On May 16, Hunan Cultural Tourism Promotion Conference, a main event of the 2025 Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Economic and Trade Cooperation Exchange Conference, was held in Shenzhen. The event was themed “Welcoming to Huaihua and Embracing Your Future in Hunan”. During the event, Huaihua promoted cultural tourism projects as the host city.
(jdonline.com.hk)
Liao Jian, a member of the Leading Party Members’ Group and Deputy Director of Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, said that Huaihua is not only a gateway that connects Hunan with the Greater Bay Area, but also has great potential for the integrated development of culture and tourism. To successfully host the Fifth Hunan Tourism Development Conference, the city follows the new development pattern of integrated tourism featuring “one core, one hub, four lines, and multiple spots”, makes concerted efforts to develop the tourism triangle consisting of the Anjiang farming culture tourist area, Qianyang Ancient Town, and Hongjiang Ancient Commercial City, moves faster to build the city living room for cultural tourism featuring “one axis and three spots”, and accelerates infrastructure development, improvement of the overall environment, integrated industrial development, and economic and social development.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, led by Shenzhen, stands at the forefront of the country’s reform and opening up. Huaihua, known as a blessed land, is a new hub for reform and opening up in the inland region. Though miles apart, the two places are connected by ports, mountains and rivers and share connectivity in trade and finance. Since 2022, 305 projects from the Greater Bay Area have been launched in Huaihua, and a group of well-known enterprises such as China Resources Group, Guangdong Litai Pharmaceutical, SF Express Group, and Shenzhen Eternal Asia have settled in Huaihua, writing a new chapter in land-sea collaboration, mutual development, and win-win cooperation.
Huaihua is a new force in Hunan’s strategy of building a strong tourism sector and a new focus in creating the “Broader Zhangjiajie International Tourism Area”. CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and People’s Government of Hunan Province have placed great hopes on Huaihua’s cultural tourism and strongly supported Huaihua in developing tourism. In recent years, Huaihua has thoroughly studied and implemented Xi Jinping Thought on Culture and his important remarks on tourism development, adhered to integrity and innovation, quality and efficiency improvement, and integrated development, and stayed committed to developing a national first-class tourist destination. Huaihua is well poised to develop cultural tourism.
In September this year, Huaihua will host the Fifth Hunan Tourism Development Conference. At present, Huaihua City takes the cultural tourism industry as one of its five leading industries. The tourism triangle consisting of the Anjiang farming culture tourist area, Qianyang Ancient Town, and Hongjiang Ancient Commercial City goes viral; the Beijing-Kunming ancient postroad (Huaihua section) takes on a new look; 69 key cultural tourism projects such as the Yushu Bay, Tianwen Island and ASEAN Fair are developed at a faster pace; and the traditional Loong Boat Cultural Festival, Village Basketball Association and other cultural tourism activities are spectacular. This year, the May Day holiday saw a significant increase of 48% in the number of tourists received.
(Translated by Professor Yu Jie)