Night View of Wuyi Business Circlein Changsha [Photo/Cultural Tourism Sports Bureau of Tianxin District]
During the eight-day holiday of National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival this year, tourists crowded into Changsha, which made ita trending topic online again, with 5th highest passenger flow volume nationwide, the number of hotel reservations ranked among the top10 in China and over 30,000 people queued in line for a famous restaurant.
“Changsha is very famous. I always browse its local specialties and many beautiful as well as interesting places shared by other people on Tik Tok and Red(a popular Chinese social platform). It is a city of fashion and profound culture, offering so manysurprises!”Said Xie Lu, a 36-year-old tourist from Shenzhen ,who have always wanted to experience the magic of this city herself. She also added that the convenient transportation also met her needs for a tourism destination.
Orange Isle [Photo/HuangQiqing]
CharmingChangshawith“Five Flavors”
“Taking high-speed train for a cup of milk tea; waiting a whole day for a plate of crawfish”...In recent years, several viral hit restaurants in Changsha represented by Sexy Tea（Modern ChineseTea Shop)and Super Wenheyou(A restaurant full of local food)have attracted lots of people to visit Changsha. During the national day of this year, Super Wen he you,who swipe the Internet,offered more than30,000 service numbera day, making many consumersawe:“Maybe we have to queue till next year for the food there!”
However, not only those fashionable places favored by young people are popular, the visits of all scenic spots and restaurants have set record. For example,visitors to the Orange Isle have exceeded its capacity,and only those who made appointments
were allowed to visit. In addition,Yuelu Mountain attracted 386,300 visitors. The above mentioned twoscenic spots are among the top 3 in Hunan Province in terms of tourist reception.Tourists lined up for hundreds ofmetersevery day at Hunan Provincial Museumfor it toopen. Other activities enjoyed the same popularity,for examplethe“Chinese Carnival”in Colorful World, Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival in the Ancient Town of Tong Guan Kiln and Folk Music Festiva lin Huitang, Ningxiang County.
This is only one a spect of the strong recovery of Changsha culturaltourism market after the pandemic. Changsha repeatedly becamea hot searchbecause ofthe considerable consumption on cultural tourism. For instance,it has been selected as one of the top 10 most popularour is mdestinations in May Dayholiday; ranked the 1st in popular cities for night tour in Dragon Boat Festival holiday; an drated the 7th among 10 most popular tourism destinations in summer.
Why is Changsha sofascinating? What surprisescantourists get here?
Asa city with diversified landscapes ,Changsha boasts manybe autiful and unique sceneries with Yuelu Mountain, Orange Isle, Xiang River and Changsha Old Town asits core. Asa“Famous City in Chu and Han States(two countries during the Qin and Han dynasties2000years ago)”and the“hometown of Qu Yuanand Jia Yi (two official sin ancient China)”,Changsha shines with traditional culturalcards of Mawangdui Han Tomb, Yuelu Academy, wood and bamboo slips with ancient documents and Hunan Provincial Museum. With awards of“WorldCity of Media Arts”,“Culture City of East Asia”and“China's Happiest City”in recent years, a number of newly-built distinctive stadiums have been reckonedas the must-comesiteson the internet, including Changsha Riverside Cultural Park, Meixi Lake International Culture Art Centre, Xie Zilong Photography Museum and Li Zijian Art Museum.
In addition, some old buildings and streets loaded with profound history and memory of Hunan culture have been repaired, protected and renovated,forming a historical pedestrian block with unique Hunan culture and the charm of city of Chu and Han. Under the protection of such policies, Taiping Street, Huang Xing Pedestrian Street, Duzheng Street and other ancient streets have revived. Nowadays, they are not only fashionable placesfor shopping, but also distinctive cultural are astotrace back and explore history.
“Follow‘the Charm of Changsha’touris mitineraries, tourists could enjoy scenic beauty and abundant culture everywhere.”At the 2020 Changsha Cultural Tourism Promotion Conference held in Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shaoguan a fewdays ago,the gold guide of Hunan Province recommended five‘Charming Changsha’key tourist routes according to tourists’different preferences with emphasis on culture, landscapes, specialties, ancient towns and Internet-famous sites. All these itineraries are vivid depiction of characteristics of“FiveFlavors”cultural tourism, featuring deep charm of literature, purecharm of natural beauty, exuberant charm of delicious food, sufficient charm of ancient streets and rich charm offashion.
“With the restrictions to someinter-provincialtripsare gradually lifted, tourists’passion for travelingis rising, and they have higher demands for the quality and features of tourism products.”At the promotion conference, Jin Bingwen, Secretary General of Travel Agency Branch of Shanghai Tourism Trade Association, unstinting in his praise for Changsha, said that Changsha has convenient transportation and richtourism resources, and is capable of accommodating tourists from Shanghaiin all aspects.
Happy Snow Park of Xiangjiang Happy City with thethe charm ofAlps as its theme [Photo/Yang Huafeng]
Business Innovation StimulatesConsumption
Tong Guan Kiln Site,with more than 1200 years of history,is a significant historical and cultural relicin Changsha. Seizing business opportunities from historical archives, Changsha spent 4 years building the Ancient Town of Tong Guan Kiln,which includes 8 museums, 5 performing theaters, 3 starhotels, 20 home stays and inns, 18 cultural scenic spots and 4 parent-child recreational projects. It is the first culture tourism project with over 10 billion yuan investmentin Hunan Province, and is regarded as an excellentnational tourism project and a model project of“the Belt and Road”Initiative.
Since its debut in August 2018, this scenic spot has received millions of tourists and has become a new business card for Changsha tourism. In Tong Guan Kiln Site, intangible cultural heritage of four major the aters are integrated with street tour performances topresent night fairsin Tang Dynasty thousands of years ago. And now, it saudio-visual feast has become one major characteristic of the scenic spot. Other activities and settings like lantern show of Mid-Autumn Festival, nighttour with lanterns, putting lotus lanterns with tens of thousand of people, antiquestages, trendy fairs and water show“MagicalTong Guan Kiln”combining light, firework and dance to make tourist linger. During the holiday of National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival this year, hotels and inns were packed, receiving more than 100,000 tourists.
Cultural tourism industry in Changshais nota simple composition of culture and tourism, but the chemical reaction between the two, or evena genere combination. The concept of culture-tourism integration is also embodied in the construction of Tan River Ancient City, a popular scenic spot in Changsha. This site witnessed the excavation of such national treasuresas Square vessel(fang zun) with four rams, and Bronze ding(food container)with human-mask design. By exploring cultures of Shang and Zhou dynasties, Tan River Ancient City was reshaped and a large-scale song and dance show“Eternal Lovein Tan River Ancient City”to interpret the cultural mystery was performed based on the protection of original cultural relic. Thus, it is not only a national archaeological site park,but also a famous scenic spot with its own distinctive features.
Because of the hot weather there, summer is a traditional off-season for Changsha. However, aiming at“cooling the stove”,the emergence of a number of cool tourism products made tourists feel comfortable in summer vacation.
In July this year, Xiangjiang Happy City, the first world-class comprehensive tourism project in Hunan Province, officially opened, consisting of“cool”spots such as Happy Snow Park, Happy Water Park,Happy Ocean. Tourists could ski in Happy Snow Parka hundred meterss uspended above a deepp it, and surf and splash in the Happy Water Parkon the cliff... This biggest frozen paradise in the world is reconstructed from apreviousmine site, and is regarded as“China's Three Wonders of Deep Pit”together with Guizhou Tianyan (FAST,Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) and Inter Continental Shanghai Wonderland. Since its establishment, Xiangjiang Happy City has been highly sought after by tourists and quickly became a famous site on the internet.
With increasing demand for diversified, personalized, high-quality and experiential tour,“culture plus”and“tourism plus”are becoming the major the most of cultural tourism consumption. In recent years, Changsha has adhered to the principle of integrating culture with science and telling Changsha stories through innovation. With this endeavor, cultural tourism projects such as Changsha Fangte Amusement Park and Xiangjiang Happy Cityhave injected scientific and technological elements into their projects, and new consumption scenes with immersive experience were created such as“Nv Wa Mendthe Sky”and“Xin Zhui”by means of VR phantom imaging, simulated flight and three-dimensional holographic projection. All of those projects were welcomed bytourists. In addition, various new integration formats such as art and literature, fireworks, localfood, interactive games and live broadcasting by web celebrities were becoming a part of scenic spots and having great responses, leading to a surge of their attraction and competitiveness.
At the2020Changsha Cultural Tourism Promotion Conference held a fewdays ago,classical dancing“Painted PotteryFigures”and other characteristic programs showed profound historical customs and cultural charmsof Changsha. [Photo/Changsha Cultural Tourism Radio and Television Bureau]
Colorful Nightlife FuelsHoliday Economy
As night starts, full of tourists, cruise ship“OrangeIsleStar”slowlyset sail; as night falls, clearsinging and motivating music were heard from MeixihuGrand Theatre and Changsha Concert Hall; late in the night, Pozi Street and Fisherman's Wharf were still teemed with the smell of delicious food and crowded with people.
One cantake a Xiangjiang River night tourtoenjoy the splendor of riversides;
experience the colorfulness and magnificence of bar streets; find different lifesty le sand gourmet inmidnight restaurant. Nowadays, in Changsha, night life options such as“night tour”,“night banquet”, and“nightparty”are becoming more various. All these made more tourists long for visiting Changsha. Vigorous night economy also made Changsha rank the first among“Top 10 Most Influential Cities of Night EconomyinChina”.
Wuyi Business Circle, with more than 20 commercial streets and more than 20,000 commercial outlets, is at the fore front of Changsha's“night economy”development. Among them,“night economy”are as in HuangxingPedestrianStreet and Jiefang West Road attract tourists from all over the world.
As a popular site in this business circle, Fire God Palace,a place for mass cultural consumption integrating traditional folk culture of Hunan province, fire temple culture and food culture, is well received by tourists. According to Peng Mingxia, the Party Group Secretary of Cultural Tourism Sports Bureau located in Tianxin District, Changsha, Fire God Palace received more than 23,000 visitors on the this year's National Day alone, and“80,000 pieces of stinky tofu and 50,000 sugar oil cakes were sold injust two days.”This city is bustling with noise and excitement.
Meanwhile, statistics of Meituan(a food delivery platform) shows that from October 1 to October5, orders from 0:00 to 4:00a.m. accounted for about 5% of all day orders, far exceeding the data in Beijing, Shanghai,Guangzhou and Shenzhen and other first-tier cities,ranking the first among central cities. While order volumes after 4:00a.m. are still far larger than those of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and other cities, speaking strongly the charm of Changsha at night.
Obviously,every scenic spot would seize the tourists who“only travel at night”, thus continues to launch night tour products.“A Music Festival in the Town”was passionately held in HB town;“the First Moon Admiration Ceremony of Mid-Autumn Festival”was launched torega in the rich etiquette and custom of the ancient“sacrificial offerings and moon admiration to bless China”; in the Ancient Town of Tong Guan Kiln, traditional songs and dances were performed again, lantern shows and night tour with lanterns were rolled out to create an archaic Mid-Autumn Festival. All of these colorful cultural tourism activities at night further fueled the holiday economy of Changsha.
Statistics show that during the holiday of National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival this year, Chang shareceived a total of 7,930,400 tourists with 8.42 billion yuan touristin come, respectively recovered to 72.62% and 84.08% of those in the same period last year on a comparable basis.
As a city that frequently hits the hot search list, how can Changsha, which continues to be favored, turn the Interne tattention dividend into a long-term development dividend by taking advantages of the trend of“Internet popularity”? In this regard, Mei Wenhui, deputy director of the Media and Cultural Industry Development Research Center of Hunan University, suggested that on the basis of ensuring quality development of existing online celebrity brands, Changs has hould continue to create more popularl and marks and brands to show its
charm and high light Hunan characteristics. At the same time, we should forma sense of freshness which could be continuously updated, strengthen international publicity of the city, develop online celebrity economy supported by science and technology, and continue to lead the fashion trend to make more people willing to come and stay.
On the firstday of the holiday of National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, agiant“Fish Head Cooked With Chopped Red Peppers”show was heldon Changsha street and attracted many tourists. Tourists were touching the model ofthis cuisine. [Photo/YangHuafeng]