The city of Datong, in Shanxi province sent a group to the city of Zhangjiakou, a popular tourist site in Hebei province, on Nov 26, to do an on-the-spot enquiry into the tourism approaches being used there.

The group of officials, led by Cao Xuecheng, the vice-mayor of Datong, visited several scenic spots in the area, including the Minghu River, Qingshuihe River, and Dajingmen Pass, as well as a High-Tech Park, then attended a forum afterwards.

Zhangjiakou officials used the forum to give a detailed description of current tourism conditions in their area and their successes and experiences in planning and tourism development, attracting investment, building the city’s image, and getting government support.

This allowed Datong and Zhangjiakou to exchange ideas on the use of tourism resources and share their thoughts on future development of the tourism industry.

Cao told the forum that Datong has certain advantages in the tourism business since it has a long, prominent history and had made some rapid advances toward modernization. He added, however, that the Datong government could learn something from Zhangjiakou’s approach in to tourism development and said he believed the tourism business in both places could have a bright future with further cooperation.

Edited by Zhou Yuanyuan and Roger Bradshaw