Red tourism gets a boost

The National Tourism Administration reports that the number of red tourism spots now expected to receive more than 100,000 people a year, increased to 118 in 2016, from 82 in 2013.

Commenting on the trend, Chen Gang, a professor from Jinggangshan University, says young people visit such sites hoping to find inspiration to tackle the challenges they face.

During the recent Spring Festival holiday, the venue of the Zunyi Conference in Guizhou province, where Chairman Mao Zedong regained control of the Party in 1935, saw more than 126,000 visits.

Separately, the hall's curator Chen Song is working to spread word of the site. And he plans to have exhibitions in Tianjin, the Liaoning provincial capital Shenyang, the Guangdong provincial capital Guangzhou and the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu. 
In 2016, more than 19 exhibitions featuring the Long March by the Red Army between 1934 and 1936 and the Zunyi Conference were held in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, drawing more than 2 million visits.

Speaking about the impact of such promotion events, Wang Yudi, a tour guide for Zunyi site says: "Calls kept coming in to book tours (at the Shanghai event), and every guide has to take four to five groups a day."

Typically, the exhibitions showcase the history of the Long March in Guizhou and the Zunyi Conference, and portray historic scenes through visual and audio channels.