Integration of ethnic culture and tourism in Fenghuang

In recent years, Fenghuang County has steadfastly promoted the transformation and upgrading of cultural tourism, focusing on the quality improvement of the ancient town, the development of leisure products, and the improvement of service quality. It has established and improved the tourism management services, and adopted the mode of “tourism plus”. It has successively held cultural festivals such as the South Great Wall China-South Korea Weiqi Competition, Miao Silver Costume Culture Festival, Photography Biennale, and Double Sixth Festival. Fenghuang County is known as “the Most Beautiful County in China” at home and abroad.

Fenghuang County has continued to improve the quality of rural tourist attractions, and built a number of distinctive rural scenic areas such as Changtan’gang Leisure Resort, Laojia Village, the Miao People Valley Scenic Area, Zhushan Village Scenic Area, and Feishui Valley Scenic Area.

It has also built four major characteristic tourist areas, including Shanjiang Miao Folk Custom Tourist Resort, Fenghuang New Town Cultural and Creative Tourist Area, Changtan’gang Water Town Tourist Resort, and South Great Wall Huangsi Bridge Ancient Town Cultural Tourist Area, so as to promote the deeply integrated development of culture and tourism, and activate the new driving force for rural revitalization. Changputang Village and Zhushan Village were listed among the first batch of national poverty alleviation inspection sites, and Shanjiang Town was awarded the Characteristic Cultural Tourism Town in Hunan. China Panda Park was rated as a national 4A tourist attraction. Changputang Village was selected as a key rural tourism village in the province, while Zhushan Village was listed among the third batch of national key rural tourism villages.

With the quality improvement of rural tourist attractions, the rural tourism routes are also being optimized and upgraded. It has accelerated the construction of the Shenghua Bridge and other tourist routes, and tourists can take the G56 Hangzhou-Ruili Expressway to the South Great Wall.

The Fenghuang boutique leisure and vacation tourism route, which connects the Cultural Tourism Industry Park, Panda Park, Changtang’gang International Resort, and Zhushan Xiangju, has been fully built to drive the development of the high-quality northern cultural tourism route  which covers the South Great Wall, Lahao Barrack, Huangsiqiao Ancient Town, and Shujiatang Ancient Castle. The county has promoted the construction of the high-quality western route which covers Shenghua, Laojia Village, the Miao People Valley, Liangdeng, Bagong Mountain, and Tianxing Mountain, continuously building an all-for-one tourism development pattern linked urban and rural areas.

Fenghuang County has focused on creating a tourism product system of “3 days and 2 nights”, stressed the themes of “sightseeing, leisure, vacation, and wellness”, promoted the quality improvement of scenic spots such as the China Panda Park, Feishui Valley, Laojia Village, and Zhushan Village, and accelerated the development of projects like “Miao Holy Village”, “Nine Camps and Eighteen Villages” and “Changtan Miao Township”.

Fenghuang County has made every effort to deepen the integration of ethnic culture and tourism to attract more tourists and support rural revitalization.