County sees more revenues, visitor numbers
Ziyuan county in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region is reaping the rewards of investing in its tourism industry to attract more visitors and fully taking advantage of its natural landscapes.
Located 98 kilometers northeast of the city of Guilin, Ziyuan is renowned for its natural wonders, which include Tianmen Mountain, Wupai River, Baoding waterfall and Bajiaozhai village, which is famous for its steep, copper orange Danxia land formations, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage in 2010.
The county itself was listed as one of Guangxi’s characteristic tourism counties in 2015, not just because of its natural environment but also because of its rich cultural diversity including Miao and Yao ethnicities.
To fully take advantage of its wealth in natural resources and cultural diversity, Ziyuan county has spent the past three years investing heavily in its tourism industry.
The county invited experts from Zhejiang University, Sichuan Laiye Travel and Beijing Dadi Scenic Tourism Landscape Planning & Design to create a plan, which it could follow to improve its tourism offerings and services.
After allocating tens of millions of yuan to 10 tourism development projects, Ziyuan started strengthening its traffic network to facilitate easier access to sites around the county, at a cost of 13 billion yuan ($1.8 billion).
So far, 80-km of highways have been built in the county to create a highway network stretching 815.6 km. The 83-km Zixing Highway, when it opens, will put Ziyuan inside a one-hour economic circle around Guilin.
With its vastly improved road network, Ziyuan began improving and upgrading its tourism facilities
The county has invested over 12 million yuan to build a 2,000square-meter tourism center in Baijiao village. When complete, the center will offer good services, facilities and organize activities for visitors, local officials said.
A further 20 million yuan has been invested to build a new visitor center for exploring the Wupai River area in the county.
Other development projects include the Tianmen Mountain extreme sightseeing cable car and suspended glass-bottomed observation deck, and Wupai River white water rafting, attracting a total investment of 738 million yuan.
Ziyuan’s tourism has been increasing rapidly in recent years as a result. From January to November 2018, 74,300 people visited the county, a year-on-year increase of 10.45 percent. Total tourism revenue amounted to 5.04 billion yuan, with year-onyear growth of 14.44 percent.
The county is not sitting still, proposing yet more developments and projects to further improve Ziyuan's tourism industry.
According to local officials, the proposals cover developing improved tourism facilities covering the karst landscape around the Li River, scenic spots in Yangshuo, and the terraced rice fields in Longsheng. The local government also aims to further promote Bajiaozhai National Geopark and the Tianmen scenic area, as well as jointly promote the karst landscapes of Guilin with Ziyuan's Danxia land formations to form a unique and cost-effective tourism product.
The government said it will continue to improve accessibility to scenic areas, enhance tourism services and pursue more public-privatepeople partnerships to develop its tourism industry.