National tourism plan focuses on Taihang Mountains

The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently jointly announced an ambitious blueprint for the development of tourism for the Taihang Mountains in 2020-2035 -- with 37 counties, cities and districts in North China's Shanxi province involved.

Boasting a glorious natural environment and a large market potential in the surrounding cities, the Taihang Mountainous range covers an area including Beijing city, Hebei, Shanxi and Henan provinces from north to south and is one of the biggest mountain tourism destinations in China's huge tourism market.

Last year, 14 national 5A-level scenic spots and 124 4A-level scenic spots in the area received 560 million visits from domestic and international tourists and generated 436.97 billion yuan ($66.22 billion) in total tourism revenue.

The tourism sector plays a vital role in the socioeconomic development of the Taihang Mountains, as 12 out of 26 previously national-level impoverished counties there adopted tourism as an important lead industry for their poverty alleviation.

Resource-dependent Datong, Xinzhou, Jinzhong, Changzhi and Jincheng cities in Shanxi regard tourism as a vital pillar industry to realize their economic transformation.

The blueprint takes the mountain range's geographical and spatial boundaries, landscapes, culture, transportation networks and industrial foundations into account.

It will coordinate development of the municipalities and provinces in the area and aims to create a cross-regional tourism industry cluster and a scenic corridor led by local 5A-level and major 4A-level scenic spots.

To achieve this, plans are to expand attractions featuring the Communist Party of China's revolutionary history and develop Taihang Mountains tourism-themed around ecological sightseeing, mountain leisure and vacation, cultural heritage experience, rural tourism, sports and hands-on inquiry based learning.

Public tourism facilities will be upgraded. These include a national sightseeing highway around the mountains, an east-west interprovincial and intercity national sightseeing highway, the Taihang Mountain National Forest Trail, highways and general tourism airports.

In addition, the development of poverty-stricken areas in the Taihang Mountains will be advanced through rural tourism revitalization and resource-based tourism transformation projects. Attention will be paid to the protection of the environment and the cultural heritage of the mountains.

By 2025, the country will have established a broad-based tourism product system targeting Taihang Mountains and improved its regional coordination and development mechanism -- in the push to achieve average annual growth of more than 12 percent in total tourism revenue.

Moving forwards, the Taihang Mountains will become an iconic mountain range that showcases China's national image and will be an internationally renowned mountain-category tourist destination as of 2035. By that stage, tourism will have become the most important industry in the area.