Hechi accelerates construction of wellness tourism resort

Tourists and local people participate in a bonfire party in Hechi. [Photo/Hechi Daily]

Since the beginning of this year, Hechi has made efforts to establish itself as an international livable and wellness tourist destination.

In the first quarter, the city received over 10.13 million domestic and foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 23.89 percent. Total tourism consumption exceeded 12.9 billion yuan ($1.9 billion), up 35.24 percent over the same period.

Hechi encourages counties and districts to host large-scale cultural and tourism activities. It has held a catalog of these including the 13th Guangxi (Hechi) Garden and Horticulture Expo and the 13th Liu Sanjie Cultural and Tourism Festival.

Hechi's Donglan and Du'an counties were selected as the "Guangxi holistic tourism demonstration zone". This resulted in the designation of five 4A-level tourist attractions, including Donglan Changle Palace, Nandan Yunguantian tourist attraction and Dahua Yantan tourist attraction, ranking the area first in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in terms of the number of such attractions.

The counties have also created one national-level key village for rural tourism and eight autonomous-region-level key villages for rural tourism, ranking among the top in the region in terms of their numbers.

This year, the Guiyang-Nanning High-Speed Railway, the first high-speed railway in Guangxi that can run at speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour, will be put into operation. In addition, Hechi has achieved highway access in every county, which will help the development of its tourism industry.