Guilin pushes ahead with pioneering spirit
As one of the first cities China opened to foreign tourists in 1973 and one of the first four Chinese destinations that the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization commended for its landscape after the country’s reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has not only developed but also upgraded its tourism industry.
It has now diverted attention from growth and employment in nature tourism to exploring its cultural tourism assets. By combining ecological preservation, urban renovation and poverty alleviation with tourism development, it aims to make tourism not only a moneymaker but a coordinating force for the city’s development.
Zhao Leqin, Party secretary of Guilin, said that many people know about Guilin’s beautiful landscape, but they might not know much about the city’s history. He added that the people of Guilin should feel a responsibility to explore the city’s cultural traditions and resources and strengthen the protection of cultural heritage.
As such, cultural tourism has become a fast growth area in Guilin. Last year, Guilin invested 126 billion yuan ($17.83 billion) in 110 projects related to cultural tourism.
The city will rebuild and renovate some former residences of celebrities and explore local cultural resources.
Following the instructions of the central leadership, Guilin has quickly built up the Long March memorial hall of the Red Army’s breakthrough at the Xiangjiang River. It is now an important education base for national pride in the region. Guilin has built up a protection and inheritance center for the culture and spirit of the Red Army. The city is committed to turning these sites into resources.
During the National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7, three museums related to the Red Army during its Long March in Quanzhou, Xing’an and Guanyang of Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the 1930s received 276,375 visits.
A tourist surnamed Zhu from Hengyang, Hunan province, visited the Long March memorial hall of the Red Army’s breakthrough at the Xiangjiang River in Xing’an. He said: “The battle was so tragic and we should never forget history and continue to pass down the unyielding Long March spirit to the younger generation.”
After visiting the Jiaoshanpu battle site of the Xiangjiang River, a tourist surnamed Liu from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region said: “So many years on, I am still moved by the revolutionary martyrs’ spirit and bravery.” According to the museums’ staff members, many bring their children to them about the past.
During the Xiangjiang River Battle in 1934, the Red Army broke out of the Kuomintang army blockade and continued their Long March. The city government is sparing no efforts to merge tourism with ecological preservation, agricultural and industrial development to boost social development and the growth of leisure, families educate health and cultural industries. The government plans to invest 94.5 billion yuan between 2019-25 to protect the Lijiang River.
In 2018, Guilin’s forest coverage rate reached 71 percent, compared with the national average of 22.96 percent. All urban sewage is processed and the water quality of the main stream of the Lijiang River remained clean throughout that year.
In the first half of this year, Guilin received 61.39 million tourist visits from home and abroad, up 20.29 percent year-on-year.
The city made a tourism revenue of 84.88 billion yuan, an increase of 29.13 percent.
In 2018, 100 million visits to scenic spots were made in Guilin. They brought more than 130 billion yuan of revenue to the city, an increase of 32.6 percent and 43.2 percent respectively year-on-year. The number of overseas tourists coming to China through Guilin airport who stayed at least one night in the city exceeded 2.75 million people, up 10.4 percent.
The city also piloted the freelance tour guide reform, upgraded all its public toilets and paid special attention to planning and development of all the tourist attractions in the region. Some of Guilin’s practices have been rolled out nationwide.
Last year, the tertiary industry, led by cultural tourism, contributed toward more than half of Guilin’s economic growth.
Partially thanks to the robust development of tourism, Guilin has lifted nearly 210,000 rural residents out of poverty over the past three years. With about 282,000 people still under the poverty line, the city vowed to eliminate rural poverty by the end of next year.
According to the Guilin government, the city’s tourism industry has achieved six transformations. First, from a traditional tourism model to regional integrated tourism.
Second, from being a sightseeing tourism destination to offering leisure holiday resorts. Third, from the development of core industrial elements to tourism integrated development.
Fourth, developing general tourism to creating heritage for the future.
Fifth, from a common set of requirements for tourism services to internationalized service quality. Finally, from competition among tourism enterprises to regional industrial aggregation.