County’s highways to drive tourism
As one of the first recognized ecologically friendly counties in China and the nation’s only county that was granted the UN Habitat Scroll of Honor, Anji in Zhejiang province is known for its vast bamboo forests, which cover an area of 6.67 million square meters. The forests are also China’s second panda breeding base and shot to worldwide prominence after the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was shot there in 2000.
The local government is now committed to improving its highway network to develop rural tourism while promoting employment and the regional economy.
In 2011, Anji launched the Beautiful Highway project in response to a national plan that calls for the high-quality construction, management, maintenance and operation of roads in rural areas.
By the end of last year, Anji had 1,943 kilometers of rural roads, nearly 300 km of which were repaired over the past five years and more than 100 km were upgraded over the same period.
The highways have connected 16 scenic spots, creating a number of themed sightseeing belts with highlights including the source of the Huangpu River and the bamboo forests.
The county reaped a profit of 17.4 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) from tourism last year, an increase of 36.7 percent from 2014, attracting more than 14 million tourists, up 22.5 percent year-on-year.
“The Beautiful Highway project aims to combine the highway with the (area’s) natural scenery to further spur the county’s tourism sector,” said an official from Anji’s transportation authority.
Anji is now a model county in Zhejiang province for building beautiful highways, and is forming the beautiful highway industry standards.
Since 2014, a Love Road Day campaign has been held annually in Anji on May 26, as the number 526 in Chinese has a similar pronunciation with “I love road”.
This year, the campaign was followed by a series of events such as the Tour of Zhejiang bicycle race, a photography contest and a general knowledge competition.
“Through various activities, we hope to encourage the villagers to love and care for the roads,” said the official.
The local government has invested 100 million yuan over the past five years in highway maintenance technology to guarantee low carbon emissions, reducing coal use by nearly 3,000 tons a year and annual carbon dioxide emission by 44 percent.
When building the Anji section of the HangzhouChangxing Highway, which is in the mountain area, the local authority decided to build tunnels underground instead of digging through the mountains to better protect the natural landscape.
“Ecological protection was the top concern from the designing stage of the Beautiful Highway project. Although tunnels cost more, they can prevent damage to the mountains and vegetation,” said the official.
Thanks to the HangzhouChangxing Highway, it now takes only 30 minutes to drive from Hangzhou to Anji, taking an hour off the previous journey time.
“The Beautiful Highway project has brought more job opportunities (to the area), which may help to improve the future prospects of some of our poorer residents,” she added.
More than 100 cameras were installed to monitor potential geologic hazards along with 50 all-weather LED boards, offering traffic information updates to ensure the safety and convenience of drivers.
In the next five years, Anji’s transportation plans will focus on green transport and the improvement of sightseeing bus services and water transportation.