On December 18, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, together with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, announced the first batch of national pilot zones for the integrated development of cultural and tourism industries. Changsha's Liuyang City, Hengyang's Nanyue District, and Yueyang's Pingjiang County from Hunan Province were shortlisted.

In the report to the 20th National Congress, President Xi Jinping stressed the need to encourage positive interplay between culture and tourism and advance deeper integration of the two sectors.

In recent years, Liuyang, Nanyue, and Pingjiang have made efforts to promote fast and integrated development of culture and tourism.

Rich in tourist resources, Liuyang is a national demonstration county-level city for leisure agriculture and rural tourism and among the first batch of Hunan provincial all-for-one tourism demonstration zones. It ranked first nationwide in the list of top 100 Chinese counties and county-level cities for comprehensive tourism strengths. Moreover, fireworks-related tourism products and activities have become a calling card of the city.

Relying on Hengshan Mountain, Nanyue District has empowered its tourism sector through culture and developed itself into a representative in building a calling card of history and culture of Hunan Province. 

Hunan's Pingjiang County, Jiangxi's Xiushui County, and Hubei's Tongcheng County were nominated together as a national pilot zone for the integrated development of cultural and tourism industries. Pingjiang County is rich in red or revolutionary tourism resources. The county is the locale of major revolutionary historical events such as the "Autumn Harvest Uprising", "March Siege", and "Pingjiang Uprising". A total of 52 founding generals of the People's Republic of China were nurtured here. Pingjiang is famous for red or revolutionary culture, natural landscape, and pastoral scenery, and its rural tourism and all-for-one tourism are thriving.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn