2.812 million! This is the number of touriststo Jingzhou during the National Day holidays this year, a 40% increase over thesame period last year and a net increase of 800,000.
"A series of new scenic spots become thetipping point." Zongbiao Liu, the Director of Jingzhou Municipal Bureau ofCulture and Tourism, analyzed the reason.
On September 12, the Fantawild OrientalHeritage opened and attracted 161,000 visitors during the National Day. OnSeptember 27, the ancient city - Binyang Tower introduced the light show,attracting 212,000 tourists to the scenic spot of ancient city. On September28, the Jingzhou Garden Expo Park opened, with tourists exceeding 100,000during the National Day. Within seven days, the city center attracted more than470,000 visitors.
"Never before in history has Jingzhoutourism become so well received."
Since the tourists came in great numbers, it was too hard to get a room.
Late at night on October 2, 30 tourists had adispute with a hotel due to accommodation issue, and the police on duty rushedto the scene to deal with it.
"We have successfully checked in online,but when we get to the hotel, we are told there is no room! "The touristsaid angrily. "The hotel's online booking information is not updated intime, and we cannot vacate the rooms because of the full house offline."The hotel manager was also frustrated.
The police immediately asked if there were anyrooms left in other hotels." No surplus in Jingzhou District""No surplus in Shashi District." "No surplus in theDevelopment Zone." With more than 2 hours of phone calls and WeChatcontact, it reflected that the hotels were all full up in the whole city. Indesperation, the police had to vacate their own rest room to put up the touristsfor the night.
If this dispute is a manifestation of tourism boomin Jingzhou, then the Fantawild Oriental Heritage is undoubtedly the"tipping point" of Jingzhou tourism.
On October 1-3, there were 16,000, 29,000, and35,000 tourists respectively. During the 7 days of National Day, Jingzhou Fantawildhas attracted more than 160,000 tourists, with an average daily of 22,000.
"Ticket sales are suspended on theofficial website today!" On October 2, due to the number of touristsexceeding the maximum capacity of the scenic area, the Fantawild Park had tosuspend the ticket sales on the official website and only accepted windowon-site ticket sales, in order to offer tourists a high-quality experience.
The popularity of Jingzhou tourism lies in the unremitting efforts ofJingzhou people.
In 2014, Jinan Cultural Tourism Zone was establishedin Jingzhou to tap into local cultural resources deeply and develop thecultural tourism. The past five years have seen the station of some magnates incultural tourism industry nationwide and the implementation of a batch of majorprojects. Fantawild invested 3 billion yuan to build the Oriental HeritageTheme Park, Hongtai Group invested 7.5 billion yuan to build the Suishiwan SolarTerms Town, Hubei Culture & Tourism Investment Group invested 1.5 billionyuan to build Jing street, and Xi'an Qujiang invested 12 billion yuan to build JingchuGrand View Garden...
With five years of sharpening the sword, Jingzhouopened a new chapter of cultural tourism.
The integration of culture and technology hasreproduced and rejuvenated the history/ made history come alive
Why is Jingzhou tourism so hot? Some peoplesay that technology makes history "alive". What kind of sparks can becreated by the combination of culture and technology?
Standing on the moat bank quietly, the BinyangTower and the Ancient City Wall became dreamlike caused by a light show duringthe National Day.
When night fell, from the gate tower, the citywall to the moat, layered neon lights were decorated with various colors, andten thousand lamps were lit together, turning the East Gate Tower into a citythat never sleeps.
At 7:30 PM, the light show began as nightfell. The light and shadow cast on the mountainous tower formed vivid pictures,portraying Guan Gong, Qu Yuan and other historical figures in a lifelike way. Bytelling the historical narrative of the Three Kingdoms, the long-lasting Charmof Chu State and a clever Jingzhou were presented in front of the tourists, andthe rich and colorful cultural history was shown incisively and vividly in ashort 8-minute light show.
"The light show adopted 3D lightingprojection, shadow special effects of LED light and other technologies, andcomprehensively utilized water mist, light and shadow, music and other elementsto reflect the unique charm of the perfect integration of Jingchu culture andmodern technology." Guangxing Yang, General Manager of Jingzhou Ancient CityCulture Tourism Development Co., Ltd said.
"During the 7 days of National Day,Binyang Tower received more than 100,000 tourists, with huge crowds of peopleevery day" Guangxing Yang said. The flow had to be limited due to thenumerous tourists during the day while the heavy traffic often caused trafficjam at night.
Fantawild also made history come alive.
Oriental Heritage is exactly a cultural feast withthe integration of science & technology and history. 41 indoor and outdoortheme amusement projects and more than 200 leisure landscape architectures comprehensiveutilized laser multimedia, three-dimensional effects, miniature real sceneryand other scientific and technological means to tell the history and culture, allowingvisitors to find everything new and fresh.
In the venue of "Nuwa (a goddess inChinese mythology) Patching the Sky", tourists could watch the Gong Gong,the God of Water fighting with Zhurong, the God of Fire, witness the collapseof Mount Buzhou, follow Nuwa to repel the giant monster and repair the sky withstones through projection with zero distance, the adventures of which wouldmake people enormously nervous. In the" Verve of Ancient China ", thesuper IMAX 3D cinema showed the vicissitudes of China in five thousand years,allowing visitors to easily experience the splendid culture of China.
Ecology and culture created poetry anddistance place
"I come to Jingzhou Garden Expo Park fortravel, mainly because I heard that it enjoys good ecology and cultural tasteexcept Jingmen Garden." On October 1, Jun Tang, a tourist from Jingmen,came to Jingzhou Garden Expo Park with his wife. After returning, he wrote on thecircle of friends: "It is inadvisable to have ecology but no culture, orvice versa. Both embracing ecology and culture, Jingzhou Garden Expo Park canbe considered to serve as a young lady of a big, noble family".
The ecological Garden Expo Park boasted charming sceneries.
Gentle slope and woodland were well-spaced;Rivers and lakes were linked together with a crisscross water network; Pavilionsenjoyed the exquisite beauty. Since the park was located beside the lake,tourists would feel relaxed and happy when overlooking the Long Lake witha wideexpanse of mist-covered waters; The garden was surrounded by the lake, andbeautiful and amazing landscape could be appreciated when tourists viewed thepark on the lake with peaks rising one higher than the other.
The cultural Garden Expo Park embodied the more beautiful ecology.
The main hall - Phoenix Feather Hall wasjam-packed with people indoors while the tourists flew flashy outside. Treasuressuch as the bamboo slips of Chu, chime bells and jade articles"borrowed" from Jingzhou Museum attracted many tourists to look atthem carefully. Interactive HD touch screen and multi-functional projectorattracted visitors to stop to experience. Dance accompanied by music of ChuPalace vividly reproduced the song and dance of Chu imperial palace through thelive performance. The half-hour performance was packed with tourists, and even stairsand walkways were crowded with people.
The lacquerwares, Han embroideries, woodcarvings and other intangible cultural heritage works displayed in theIntangible Cultural Heritage Museum were highly praised by tourists. Yong'anLi, a folk master, performed bas-relief wood carving on the spot, both being vividand lively, and the traditional Chinese painting of landscape was full ofcharm. Xiansong Zhang, the inheritor of Han embroidery, and his apprentices spent4 months on elaborately embroidering and producing a masterpiece of 70phoenixes to present a gift to the National Day.
Covering an area of 1,550 mu (a unit of area,=0.0667 hectares), 45 exhibition gardens distributed, all water systemsconnected with the Long Lake, Jingzhou Garden Expo Park is the largest gardenin water-towns in the whole province." What a masterpiece it is! It’s worthyof being appreciated." Wide acclaim has been won from tourists.
Tourism boosted the city and the citizens werestimulated to love the city and protect the industry
With the tourism boom in the National Daygolden week, some hotels took the opportunity to raise the housing price. Some economyhotel sold a single room for 700 yuan a night, and some hotels raised the priceof renewal fees, jumping from over 200 yuan to over 1,000 yuan.
On October 2, the relevant departments ofJingzhou Municipal Government held a meeting to formulate measures forregulating the tourism market. On October 3, Jingzhou Administration for MarketRegulation held an emergency interview with the person in charge of the hotel,asking the hotel to stop arbitrarily raising prices, immediately withdraw theonline inflated prices, refund the overcharge in accordance with the pre-festivalprices and apologize.
"No act that damages Jingzhou tourismshall be allowed!"" We must protect the hard-won tourismachievements." "The whole city should take action to polish thevisiting card of this historic and cultural city." The tourism boom in theNational Day encouraged Jingzhou cadres and masses to be full of confidence.
Jingzhou made every effort for travel.
The route of 318 National Highway was changed,and that of 207 National Highway changed and expanded. Fuxing Avenue wasconnected to the east and west, Jingsha Avenue was transformed, a series ofmain roads were built one after another to achieve external connection andinternal communication, and the traffic network was improved. The Eastern RingRoad was stretched to connect with Liujiatai Road, so that the citizens of theancient city could reach Fantawild Park as soon as they get out of the EasternGate.
Repairing roads, planting trees, demolishingand setting up buildings, not only improved the living environment, broughtconvenience for the public to travel, but also made the city took on a newlook.
"The roads around the scenic areas mustform a closed loop." Interlocking from north, south, east and westdirections, Chu King Avenue and Gaoyang Avenue closely surrounded the FantawildPark. Yutai Avenue and Phoenix Bridge embraced the Garden Expo Park.
"Scenic spots must be connectedquickly." Separated by the Long Lake, the newly established scenic spotsof Garden Expo Park and Fantawild Park could be integrated by the constructionof Phoenix Bridge across the Long Lake.
During the National Day, tourists enteredFantawild and Garden Expo Park from all directions. Every road was newlyrepaired, and with newly paved asphalt, newly planted trees, and newly hungnational flag, all scenes along the road made people delightful and pleasant. Sinceroad was the skeleton of the city, the construction of main roads opened theurban framework of Jingzhou. Roads were repaired for tourism and city wasboosted by roads in turn. Tourism "boom" in Jingzhou, not onlyinvigorated the industry, but also ignited the citizens’ thick feelings of lovingthe city and protecting the industry.