Zhangjiajie boasts serene mountain forests with a pleasant climate in summer, continuing to draw overseas tourists with its refreshing temperatures. Recently, at the Golden Whip Stream Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, a Spanish tourist exclaimed after her visit, "With babbling streams and lush greenery all around, it's so refreshingly cool to escape the heat here!" Data from Ctrip shows that this summer, Zhangjiajie ranked second among Western European travelers' top destinations in China, second only to Beijing.

This year, leveraging its role as the rotating chair of the Greater Zhangjiajie International Tourism Area Development Alliance, Zhangjiajie has continuously promoted the quality improvement and upgrading of summer resort cultural tourism. The city authority has paid attention to addressing weaknesses in vacation consumption and enriching its overall product offerings.

Zhangjiajie has integrated regional cool resources to create characteristic summer resort products like leisure tours at Baofeng Lake and constant-temperature cave tours at Yellow Dragon Cave. Relying on its high-quality mountain and water ecosystems, it has been vigorously developing outdoor activities such as hiking, rock climbing, river tracing, and rafting. Simultaneously, the reopened Dayong Ancient Town has activated immersive nighttime tours and night market consumption scenarios. Zhangjiajie has also delved into its local wellness heritage to promote the provincial intangible cultural heritage practice of Vajra Longevity Exercise. The local authority has organically integrated ecological summer retreats, outdoor sports, intangible cultural heritage wellness, and the nighttime economy. It aims to drive a transformation from traditional sightseeing to a diversified, all-for-one tourism upgrade, which features "cool summer retreats + outdoor experiences + intangible cultural heritage wellness + nighttime consumption."

The diverse range of tourism offerings continues to fuel the summer surge in inbound tourism, with a steady stream of foreign visitors at major scenic spots. Baofeng Lake, with its rippling blue waters, blends natural scenery with folk culture experiences and has become a top choice for overseas tourists seeking leisure and a summer escape. Qixing Mountain is refreshingly cool, and its via ferrata offers a unique and thrilling experience, making it highly popular among young overseas tourists. Yellow Dragon Cave, which maintains a constant temperature of 18°C year-round, offers a refreshing escape. The cave's serene interior provides a rare and unique summer experience.

Based on its premium ecological resources, Zhangjiajie has been continuously extending its cultural tourism industrial chain and deeply developing wellness and retreat-based tourism experiences. Leveraging its forest environment, which is rich in negative oxygen ions, Zhangjiajie has been fostering new business models such as forest wellness and mountain residential stays. It aims to transform its cultural tourism industry from "selling scenery and cool experiences" to "selling services, lifestyles, and wellness," precisely catering to the diverse needs of tourists seeking a summer retreat and wellness.

The combined empowerment of high-quality products and warm services delivers a strong cultural tourism dividend. In the first half of this year, Zhangjiajie received 699,200 inbound tourists, a year-on-year increase of 23.66%. The tourism foreign exchange earnings grew 31.69% year on year to 79.4128 million USD. Since July, Tianmen Mountain has welcomed an average of 15,000 visits daily, with inbound tourists accounting for about 15%, up 51.72% year on year. The Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Scenic Area has been receiving nearly 10,000 visits daily, with inbound tourists making up over half of the total.

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

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn