Guiyang's tourist appeal grows

Modern experiences

As a modern metropolis, Guiyang offers a plethora of stylish and trendy experiences. A Yun Duo Cang, meaning "my ideal place" in the Yi language, is one of the latest hot spots where young people in Guiyang gather. With the architectural and interior design reflecting Guizhou's natural landscapes, cultural heritage and urban art, it offers a diverse range of consumer experiences, such as motorcycle shops, camping-style bars converted from underground garages, illustration art stores, skateboard clubs, and niche coffee shops.

For car enthusiasts seeking an exhilarating experience, a visit to the Guanshanhu Automobile Park would be difficult to pass up.

With free entry, it stands out as one of the few in the country where visitors can get up close to a wide range of luxury, superluxury and limited-edition supercars from around the world.

Here, visitors can also use simulators for free to experience the exhilaration of motor racing. Additionally, petrolheads can not only experience the ultimate thrill of accelerating from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in under three seconds in a real supercar, but also learn skills, for a fixed fee, under the guidance of a professional instructor.

During the Guanshanhu Lantern Festival event, Guanshanhu Park attracted a total of 660,000 visitors during its celebrations from Jan 30 to Feb 25. The event covered a total area of more than 250,000 sq m, the largest such event in Guiyang to date, according to Zhou Hang, chief designer of the lantern festival.

"Inspired by Shanhaijing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), an ancient work of Chinese literature, as well as the splendid mountainous landscape of Guizhou, the lantern festival consisted of six themed lantern areas with nearly 100 sets of lanterns," he says, adding that 12 stages were set up at the lantern areas, offering a total of 500 performances, such as singing, dancing, acrobatics and cross-talk, in collaboration with various arts groups.

Outside of such festivals, there is a vibrant urban nightlife to enjoy and, after a day of exploring, getting immersed in the city's music scene at either the Gui Live House or Mengtian Live House is a perfect way to spend an evening.

"Guiyang used to be more of a tourist transit city, but its appeal to tourists has been consistently growing in recent years," says He Hanxiao, marketing communications manager of the Renaissance Guiyang Hotel, who has been working in the city for seven years.

He says that the hotel's guests used to be mainly business people, but last year it saw a significant increase in the number of tourists on family trips. The roadside concerts and large-scale music festivals held in the city also brought a noticeable increase in customer flow to the hotel, he adds.