Across China: Health, wellness tourism a boon for forested county
Source: Xinhua | 2020-12-19
Featuring red cliffs, cloud-wrapped peaks and homestays in forests, east China's Taining County, in Fujian Province, is endowed with all the advantages for developing tourism.
However, as the fast-paced lifestyle has resulted in "clock-in" tourism, which means visitors leave after quickly looking around scenic spots, reluctant to stay overnight, tourism has played a declining role in driving other sectors of the local economy, according to Lyu Guojian, Party chief of the county.
"To upgrade the tourism industry, we've been trying to seek a unique path with our own characteristics, hoping to transform the once sightseeing-oriented industry to one focused on health and wellness tourism," Lyu said.
As 80 percent of the county is covered with forests, it decides to make the most use of the ecological bonus.
So far, the county has promoted 13 health and wellness tourism projects, and the one named L'e Topia in Jixi Village is one of the most successful.
The project, about 12 km from the county seat, includes a meditation center, reading rooms, yoga halls, various homestays and other facilities.
Centered on health and wellness tourism in the forests, the project preserves the original beauty of the county which attracted Qiu Liang on his first trip to Jixi Village.
"Taining is my wife's hometown, and we traveled together to Jixi Village in 2017," said the 38-year-old Qiu. "I was so impressed with the fresh air and wonderful landscape here, and I thought it was the place that I'd been looking for."
Last year, Qiu opened a homestay in Jixi Village as part of the L'e Topia project.
With an area of more than 900 square meters, Qiu's homestay has eight rooms and charges up to 700 yuan (about 107 U.S. dollars) per night.
He also sells local agricultural products and runs a rural restaurant in his homestay.
"We started our business last August with a monthly turnover of over 70,000 yuan. If it were not for the COVID-19 epidemic, we would have expected to achieve a business volume of about 200,000 yuan during this year's Spring Festival," Qiu said.
As the epidemic continues to wane in China thanks to its strict prevention measures, Qiu's business has seen gradual recovery.
"Since our resumption in May, we've received more orders month after month. In August, the monthly turnover registered 100,000 yuan, equivalent to that of last October," Qiu said.
According to Yan Xuan, deputy head of Shancheng Township where Jixi Village is located, the L'e Topia project has brought the annual per capita income of local residents by more than 12,000 yuan.
The development of health and wellness tourism in the forested county has further driven its rural tourism industry. Taining received more than 6.7 million visitors last year, up 21.3 percent year on year, raking in a tourism revenue of over 5.92 billion yuan.
"Such tourism has made villages more beautiful and brought tangible benefits to local people," Yan said.
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