An ancient, prestigious arcadia named "Peach Blossom Garden" by the great Chinese writer

Tao Yuanming 1,700 years ago has retained most of its charms and is attracting tourists to central China's Hunan Province.

This spot is at the gateway to the rolling mountains in western part of the Hunan Province, hemmed in by rivers, elegant hills and beautiful peach blossoms in season, which was a tourist destination as early as in Song Dynasty some 963 years ago.

But when the poet Tao ventured to a nearby reclusive village, he was considered an alien to local people who knew nothing about the outside world and lived simple, quiet but harmonious lives.

Even so, Tao was received with hospitality, and he later depicted the scene there in comely words which became one of China's most famous prose pieces.

Peach Blossom Town remains tranquil most of the year, but in the springtime it turns into a bustling tourist center greeting some 400,000 visitors each year who come to appreciate the peach

blossoms scattered hundreds of hectares.

Covering more than 4,400 sq km, the county-level city boasts the highest per-capita arable land acreage in Hunan and is populated by locals of Hui, Tujia and Miao and 10 other ethnic minority groups in addition to the majority Han people.

To preserve this pristine treasure better still, the city only approves environmentally-friendly industries in this scenery region.