The Fantawild, the Garden Expo, the city walls... thetourism market of Jingzhou, Hubei Province was in full swing during the NationalDay holiday this year. During the holiday, the city received 2.812 milliontourists in total and achieved tourism revenue of 2.238 billion yuan, increasingby 39.8% and 43.6% respectively on a year-on-year basis.

With scenic spots and cultural relics, Jingzhou aboundswith cultural tourism resources. The Chu culture, the Three Kingdoms culture, thewater culture and the red culture are intertwined, and ancient cities, gardens,caves and other precious tourism resources are splendid.

Relying on the advantage of cultural tourism resources,Jingzhou has launched characteristic cultural tourism projects represented by theFantawild Oriental Heritage and the Garden Expo Park, which has gainedpopularity for the city and created a new economic growth point.

Tourism + Culture

Digging into the “essence of theChu culture” with cultural tourism

With the acceleration of consumption upgrade, touristsare no longer satisfied with the traditional mode of sightseeing. Projectsintegrating tourism with culture that enable tourists to “see scenery, tasteculture and learn knowledge” is becoming increasingly popular.

Jingzhou, the birthplace of the Chu culture and thecapital city of the Chu State during the Spring and Autumn Periods and theWarring States Periods, boasts abundant intangible cultural heritage.

In recent years, with the establishment and operation of theJingzhou Institute for Inheriting Intangible Cultural Heritage and the JingzhouTraditional Handicrafts Workstation, the intangible cultural heritage of theChu State has been animated and revitalized as a new name card for Jingzhou’scultural tourism. Owing to the excellent traditional culture of the Chu State, “seeingcultural relics in museums and visiting the institute to experience culture” isbecoming a new type of cultural tour in Jingzhou.

With national and provincial intangible cultural heritageprojects and traditional handicrafts as the main line, the institute displays12 items of intangible cultural heritage and handicrafts, represented by theChu style lacquer painting technology, and gathers 12 corresponding masters,represented by Zou Dexiang, the inheritor of the Chu style lacquer paintingtechnology. The institute is seen as a new-type tourist attraction where intangiblecultural heritage is exhibited, experienced, studied and inherited.

You can follow the tourist route to visit the exhibitionof lacquer culture, the exhibition of Chu style lacquer art and the exhibitionof Jingzhou intangible cultural heritage projects and learn about how the traditionalhandicrafts of the Chu State have been passed down; you can go to the openworkshops to see how the traditional handicrafts are made, communicate with theinheritors, and sit in on training courses for inheritors; if you come acrossthe Intangible Cultural Heritage Festival, you make a traditional handicraftyourself free of charge to feel the wisdom of our ancestors. In 2018, the institutereceived over 26,000 tourists from home and abroad, winning high praise fromthem.

Tourism + Industries

The “locomotive” that drives theeconomy

As the national economy is improving continuously, the tourismindustry is playing an increasingly important role in economic growth. By attractingforeign investment and developing characteristic tourism, Jingzhou has improvedits local tourism industry and added impetus to its economic development.

The Fantawild Oriental Heritage, located in Jingzhou JinanEcological Cultural Tourism Zone, is the first large-scale high-tech culturaltheme park invested and established by Fantawild Holdings Inc. in HubeiProvince.

The Fantawild Oriental Heritage includes 41 indoor andoutdoor events, such as the large-scale theater performance The Chu Music, which shows the charm ofthe culture of the Chu States; the cultural experience event Burning of the Red Cliffs, which brings youback to the “Three Kingdoms” Period; and the large-scale event Flying with You, which give you anexperience of flying high in the sky. More than 200 theme events, amusementfacilities, leisure landscapes satisfy the needs of tourists of different ages.Fantawild received 161,100 tourists during the 7-day National Day holiday in2019.

Kerun Modern Agricultural Professional Cooperative islocated in Jiangnan New Area in the suburbs of Jingzhou. Being adjacent to the ancientcity of Jingzhou and the Yangtze and boasting a 100,000-mu (6,666-hectare)grape industrial park, the cooperative serves as a small town for eco-tourismwith water scenery and grape picking. The scenic spot features ecologicalleisure, rural tourism, sightseeing and picking, and provides tourists withexcellent interactive tourism services. In the past four years, the scenic spothas achieved remarkable economic, ecological and social benefits, setting agood example in the area. The scenic spot receives 30,000 tourists every year,with an annual operating income of 8.81 million yuan and a net income of 1.15million yuan.

In the first half of 2019, Jingzhou received 22.5 milliontourists from home and abroad, achieving 14.6 billion yuan from the overalltourism industry.

Tourism + Branding

Creating a “Golden Card” for Jingzhou

“Good wine also needs bush.” The prosperity of regionaltourism also depends on “hard power”. It is undeniable that “Golden cards” facilitatethe development of the tourism industry.

On September 28, the 2nd Hubei Province Garden Expoofficially opened in the Jingzhou Garden Expo Park.

With the theme of “garden + culture + tourism,” theJingzhou Garden Expo Park boasts 45 unique gardens of various stylesrepresenting the highest levels of different regions around the country, presentinga beautiful Hubei with the use of the green color and depicting the charm ofthe Chu State in an agreeableecological environment: the quaint Jingzhou Garden, themagnificent Wuhan Garden, the modern Jingmen Garden... You will be absolutelymesmerized by the gardens of different styles. The park received 79,800 touristsduring the 7-day National Day holiday.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of NewChina, display the achievements of ecological civilization construction and unveilthe culture of the Chu State through artistic performances during the expo,Jingzhou launched multiple large-scale activities with mass participation, suchas the Theme Day of the City, the ceremony of “Illuminating the Ancient City”in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of China, the song anddance drama Cang Lang Shui Qing, theJingzhou International Marathon and the Chu State Food Festival, which enrichedthe tourists' experiences and won a high reputation for Jingzhou’s culturaltourism.

The city of Jingzhou, the Garden Expo Park, the ancientcity of Jingzhou, the Guan Gong Park, the museums, the Fantawild OrientalHeritage, the Chariots and Horses of the King of Chu... A magnificent picturefor the cultural tourism of Jingzhou is depicted. Cultural tourism resources areincreasingly concentrated, which makes the brand of Jingzhou’s cultural tourismknown to the rest of the country.