BEIJING, March 03 (INP): To promote culture and tourism, the local government and Xinhua News Agency News and Information Center hosted a three-day media trip to Zhangzhou City in South China’s Fujian province.

Toured by 30 guests from overseas and domestic media organizations, the event was another after the spring festival holiday activity aimed to further promote the integration of culture and tourism, accelerate overseas promotion and international cultural exchanges and communication.

The spring festival holiday event rolled out ten routes featuring Chinese New Year tourism, which were popular among tourists. The media delegation went to downtown Zhangzhou, Longhai City, Nanjing County, Changtai County and other places. It visited places like Zhangzhou’s ancient city, banana plants, Lin Yutang Memorial Hall, as well as Nanjing Tulou and Yunshuiyao ancient town.

Besides sight-seeing, the delegation also watched folk performances, tasted authentic local food, enjoyed the fresh ecological environment, profound cultural heritage, and high-quality services and experiences. Many tourist routes have won praises from Chinese and foreign guests. The Nanhu ecological park is full of vitality in spring, where the reception ceremony was held with impressive performances including hand puppets, paper-cutting, tea art and guqin.

It is worth mentioning here that Nanhu Lake is part of Zhangzhou's “five lakes and four seas”, namely Bihu Lake, Xiyuan Lake, West Lake, Jiushijiuwan Lake, Nanhu Lake and sea of litchi trees, banana plants, daffodils and other flowers, which have become the city’s “green name card” and a relaxing “green space”. Zhangzhou is rich in both ecological and cultural resources.

In the evening, the guests walked along the ancient city and visited the memory museum to learn more about local history and culture. There are many national key cultural relics protection units such as the Ming Dynasty stone archway and the Zhangzhou Confucian Temple, as well as ancient residential buildings which completely preserved the arcade style, combined Chinese and Western style, and the Minnan style.

The ancient city is home to many folk customs, traditional snacks, woodcut Chinese New Year pictures and traditional folk art such as local Xiang opera and Jin songs. The place won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Protection Award in 2015. The media delegation visited the memorial hall of literary master Lin Yutang in Tianbao Town, Xiangcheng District.

Strolling through the endless banana plants and enjoying the leisure and humor of the master who has profound knowledge of both Chinese and western culture and is a committed literary critic. These guests were awed by the lush green mountains, quaint villages and magnificent earth buildings during the drive to Nanjing County. The Tulou, or earth building, is the product of the special social environment in the southern Fujian. It was officially listed on the World Heritage List in 2008 including 20 earth buildings in the “two groups and two buildings” of Nanjing. Fujian Tulou•Nanjing Scenic Area was elevated to a national 5A-level tourist attraction in 2011.

Tianluokeng Tulou group is the most amazing and most outstanding representative of the “Tulou Kingdom”. It consists of a square building, 3 round buildings and an oval building. The ancient town of Yunshuiyao is the location of a namesake film and a TV series opera. Located between the Hegui Earth Building and the Huaiyuan Earth Building, it is an ancient traffic corridor connecting the two. The village is built on the banks of a river. It is picturesque with running waters, ancient roads, centuries-old banyan trees and ancient Diaojiao buildings. The guests also enjoyed the puppet show and local opera performance.

As one of the key quality tourist routes of “Colorful Zhangzhou”, the special event featuring spending Chinese New Year in Tulou and touring Nanjing Country will continue until the end of March. The event is closely centered on the two themes of “earth” and “water”. The “earth” is related with the earth building, where a series of folklore activities will be held, enabling visitors to experience the Tulou fair, taste local products, dig up bamboo shoots, make tea, do paper-cutting, and catch muscovy ducks. The water is related with the Yunshuiyao ancient town with a series of love-themed activities.

"On the one hand, the event will showcase the history and culture of the ancient village to promote the Tulou culture; on the other hand, Nanjing's cultural tourism products and original ecological agricultural products will be promoted overseas via trips, lending strong steam to vitalize the rural areas,” according to a local tourism official.

The delegation went on a tour to experience the charm of world heritage cultural sites and the freshness of nature on March 2. They went to Changtai County to tour the flower sea in Shili Lanshan, visited Daimei ancient village, watched puppet show, peasant paintings and Xiang opera performance in an idyllic and folk experience. They also walked into the Baitangwan Volcano National Geological Park to enjoy the beauty and wildness of the coastal volcanic site in Zhangzhou.

Zhangzhou has leveraged its “ecological plus” strategy to turn the region’s natural resources into income increases for local people in recent years, a major boost for poverty alleviation. Rural tourism is developing fast, allowing urban dwellers to relax and enjoy nostalgia in a beautiful, culture-rich and unspoiled environment.

Many participants of the tour said the trip has changed their impression of the city, as Zhangzhou tourism only meant Tulou to them in the past. This trip not only offered them new experiences in every aspect of Tulou, but also brought many surprises with other routes. The increase of tourism quality routes and the improvement of tourism services quality are outcomes of the development of the “Colorful Zhangzhou” tourism brand, and will fuel local tourism growth.

Zhangzhou is charming throughout the year with many tourism resources. Known as “Colorful Zhangzhou”, the city has six unique tourism resources of Tulou, coasts, culture, gardens, hot spring and mountains. The city has five sites of World Cultural Heritage, one national 5A-level tourist attraction, 12 4A-level ones, five 3A-level ones, 25 star-rated restaurants and over 50 travel agencies.

Zhangzhou was the first in Fujian Province to set up a leading group to promote all-for-one tourism in 2018. Relying on the strengths in ecology, location, transportation and culture, the city adheres to holistic planning, integration, marketing and public participation in an effort to build the “Colorful Zhangzhou” all-for-one tourism destination. These efforts have paid off, with Zhangzhou’s tourism revenue growth leading the province.

INP/SB/AK