Yunnan Eager to Welcome Tourists this Summer

Source: Vientiane Times

Yunnan province is taking measures to ensure that the tourism sector booms this summer after Chinese government has fully reopened its borders to foreign travelers.

Wenshan Prefecture is one of rich tourism resources in the province with the airport, high-speed rail, highway, water transport and other modern transportation system.

According to provincial officials who spoke to a reporter from the Vientiane Times on a two-day, three-night visit to the Wenshan Prefecture last month as a part under the China International Press Communication Centre (CIPCC) programme, Yunnan is one of the China’s cities with the most extensive transit systems.

Wenshan, located at the junction of Yunnan, Guangxi and Vietnam, is known as the “Yunnan-Guangxi Corridor”. It has the unique geographical advantage of “connecting east and west, connecting north and south, connecting border and connecting sea”.

It has a cutting-edge, all-encompassing transportation infrastructure with “fast and slow travel” and continually upgraded airports, high-speed rail, motorways, and waterways.

Puzhehei, a national 5A tourist attraction in Qiubei county is a well-known water carnival project, allowing people to truly experience the pleasure of a “wet body” – inviting tourists to encounter the beauty of the landscape and the countryside and to participate in a passionate water fight, to experience the charm of dancing in water.

The best time to visit Wenshan is autumn. July’s “painted face section”, colouring the whole body in black indicating a happy life.

The festival has a history of more than 1,000 years. In 2009, it made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for the maximum number of people with painted faces.

It is known as the Carnival of the East. When rice flowers smell sweet, Guangnan County ushers in the traditional “Harvest Festival” reflecting the rice farming culture. People will cut rice, eat food, sing folk songs, and celebrate the harvest with laughter.

In addition, Wenshan Prefecture has hosted the “Huashan Festival”, “Sanyuesan”, “Women’s Sun Festival”, “Longduan Festival” and other traditional festivals, which have become beautiful business cards of Wenshan tourism.

There is a very rare two-color lotus, how rare is it? It was last seen in 434 AD during the Southern Song Dynasty and is considered a rare occurrence, with experts putting the probability of its occurrence at one in 10 or even one in 100 billion.

Clear water and green mountains are the most precious wealth of Wenshan, and the ecological green is the brightest backdrop of Wenshan.

Wenshan’s unique customs, cuisine, medicine, ecology, etc., are unique. In recent years, Wenshan Prefecture has focused on the development goal of “creating a unique pastoral and rural tourism destination” and in accordance with the requirements of internationalisation, high-end, specialty and wisdom, put forth great efforts to promote the “ten projects” of high-quality tourism development.

Up to now, there are 56 national A-level tourist attractions, including 1 national 5A tourist attraction, 4 national 4A tourist attractions and 51 national 3A tourist attractions.

Yunnan province plans to launch more than 100 major cultural and tourism projects this year and speed up the development of more than 2500 cultural and tourism projects with aim of attracting more visitors.

Provincial authorities will strive to complete more than 130 billion yuan of fixed assets investment in the tourism industry and promote the transformation of high-quality tourism resources into tourism products and tourism consumption.

They are also active to collaborate with the governments of different countries and tourism agencies to promote the package tour and other promotion activities for convenience and impression service for travelers. 

During the May Day holiday, Yunnan province received a total of 35.013 million tourists and achieved a tourism revenue of 34.96 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth of 190.8 percent and 193.7 percent according to comparable standards, and an increase of 134.8 percent and 130.4 percent compared to the May Day holiday in 2019.

Laos is one of the transit countries for tourists to encourage them to head to Yunnan, more so after the Laos-China railway has launched its services.

Laos will also benefit from tourists heading to Yunnan and neighbouring provinces in China through the high speed railway route.