Mountain tourism resources become a calling card for Guizhou in southwest China

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, which ran from Sept. 19 to 21 this year, southwest China’s Guizhou province received more than 11 million tourists, with its tourism revenue reaching 5.5 billion yuan.

Photo show Mount Fanjingshan. (Photo courtesy of the Publicity Department of the CPC Tongren Committee)

In recent years, Guizhou has made active efforts to promote high-quality tourism development by giving full play to its mountain resources and colorful ethnic culture.

Mount Fanjingshan, situated in the city of Tongren in Guizhou, is a national protected nature reserve which preserves rare wild animals and plants, primitive forests and peculiar mountains. It was inscribed into the World Heritage List in 2018.

“One thing special about the mountain is that you see no hint of human interference there,” said a tourist, speaking highly of the mountain scenery. Mountain tourism resources like Mount Fanjingshan are an exceptional advantage for Guizhou to develop a local tourism industry.

At the first International Mountain Tourism Conference held in Guizhou in 2015, the province pledged to build itself into a popular mountain tourism destination at home and abroad. In August 2017, an international mountain tourism alliance was established in Guizhou, which later issued 10 standards regarding mountain tourism.

Guizhou has conducted a survey of mountain resources, formulated mountain tourism development plans, and issued mountain tourism promotion plans, thereby establishing a comprehensive set of standards that can offer a wealth of experience for the global industry, said an official with the tourism and culture department of Guizhou.

The development of outdoor leisure sports, such as cycling, rock climbing and hiking, is also on the rise in Guizhou.

A karst landscape, which accounts for 61.9 percent of the total land area in Guizhou, attracts a large number of tourists looking for an adventure. Zhijin Cave in Zhijin county, Bijie city, Guizhou is a popular caving destination. The karst cave houses a number of hall-like caves and underground rivers, allowing enthusiasts to explore into the unknown depths. Statistics indicate that Zhijin Cave usually receives more than 60,000 people on average during the week-long holiday for the annual Spring Festival, having generated tourism revenues of 120 million yuan in total during previous spring festivals.

In January 2021, Guizhou released guidelines on promoting the high-quality development of the tourism industry, advancing efforts to boost the development of tourism industrialization, upgrading tourism products and services, cultivating new business forms and new products, and building a world-class mountain tourism destination and a first-class vacation and healthcare destination.