Xiangxi receives over 300,000 tourists per day during Spring Festival holiday

During the Spring Festival holiday, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture received an average of over 300,000 tourists per day, with a revenue of approximately 12 million yuan.

With the good weather during the holiday, the Bamian Mountain Scenic Area of Longshan County, located in the north of Xiangxi Prefecture, became a desirable destination for parent-child entertainment and outdoor leisure. Tourists could go grass skating, taste roasted whole lamb, and ride a horse on the boundless grassland. Bamian Mountain is a holy mountain of the Tujia ethnic group, with an average altitude of over 12,00 meters. In the past, due to its inconvenient transportation, there were few tourists visiting here though there are many beautiful views.

Longshan County has increased efforts to develop the Bamian Mountain Scenic Area, improved mountain roads, enriched tourism formats, and built various types of hotels such as cliff hotels and starry tents, in a bid to enhance the reception capacity of the scenic area.

“During the Spring Festival holiday, the scenic area received over 20,000 tourists every day,” said Peng Guangzhong, chairman of Longshan Liye Ancient Town Tourism Investment Management Co., Ltd., adding that the scenic area received over 500,000 tourists in 2023 and more than 200 employees of the scenic area are all local residents of Liye Town. At the foot of the mountain, in Liye Town, a famous historical and cultural town in China, tourists dressed in traditional Chinese costumes could be seen everywhere. They viewed ancient wells, read Qin bamboo slips, had a bowl of authentic Liye rice tofu, and tasted oil cakes, to experience the charm of the ancient town.

“There are too many tourists from other places, and we even need our children to help us. A bowl of rice tofu costs 6 yuan, and more than 1,000 bowls are sold a day,” said Tian Fengping, owner of Liye Qingfengyuan Rice Tofu Shop.

A Miao song festival is held in the Dehang Scenic Area during the first lunar month of each year. Miao people sing songs to showcase their happy life. With the unique folk culture, it attracted many tourists this year. On the site, Miao singers from different places performed their songs, attracting tourists to take photos. Fenghuang Ancient Town, which has been rated as a national 5A-level scenic area recently, became a popular destination. During the Spring Festival holiday, the town was bustling with tourists and along the Tuojiang River, there was a long queue of tourists waiting to take photos.

“We had to complete more than 200 orders every day,” said Qin Wei, owner of a travel photography shop, adding that many tourists placed orders for photo taking during the Spring Festival holiday months in advance. Therefore, Qin Wei also opened travel photography stores in the upper and lower reaches of the Tuojiang River and made efforts to create a complete industry chain of travel, photography, and accommodation. “The most expensive product is priced at over 10,000 yuan, and we often receive orders from foreign tourists,” he said.

Since 2023, Fenghuang County has worked hard to promote the development of the tourism photography industry. At present, there are 1,026 travel photography stores in Fenghuang Ancient Town, providing jobs for more than 5,000 people, with a comprehensive annual output value of about 500 million yuan.

“Mysterious Xiangxi” is well-known both at home and abroad. In 2023, Xiangxi Prefecture received 57.7 million tourists and achieved a tourism revenue of 56.4 billion yuan, an increase of 25.3% and 18.7% respectively.