slogan "Red Tongdao, Lucky Dong Township," attracting tourists from all over and thereby unveiling a new picture of all-for-one tourism.
Thrilling Whitewater Rafting (Photo/Peng Yong)
Relying on the "Three Colors" Culture to Create Quality Routes
Red is the most distinctive feature of Tongdao. The significant historical event of the "Tongdao Turnaround" in December 1934 left a striking "red mark" on Tongdao, allowing the next generations to appreciate the beauty of this fortunate land where the encirclement was broken and fortune turned. Red tourism is complemented by green natural beauty in Tongdao which is famous for an excellent ecological environment with a forest coverage rate of 79.54%. It is a national demonstration county for ecological civilization construction and has been praised by UNESCO as an "unpolluted magical oasis". Tongdao is also a land of ethnic fusion, with 25 ethnic groups including Dong, Han, Miao, and Yao, making it a place of multi-ethnic integration and the "living museum of Dong culture". "The deep integration of 'red, green, and ancient' cultures has injected new momentum into Tongdao's high-quality development," said Qin Xiemin, the secretary of the Tongdao County Party Committee.
Appreciating the red culture is a journey that never lets one forget his original aspirations. Following the reporter's footsteps, starting from the county town, we first visited the Tongdao Turnaround Memorial Hall and then proceeded to the Bingshuge Long March Cultural Park. Along this route, there is the Tongdao Turnaround Memorial Hall, a shining pearl on the Yangtze River Red Gene Inheritance Tour route. The Tongdao Turnaround Memorial Site is located at the foot of Luomeng Mountain in Xi Town, Tongdao County, comprising the Gongcheng Academy (the former site of the Tongdao Turnaround meeting), the thematic exhibition hall, the memorial square, the Baoqing Guild Hall (where Mao Zedong, Wang Jiaxiang, and Zhang Wentian stayed), the Dongyue Temple (the former site of the General Political Department of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army), the Red Army Street, and the Red Army Floating Bridge. It is an important venue for patriotism education. Walking into the solemn and towering square of the Turnaround Memorial Hall, we paid tribute to the martyrs. By visiting the memorial hall, watching situational dramas, and listening to the heroic deeds of the Red Army, we can truly feel the combat experiences and heroic revolutionary spirit of the revolutionary ancestors, constantly draw strength for progress, fulfill our original mission, and strive to contribute to strengthening the sense of community for the Chinese nation.
Bamboo Pole Dance
Listen, who is singing? The first Tongdao Trendy Music Festival, full of passion and vitality, was held at Wanfo Mountain, a national 4A scenic spot, bringing the audience a musical journey that reaches the soul. The Enjoyable Ecological Danxia Tourism Route is a path for exploring landscapes, popular science adventures, nurturing the body and mind, and getting close to nature. Starting from the central county, we visited Wanfo Mountain Scenic Area, Wanfo Mountain Travel Vehicle & RV Camping Base, Mujiao Scenic Area, and Longdi Ecological Whitewater Rafting Scenic Area in sequence. Along this route, there is Wanfo Mountain, featuring the largest peak cluster and Danxia landform in Asia. Wanfo Mountain Scenic Area is an eco-friendly and livable wellness destination with lush mountains, clear waters, and blue skies. With good air quality in more than 98% of days annually, it is known as one of the "Top 100 Cities for Deep Breathing in China" and a "Natural Oxygen Bar in China". By hiking in the Golden Top of Wanfo Mountain, we can converse with the sun, moon, and stars, overlook the stunning Danxia wonders, and appreciate the "ecological beauty filled with fairy aura that is unparalleled in the world" amidst the sea of clouds and mystical mountains. Gather a couple of friends and visit the Wanfo Mountain Travel Vehicle & RV Campground in the scenic area, where you can enjoy flowers and the moon, and indulge in the fun in the wildness.
Experiencing Dong's folk culture is a museum study tour that best captures the historical charm of Tongdao. Starting from the county town, we visited the Ancient Youtou Dong Village and Huangdu Dong Cultural Village. The Ancient Youtou Dong Village, known as the "Potala Palace of Dong Townships", is a ridge-type Dong village initially built during the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty. With a long history of Dong culture, intact cultural traditions in clothing, music, architecture, and diet are preserved in the village, making it a living museum of Dong culture. Appreciating the intangible cultural heritage in the ancient and exquisite architecture, with the faint sound of earth lute songs echoing, brought people a sense of time-traveling. Visiting "China's Most Beautiful Dong Village," Huangdu Dong Cultural Village, we experienced a welcoming gate wine ceremony, tasted the wine treated by enthusiastic Dong girls' "Mountain Streams Pouring Down", watched Dong folk songs and dances and immersive Dong weddings, and truly felt the rich ethnic customs flowing in the blood of ethnic minorities. You can also invite friends to attend the "Dong Ethnic Group's Valentine's Day" - the Tongdao Dawu Liang Song Festival, and experience the world's largest communal feast and a scene of ten thousand dishes, all sour, which will leave diners with a refreshing "sour" experience throughout the journey.
Seeking Industrial Transformation and Promoting Industry Integration
Red culture signifies striving forward, green culture showcases vitality, and ancient culture fosters a profound heritage. Based on the "three-color culture", the quality tourism routes allow tourists to feel the power of the red culture, enjoy the ecological Danxia landform, and appreciate Dong township's folk culture while walking. The grand blueprint for Tongdao's all-for-one tourism is already shaped. However, how to develop and innovate the tourism industry under the new situation and how to be outstanding among many homogenized tourist attractions undoubtedly pose a major challenge for many tourism practitioners in Tongdao.
"To promote the innovative development of the 'three-color culture', it is necessary to prioritize the transformation of cultural tourism products. Specifically, we should vigorously tap into local culture by integrating cultural elements, aiming to make tourism enhanced by culture and culture highlighted by tourism. This serves as the premise and foundation for the integration of Tongdao's culture and tourism. Meanwhile, advancing tourism system reforms, broadening financing channels, and creating cultural tourism boutiques and characteristic industries are the key links for the combination of Tongdao's culture and tourism", explained Ou Yami, chairman of Tongdao Danxia Cultural Industry Development Co., Ltd. With the changes of time and social development, the single model of ticket selling has been unable to support the normal operation of scenic spots. Taking Wanfo Mountain Scenic Area as an example, in 2018, teams of tourists came to Wanfo Mountain in an endless stream. But now, the prosperity is no longer there, and the old path of relying on group purchasing and ticket selling cannot be chosen. In the new market environment, scenic spots must break through traditional tourism models and seek structural upgrades and industrial transformations. In Wanfo Mountain Scenic Area with a subtropical monsoon humid climate, abundant species on the mountain are created. The inheritance of Dong ethnic medicine provides a perfect chance for the development of wellness tourism. Based on this, the Tongdao Tourism authorities have proposed a new positioning of "meditation and wellness in scenic leisure resort", planning to build new star-rated hotels, wellness homestays, and camping bases within the Wanfo Mountain scenic area. To enrich the tourism industry, they will also leverage Wanfo Mountain's local ecological conditions, medicinal herbs, Dong medicine, and other unique features to develop attractions such as the Jade Belt River Chinese Medicine Valley and Dong Herb Hundred Gardens, aiming to promote rural revitalization through cultural tourism.
"Using tourism resources as the link and cultural themes as the entry point", said Wu Li, secretary of the Party Committee of the Tongdao County Culture, Tourism, Radio, Television, and Sports Bureau, "Through the integration of culture and tourism, we can strengthen coordination and communication between the cultural and tourist industries, to make unified plans and scientific programs of resources with distinct local characteristics for further enhance the operability of the plans." To achieve in-depth development of tourism products, the Tongdao Culture, Tourism, Radio, Television, and Sports Bureau has actively changed its mindset, shifting from the previous government-oriented model to the market-oriented model of actively attracting investment. They fully leverage investment attractions, exhibitions, cultural exchanges, and other activities to enhance the attractiveness of cultural tourism and continuously increase the social influence of Tongdao's "Three-Color" cultural tourism integration project.
Tourists experience "High Mountain Flowing Water" in Huangdu Dong Cultural Village. (Photo/Yang Guangzhong)
Adopting the strategy of "Big Cultural Tourism, Big Health, Big Agriculture", Tongdao tourism has continuously experimented on the path of multi-industry integration, successively developing a variety of new tourism products such as red tourism, water tourism, leisure tourism, study tourism, and ancient village cultural tourism. They closely follow the trend of the tourism industry upgrading and actively promote innovative development in the health and wellness leisure resort sector. Meanwhile, a batch of new cultural tourism integration industry projects are cultivated, such as performing arts and entertainment, intangible cultural heritage creativity, landmark cuisine, and branded products. Therefore, an innovative group of cultural tourism industries with a solid foundation for deep integration is continuously formed, and diverse cultural and tourism industries are developed to exert an industrial aggregation effect. For instance, the Longjing Aquatic Research and Study Center, opened in July this year and located in Mujiao Village, Wanfo Mountain Town, Tongdao, could provide aquatic teaching, aquatic entertainment, homestays, and camping. Due to its comprehensive and new facilities, it has attracted tourists from surrounding areas such as Jingzhou, Wugang, and Sanjiang. "The people of Tongdao are enthusiastic and honest, and the food here is delicious and affordable. The buffet, drinks, and snacks in the scenic area are priced the same as outside. This pricing makes people feel particularly comfortable", during the National Day holiday, tourists who came specifically from Wugang praised the services of Longjing. Duan Xiaoying, the online operation manager of the Longjing Aquatic Research and Study Center project, said that it was their commitment to the service positioning of "improving quality without raising prices" that had earned numerous praises, and many tourists had come because they had heard about it from friends.
Persisting in "Tourism+" Model to Spark New Vitality in Cultural Tourism
The green paradise showcases the charm of fitness. The China Outdoor Fitness and Leisure Conference (Tongdao Station) was held in Huangdu Ecological Village, boosting the development of tourism sports in Tongdao. The competition events included league outdoor runs, leisure bike rides, etc., starting from the new tourist service center of Huangdu Dong Cultural Village and ending at Pingtan Ancient Dong Village. Contestants weaved through lush trees and flowers, fully enjoying the vibrant autumn scenery during the competition, feeling the nourishment of the natural oxygen bar, and achieving an excellent effect of pleasing the mind and body, thereby better-integrating sports elements into modern agriculture and sightseeing tourism.
In recent years, to establish the Outdoor Fitness and Leisure Conference as a local sports highlight, Tongdao has worked hard to promote the integration of “Tourism + Sports + Agriculture", continuously improving public sports facilities and successively hosting events such as the Wanfo Mountain Hiking Competition, Balloon Volleyball Matches, and Basketball Matches, allowing more outdoor enthusiasts to experience diverse sports cultures. In 2022, Tongdao's Wanfo Mountain Forest Wellness Base was awarded the first batch of Traditional Chinese Medicine Wellness Tourism Quality Routes in Hunan Province, further promoting the integration of multiple industries and formats in the county and satisfying the sports needs of citizens and tourists yearning for a better life.
To promote the integrated development of culture and tourism, Tongdao has consistently experimented with the "Tourism+" models, with new formats for integrated cultural and tourism development such as the live-action performance of "Wu Liang Love Song," Dong oil tea custom experiences, and the "World's Largest Combined Feast." In the next step, regarding "Tourism + Intangible Cultural Heritage" model, Tongdao will support the development of intangible cultural heritage cultural creativity products, encourage upgrades to Dong brocade and Dong silver jewelry shops, and promote experiential consumption. In terms of "Tourism + Agriculture" model, it will adhere to the principle of "combining agriculture and tourism, promoting tourism through agriculture, and driving agriculture through tourism" to create and launch a batch of star-rated rural tourism destinations and rural complexes integrating ecological tourism, agricultural experiences, homestays, specialty catering, and specialty product displays, turning countryside into parks, farmhouses into guest rooms, and labor into experiences. At the same time, it will utilize green industries such as tea gardens and Chinese medicinal herbs to develop new tourism products. The "Tourism + Industry" model will accelerate the development of the tourism commodity processing industry, develop tourism commodities with high added value and strong ethnic characteristics, and cultivate a tourism commodity marketing system integrating research and development, production, and sales. Leveraging Tongdao's abundant wind resources, it will develop new industrial tourism and introduce products such as self-driving and camping. The "Tourism + Wellness" model will vigorously develop forest wellness tourism products and launch Dong medicine wellness projects. The "Tourism + Sports" will help to exploit a batch of hiking, cycling, and self-driving routes, establish a batch of sports industry brands, strive to conduct more than 30 national fitness activities throughout the year, and create a strong atmosphere for national fitness. Additionally, it will strengthen the cultivation of participating athletes, build one to two ethnic minority sports experience bases, focus on enriching the tourism industry formats in scenic areas, and plan for domestically renowned outdoor sports events in Tongdao.
Dong Fingure-Guessing Game (a traditional Dong ethnic group martial art)
Through marketing strategies including the recruitment of tourism ambassadors, travel photography contests, the promotion of rural tourism boutique routes, the interactive topic "The Most Beautiful Dong Village: Encounter Tongdao," and platform traffic boosting, Tongdao has established a full travel lifecycle chain from evoking the travel desire, traveling, to sharing experiences, constructing a new online scenario communication system for tourism. Regarding this, Yin Rongbo, director of the Tongdao County Culture, Tourism, Radio, Television, and Sports Bureau, said, "For Tongdao tourism’s sustainable development while keeping its popularity, it also needs to accelerate improvements in tourism transportation, accommodation, catering, hygiene, communications, and other conditions. The construction of public service facilities and supporting facilities, such as tourist routes, tourist destinations, tourist scenic area visitor service centers, and tourist rest stops, should be accelerated. Then the tourists could eat with distinctive flavors, stay with choices, travel conveniently, enjoy fully, entertain happily, and shop abundantly.”
Dong Ethnic Group Wedding
"Listen to a song, drink a bowl of liquor, grab gold coins, and take 'good fortune' with you." Tian Gang, deputy secretary of the Tongdao County Party Committee and County Chief, invited tourists from across the country with this chant. Led by the development goal of "building a national demonstration county for the integrated development of the cultural and tourism industry," Tongdao relies on its rich Dong folk customs, ecological resources, and profound red culture to continuously innovate and deepen the development ideas of cultural and tourism integration, agriculture and tourism integration, etc., and uses the county's full strength to create a unique tourism product system integrating "folklore, ecology, and red culture" to promote the high-quality development of the cultural and tourism industry and make Tongdao the most beautiful and beloved "Wonder Land" in the hearts of domestic and foreign tourists.
(Translated by Qu Qiongxue)