China’s Zhangjiajie magnet for Vietnamese tourists

Zhangjiajie, a picturesque tourist spot in central China, is regarded by many foreign visitors as an Elysium on Earth, and a money printer for an increasingly growing number of Vietnamese travel agencies and airlines.

“Zhangjiajie looks like an Elysium on Earth with bewitching scenery. It is a magnet which lures numerous foreign visitors, including Vietnamese,” Nguyen Duc Tam, vice president of Vietjet, Vietnam’s first budget airline, said on June 20 in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi.

He made the statement at a ceremony held in the capital by authorities of Zhangjiajie, in Central China’s Hunan Province, to promote tourism between the Chinese city and Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular.

According to him, seeing the great potential of Zhangjiajie’s tourism development, Vietjet, which has launched a total of 30 regular air routes between Vietnam and China since 2014, has recently started direct flights between several major localities, including Hanoi, Da Nang and Nha Trang and cities in Hunan such as Zhangjiajie and Changsha.

“We are preparing to launch a direct route between Ho Chi Minh City and Zhangjiajie with a frequency of two flights a week to help Vietnamese people discover the Chinese city and the other way around,” the Vietjet official said, adding that his carrier will increase its number of routes to China to 38 by the end of this year.

Besides Vietnamese airlines, travel agencies have seen remarkable business opportunities in Zhangjiajie’s uniqueness, both in terms of natural landscape and cultural beauty.

“There is nothing for visitors to complain about in Zhangjiajie. Its unique beauty is breathtaking. Earlier this month I organized a tour to Zhangjiajie for all of our company’s employees. Later this year, we will start offering Vietnamese visitors’ tours to Zhangjiajie,” Hua Ke Van, manager of Hanoi-based Luxury Tour Company, told Xinhua on June 20.

According to Van, more and more Vietnamese visitors, especially younger people, are opting for Chinese destinations such as Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang Ancient City in Hunan, to admire both their magnificent natural scenery and culture as well as experience adventurous sports such as downhill cycling, jumpsuit flying and bungee jumping, all at a reasonable price.

“Our potential customers can choose tours to Zhangjiajie either by coach and train or by air. In the near future, high-speech trains will become operational, linking southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hunan, which will facilitate transport of our customers to Zhangjiajie,” he said.

Many other Vietnamese travel agencies have similar plans to further tap into the great tourism potential of Zhangjiajie.

“Now, we sometimes use the whole charter flights to transport our customers to Zhangjiajie. When more direct air routes between Vietnam and China are opened, and more expressways and high-speed rail routes are launched and connected, I dare say that many more Vietnamese people will flock to Zhangjiajie,” Nguyen Thuy Linh, a sales executive at A Nam International Travel Service Company, in Hanoi, told Xinhua on June 20.

Customers of Linh’s company, both the elderly and the young, visit Zhangjiajie either in summer to enjoy its pure air and evergreen trees, or in winter to experience snowfall in the wild.