Now a unique "business card", the national demonstration zone inheriting red genes to promote green development is being created, which will be a leading area of the Party history education, a sample area for the integrated development of green development and rural revitalization, an innovation area with high quality development of cultural tourism. As a historic city, ecological city and new industry city, Chenzhou has embraced leapfrog development in the new era.

 

 

Shazhou Village is located in the west of Rucheng County, Chenzhou City. In 1934, when the Red Army passed through Shazhou Village in the Long March, three female soldiers lodged at Xu Jiexiu's home. When they found Xu did not have a quilt to protect her from cold, they cut off half of their only quilt and left it for Xu before leaving. This is the touching story of Half Quilt.

 

In the past, Shazhou Village was a widely known poor village in Luoxiao Mountains. In recent years, Shazhou Village has increased infrastructure construction. Cultural tourism attractions and projects such as the former site of the story of "Half Quilt", special exhibition hall of “Warmth Brought by Half Quilt”, the Folk Culture Square, the Red Army Square, the former site of the Health Department of the Red Army and the pastoral complex of Shazhou have been built.

 

Today, Shazhou Village has become a famous red tourist attraction and a red education base. Up to now, the "Half Quilt" Party spirit education base has welcomed more than 2 million Party members from all over the country. Since the opening of the red education training class in October 2019, more than 560 teams and more than 20,800 people have been trained.

 

Red tourism boom helps Shazhou villagers get rid of poverty. Some have their idle houses rented out; some work in scenic spots; some run farmhouses and homestay inns; some sell local specialties and others develop fruit picking gardens. Tourism-related business has been thriving in this village.

 

At present, there are 8 farmhouses and 12 tourist product shops. Wenming Yao Nationality Township, which has held fruit festivals for several years, has a fruit planting area of more than 12,700 mu. Its golden Naili (a kind of plum) attracts fruit sellers and tourists throughout the country. In the 2020 Naili Festival, 2 million pounds of the plums were sold out on the site and online, reaching the sales of more than 15 million yuan. In 2018, the entire village was lifted out of poverty, with the average disposable income of the villagers reaching 12,740 yuan, 

 

Shazhou Village which has witnessed great changes is a successful model for Chenzhou to inherit red genes and develop red economy.

 

Chenzhou insists on top-level design and scientific planning. Since 2020, a series of documents were released to promote red tourism. At the same time, Chenzhou guides all counties (cities and districts) to formulate the scientific development plan of red tourism and pay attention to the protection and development of red tourism areas to realize the goal of "making good use of red resources and carrying forward the red tradition and passing on the red gene".

 

Only when red resources are well protected can it be better inherited and carried forward. Chenzhou gives priority to protection and rational development, and integrates the management of revolutionary cultural relics and the construction of red education venues into the city planning.

 

In recent years, more than 200 million yuan has been invested in the renovation of more than 20 important sites of revolutionary cultural relics, including the former residence of Huang Kecheng and the place where the story of Half Quilt took place. With a self-raised fund of more than 10 million yuan, it has carried out the collection of revolutionary cultural relics and the upgrade of cultural relics display. 

 

Since this year, the repair and maintenance work for the former residences of 8 founding generals, Deng Zhongxia, Deng Liqun, Zeng Zhongsheng, Zeng Xisheng has been launched, and a number of red tourism projects are under construction. Infrastructure in red tourism scenic spots has been improving.

 

Moreover, Chenzhou has also vigorously promoted the red cultural tourism projects and the regional coordinated development of Mangshan Mountain, Feitian Mountain, Dongjiang Lake and Shazhou, striving to create a red cultural tourism brand. 

 

From January to May this year, 10 key cultural tourism projects attracted investment of 1.33 billion yuan, among which Hunan (Shazhou) Red Cultural Tourism Industrial Park project completed investment of 210 million yuan. Chenzhou has implemented multi-channel marketing, extended the chain of tourist routes and strengthened regional cooperation to expand the market and integrate regional cultural tourism.

 

The renovation of revolutionary sites and the development of red tourism resources have attracted thousands of tourists to visit and study. In 2020, the city received a total of 689.97 million tourists and achieved a total tourism revenue of 63.41 billion yuan, ranking the second place in the province. In the first half of this year, the city is expected to attract 37.5 million tourists and realize a comprehensive tourism revenue of 35.2 billion yuan.

 

Green environment brings vitality to old revolutionary sites

 

Qingzhu Village is 12 kilometers away from Guidong County with an altitude of 1,200 meters. It enjoys cool weather in summer, drawing in numerous visitors each year, and thus the homestay inns in this village are quite popular.

 

Take Luo Senquan and Xiong Guirong as an example. During the peak season, Luo is busy cleaning the guest rooms and greeting the guests, and Xiong does the cooking. Besides, their son and daughter-in-law who live in the county town also come to help them. 3 years ago, the couple rebuilt their house into a homestay inn to receive tourists in summer. “We have achieved stable increases in income with over 40,000 yuan in 2018, more than 60,000 yuan in 2019 and over 70,000 yuan in 2020,” Xiong said happily. Next, they plan to expand their inn after earning more money.

 

This is just one of the examples. To further give full play to the ecological advantage, Chenzhou City has sought to pilot forest healthcare projects by building Chenzhou Jiulongjiang National Forest Park, one of the first batch of the forest healthcare pilot bases in Hunan Province.

 

In addition, it has built a wheelchair accessible passage in Five Fingers Peak, Mangshan Mountain, Yizhang County, allowing inconvenienced people to get to the top without getting off the wheelchair. Chenzhou is adjacent to Guangdong Province, and it has made full use of this geographical advantage to build  it into a tourist destination for people from Guangdong, Hongkong and Macao.

 

Now, Dongjiang Lake in Zixing County, Mangshan Mountain in Yizhang County and Gaoshan Mountain in Guidong County have become popular summer resorts, attracting numerous tourists each year. 

 

The increase of the tourists bolsters new forms of industries such as homestays and road trips. By the end of 2020, 210 boutique homestay inns and 1,240 common homestay inns have been built. At the same time, China’s first provincial standardization administration for road trips and camping motorhome was established in Chenzhou and a series of service specifications and standards have been released and implemented. Moreover, Chenzhou City and Beihu District have won the title of China’s Excellent Road Trip Destination.

 

The ecological environment not only provides fresh air and resources for Chenzhou people, but brings wealth to them, immensely advancing the development of the city’s other industries.

 

It has seen rapid growth in the cultural industry with multiple cultural brands established. The city’s red tourism keeps growing and several investors have been attracted such as China Top View, Dianfeng Culture and Tourism as well as Zhonghuilv, which greatly improved the industrial scale and efficiency. By the end of 2020, there were 46 national scenic areas, 18 starred hotels, 60 travel agencies and 172 provincial rural scenic areas (scenic spots) in Chenzhou.

 

Besides, remarkable achievements in tourism have been made, with the first batch of national cultural and tourist consumption pilot cities built in Chenzhou, a national all-for-one tourism demonstration area established in Zixing City, Beihu District listed in the fourth batch of national demonstration unit for tourism standardization, the Five Fingers Peak in Mangshan Mountain rated as China’s first wheelchair accessible scenic area and Shazhou Village, in Rucheng County as well as Shantang Village in Anren County selected as national key villages for rural tourism.

 

A new development pattern of rural revitalization has been fostered in Chenzhou. 6 provincial demonstration bases (demonstration zones) for the supply of high-quality agricultural and sideline products, 100 certificated bases of the “vegetable basket” for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay, 66 provincial or above leading enterprises with industrialized agricultural operation, and 2 characteristic industrial clusters of modern agriculture have been established in the city.

 

Besides, it has also built 3 national strong towns in agriculture, 6 provincial strong towns in agriculture, 1 provincial special town, and 179 national and provincial starred farms, and Jindong Village in Guidong County has been selected as a beautiful and leisure village in China. Meanwhile, tremendous efforts have been made to exploit markets in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay, and implement the “4 two-million agreements”, selling 700,000 pigs and 2.8 million tons of vegetables to the area. In 2020, the city fulfilled the zero breakthrough in exporting agricultural products.

 

By the end of 2020, the output value for the entire industrial chain of the competitive industries reached 156.643 billion yuan and the output value for the farming industry was 129.348 billion yuan.

 

New progress has also been made in the development of low-carbon circular economy. It has worked to enhance the energy conservation in industry, construction industry, transportation, agriculture and rural areas as well as public institutions and improve its ability in energy-saving service in different ways.

 

Based on the base construction, the city has made great efforts to improve the capability in comprehensive utilization of the industrious solid waste and build a green and low-carbon circular economic development system.

 

By the end of 2020, a batch of industrial parks, leading enterprises and industrial cluster centering on the comprehensive utilization of the industrial resources have been built. The investment for the comprehensive utilization of related supporting infrastructure facilities and enterprises' fixed assets have reached over 5 billion yuan, with more than 400 enterprises involved in it, the output value exceeding 77.7 billion yuan and nearly 70,000 people working for it.

 

To create a red cultural tourism model with high-quality development

 

Chenzhou city, located in the south of Hunan province, boasts beautiful natural landscape, long history, rich culture and revolutionary spirit. It’s a big test for Chenzhou to boost a high-quality development while preserving the lush mountains, lucid waters and red resources.

 

Chenzhou Municipal Committee and Government follows the vision of carrying forward the red genes and promoting green development to build a demonstration area. It’s dedicated to building the most innovative demonstration area with Chenzhou characteristics.

 

On April 21, at the Eleventh Plenary Session of the fifth CPC Chenzhou Municipal Committee, the local municipal committee put forward the work goal of "building a demonstration area of the red genes and green development” and issued a series of supporting documents to clarify the specific work objectives and key work.

 

The first is to accelerate the construction of red tourist attractions. It will strengthen the protection of red tourism resources, and promote the construction of Hunan (Shazhou) Red Cultural Tourism Industrial Park and other related projects with high standards. It will build six red tourism quality routes with Shazhou Village as the core node, including “Red Xiaoxiang” with joint efforts of Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi province, “Revisiting the long march road and following the Party forever”, and “Southern Hunan Red”. It will launch the plan of “happy Chenzhou with flourishing night economy” and strive to build Chenzhou into a famous red tourist attraction in China.

 

The second is to advance the construction of red education base. It will excavate red culture, tell red stories well, and compile a series of special education books of red culture and audio-visual textbooks. It will build five red education training bases like the "Half a Quilt" red education base in Shazhou. It will launch the red research development plan, develop "red and green" characteristic tourism quality routes and foster professional red tourism teams.

 

The third is to build a red cultural and creative Chenzhou. It will actively build a creative exchange platform and a cultural and creative platform of production, study, research and investment with the support of special funds. It will set up a database of creative works concerning red cultural tourism. It will hold a "South Hunan Red" cultural and creative competition, and promote the construction of a cultural and creative base. It will further integrate the red cultural and creative industries with financial capital and scientific and technological trends, achieving a win-win result for red cultural and creative resources and industries across the country.

 

The fourth is to fully promote the revitalization of rural industries. It will combine poverty reduction with the revitalization of rural industries, develop agro-industrialized unions and establish an organic linkage mechanism between smallholders and modern agriculture. It will push to build industries worth 10 billion yuan, build vegetable supply bases for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area, develop a production system centering on green agriculture, and coordinate the production and sales of agricultural products. It will vigorously promote the new Internet Plus business model and the construction of five bases including vegetable and fruit supply base for the Greater Bay Area, spring (cold) water fish breeding base, Swine slaughtering and processing base, rural leisure tourism attraction for the Greater Bay Area and Luzhou-flavor tobacco production base.

 

The fifth is to develop low-carbon and circular economy. It will build a system to make full use of industrial resources. It will build Bolin-Taihe Industrial Zone in Yongxing ETDZ, Metal Smelting and Processing Project Zone in Guiyang Industrial Park, existing material industry development in Chenzhou High-tech Zone and Daowoli Landfill Site in Suxian District. It will build three industrial belts to fully leverage industrial resources along the Beijing-Zhuhai main channel, the Pingjiang-Rucheng main channel and the Yueyang-Linwu main channel. It will develop more than 10 industrial bases and 10 industrial clusters for comprehensive utilization of industrial resources.

 

The local government will fully leverage the rich red resources to build a Chenzhou-style demonstration area of red genes and green development. It will build a red cultural tourism model with national influences to promote the high-quality development of Hunan Province.