Zhejiang village Party chiefs promote tourism in Shanghai

With the specter of COVID-19 in the rearview mirror and travel back to normal, a group of 110 village Party secretaries from Zhejiang province traveled to neighboring Shanghai to promote their rural tourism sites ahead of the forthcoming May Day holiday.

"Red tourism has become a brand for Hengkantou village. You can come to see many historical sites here. In addition, you can pick cherries, blueberries, red bayberries, kiwis and raspberries with your family," Qiu Minbo, deputy Party secretary of Hengkantou village in Ningbo, told China Daily.

"Hengkantou receives about 500,000 to 600,000 tourists every year, and we've launched many projects to increase income, including showcasing traditional performances of the Yi ethnic group, running sightseeing trains and 4D theaters," Qiu said.

Zhejiang has 83 district-level scenic areas, 986 scenic towns and 11,531 scenic villages with a variety of scenic spots, leisure and tourism projects.

In recent years, Zhejiang authorities have been developing homestay tourism. There are 69 intangible cultural heritage-themed homestays and nearly 20,000 homestays with local characteristics across the province.

Hangzhou's Qingshan village is also popular among tourists.

The village's Party secretary, Lin Hong, said that the collective income of the village was just over 100,000 yuan ($14,500) in 2015 when there were no homestays in the village.

But its collective income jumped to more than 7 million yuan last year with more than 30 homestays operating in the village all year round, attracting many tourists from neighboring cities and provinces, mainly from Shanghai.

"Residents in Shanghai have a special bond and affection toward the natural and scenic mountains and rivers in Zhejiang," Zhang Qi, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau, said during the promotional event.

"This event can further enhance mutual understanding and deepen future cooperation between the two areas. We will work together to tap our tourism resources, expand the market and promote the high-quality development of rural tourism," Zhang added.

During the event, Zhejiang's villages signed a series of agreements with the representatives of travel agencies in Shanghai, such as the online tourism platform Lvmama, to attract more urban tourists to the Yangtze River Delta and promote win-win economic development.

The Zhejiang delegation also visited Shanghai's business circles, universities, communities, enterprises and other places of leisure, hosting events such as mini tourism fairs, livestreams and forums to provide more information for Shanghai tourists.