According to the Department of Forestry in Shanxi Province, by May 27th 2014, there were 127 forest parks in Shanxi, among which 19 are designated as national level and 51 as provincial level.
Recently, 15 provincial forest parks, including Jinniu Mountain, Changcheng Mountain, Daquan Mountain, Shima Temple, Luquan Mountain, Jiulong Mountain, Meidong Mountain, and Golden Beach, etc were approved by the provincial government to become provincial forest parks. Meanwhile, Qizi Mountain was upgraded by the State Forestry Bureau to being a national forest park.
In addition to the forest parks, Shanxi has established 45 nature reserves and 31 wetland parks. In Shanxi Province, a full service in the forest-based eco-tourism which integrates accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping and recreation, is gradually coming into being. With the development of service quality, the forest-based eco-tourism attracts more and gains more. In the last five years, more than 20 million tourists traveled in forest parks, nature reserves and wetland parks. Tourism income has been growing with an annual increase of 35 percent. Positively affected by the rapid development of forest tourism, the catering industry, hotels, local products sales and transportation have all seen a strong growth. Forest tourism has become a new growth point in Shanxi’s forestry industry.
