At the opening ceremony, Mao Weiming, deputy secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and governor of the People’s Government of Hunan Province, stated that Hunan regards the tourism development conference as an important measure to promote the high-quality development and life. Last year, the first Hunan Tourism Development Conference increased publicity of natural scenery, and gathered efforts from different parties to build a world destination. This year, Hunan made another splendid achievement. Chenzhou promoted integrated development through projects and optimized the quality of environment.  

 

 

 

Since 2023, Hunan has taken multiple measures to integrate and innovate its cultural and tourism industries, and accelerate the construction of a province with strong cultural tourism economy and a world tourism destination. 

 

During the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-2020) period, more than 1,000 tourism projects were under construction in Hunan Province, including 151 major tourism projects worth over 1 trillion yuan. 

 

Driven by investment, a group of projects including the ancient town of Tongguan Kiln and Lingling Ancient Town have been completed and put into operation. 34 villages including Shibadong and Shazhou were included on the list of key rural tourism villages in China. 

 

Since 2023, the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism has taken measures and provided financial supports for the resumption and development of cultural tourism. 

 

To effectively promote the work of the 2nd Hunan Tourism Development Conference, a special fund of 100 million yuan was provided to Chenzhou. 133 major projects with a total investment of 127.849 billion yuan were introduced. 

 

9,936 orchards, vegetable gardens, flower gardens and public parks with an area of 2,414,300 square meters were built. A total of 351 key projects were promoted in the whole province, with a total investment of 213 billion yuan. And 47.8 billion yuan will be invested in 2023. 

 

In 2023, Hunan held a promotion conference on Hunan cultural tourism in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the main leaders of Hunan government promoted and expanded foreign exchanges.

 

In 2023, the World Tourism Cities Federation Changsha Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit was held in Changsha. Tourism ministers and ambassadors from over 40 countries, more than 10 mayors of world-renowned tourism cities and delegations from more than 20 world tourism cities gathered in Changsha. 

 

 

 

The “Dongjiang Lake Declaration” on sustainable utilization of water resources and green development was issued at the opening ceremony. Wu Jupei, secretary of the CPC Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee, delivered an 8-minute speech to promote Chenzhou tourism. 

 

Chenzhou City is located in the southeast of Hunan Province, bordering Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces. It’s the south gate of Hunan Province and the hometown of nonferrous metals in China, with a total of 116 kinds of minerals discovered.

 

Among them, tungsten, bismuth and other minerals have reserves that rank among the top in the world. And microcrystalline graphene reserves account for 70% of the world. 

 

Chenzhou is rich in water resources and is a United Nations international small hydropower comprehensive base, as well as an important energy supply base in South China.

 

 

 

The famous scenic spots in Chenzhou include Dongjiang Lake, Mangshan National Forest Park and Yangtian Lake. 

 

In recent years, Chenzhou has actively integrated into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the GBA), and proposed goals such as building a backyard garden for the GBA and a world tourism destination. 

 

According to calculations, from January to August this year, Chenzhou received 59.2 million tourists and generated tourism revenue of 62 billion yuan, an increase of 67% and 71% year on year respectively. The number of tourists and tourism revenue ranked second in the province. 

 

 

 

At the opening ceremony, colorful art performances brought a cultural feast to the audience. Lang Ping and girls from the women’s volleyball team also went on stage to promote Chenzhou and tell the story of their training in the bamboo shed training center at Suxian Ridge of Chenzhou.