Red relics harnessed to fuel provincial tourism

Assets preserved and websites created to feed public demand

Jiangsu province in East China has protected and creatively utilized its Red tourism resources recently to better serve tourists, local media reported.

The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, located in the provincial capital, for instance, recently held several online exhibitions that included survivors' portrait photographs. Each has attracted more than 10,000 visits.

WeChat users can scan a QR code to access a mini-program offered by the northern Jiangsu city of Huai'an. There they can visit more than 40 online sites including Red scenic areas.

Many cultural and tourism sites in Jiangsu have temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the public still want to learn about Red culture, the sites launched online services, local media reported.

The province released its first list of revolutionary cultural relics in April, including 447 static relics and 8,759 mobile ones. The relics are a record of the revolutionary history of Jiangsu since 1840 and demonstrate the province's rich Red cultural resources.

The province has kept 39 revolutionary museums and memorial halls on record and housed 87,696 revolutionary cultural relics in such venues.

Jiangsu has persisted in both protecting and utilizing these resources and increased expenditure on protection and utilization. On July 14, It released a list of excellent projects for Red heritage maintenance, protection, demonstration and utilization during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

Among the projects was one for repairing, demonstrating and utilizing the site of the former headquarters of the First Division of the New Fourth Army, a military force led by the Communist Party of China during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). It is located in Shangzhuang village, Jiangning district, Nanjing.

It is now a center for the study and education of the Party's history and is open to tourists as a Red scenic site.

Officials from the Jiangning culture and tourism bureau said that the repairs have protected the Red heritage site and promoted Red tourism by offering more rooms for exhibitions.

Jiangsu has completed 30 projects for the protective preservation of revolutionary cultural relics and 76 digital protection projects for mobile revolutionary cultural relics.

Using innovation to utilize and promote Red culture is an important means for Jiangsu to tell stories relating to its revolutionary history, local media reported.

Nanjing, for instance, has used digital and interactive methods to improve exhibitions in revolutionary memorial halls. The city of Xuzhou has organized memorial and educational events on important dates such as Tomb Sweeping Day and National Day.

The social education department of Yuhuatai Martyrs Memorial Hall in Nanjing and the Nanjing Red Culture Volunteers League launched engaging presentations in the hall in 2020. Volunteers told stories of martyrs while they staged related performances.

As 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, Red tourism increased in popularity. As a result, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism launched a series of Red tourism services. It offered 12 Red tourism routes in late March and then 20 short trips in May.

The city of Changzhou has protected and utilized its revolutionary resources, including those related to three early CPC leaders from the city: Qu Qiubai, Zhang Tailei and Yun Daiying. Suzhou launched Red tourism routes and encouraged local employees to participate.

Some villages in Jiangsu integrated Red tourism with rural travel, which spurred local employment and increased farmers' incomes.

The village of Youhao in Zhenjiang city began to integrate Red and rural tourism resources in 2013. It has built projects including a Red education center and a cultural park to attract visitors.

Xu Yuegen, a resident, is one of the beneficiaries of tourism. He rents more than 1.3 hectares of land to run a farming experience garden for tourists to harvest vegetables and fruit.

"I previously earned 50,000 to 60,000 yuan a year and now make more than 100,000 yuan ($15,700)," he said.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn