Recently, Hunan government published the third list of provincial intangible cultural heritage and the extended list, thus amounting to 70. So far, with the addition of previous pronounced first and second directories, provincial intangible cultural heritage in Hunan province achieved 220 altogether.In 2011, culture department of Hunan province launched the declaration and assessment centering on the third provincial cultural intangible directory. In accordance with the related regulations, experts examined 112 items declared by 14 cities and some units among Hunan province. After two-round publicity of all those recommended items, later, judged by joint conference, and authorized by Hunan government, this directory was ascertained finally, involving 50 items and 20 extended items within it.Compared with previous intangible cultural heritage items, this time, those newly added items commonly share the following features: large quantity, wide categories and high standard. It is worth noting that some items possess not only abundant historical value, but also rich cultural value and artistic value. In addition, some old and famous shops or enterprises are also brought to the forefront.Translated by Becky

News 2012-08-20 08:11 View：1270

In order to have a further understanding of mechanism reform in Chinese scenic spots, the deputy director of National Tourism Association personnel department, and also the secretary general of Chinese Tourism Association Liu Tongmao reached Zhangjiajie to have a further investigation, leading a research group.In recent years, Zhangjiajie has set consciousness for the best as motive power, strengthening the management and spatial marketing. In the meantime, Zhangjiajie has taken great efforts to sufficiently discover humanistic value existing in different spots, so that an extremely appealing travel destination was forged day by day. Up to now, Zhangjiajie has already developed 28 scenic spots, including one enrolled in World Natural Heritage List and global geological park, one listed in the United Nations’ “man and biosphere” station, one national key scenic area, six national and provincial natural reserves, four national forest park and fourteen national level spots (involving two5A scenic spots, eight4A scenic spots). Last year, Zhangjiajie received about 30.41 million tourists in total, and 11 scenic areas’ accumulated investments were over hundred million.Translated by Becky

News 2012-08-20 08:08 View：1491

Five Hunan cities are listed on China's top 100 competitive cities, with Changsha remaining the highest-ranking Hunan city at 10, followed by Yueyang (62), Zhuzhou (64), Changde (81), and Xiangtan (87), according to the Blue Book on Urban Competitiveness (2012) released recently by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. According to an expert at the Statistics Bureau of Zhuzhou City, in recent years, the rising industrial city has witnessed rapid economic development, remarkably improved environment, constantly upgraded infrastructure, and great progress in scientific innovation. There was also a gap between Zhuzhou and other cities. The city's highly malstructured industries have restricted the transformation of economic growth mode, and are one of the most significant causes of high energy consumption and pollution. The city is in urgent need of developing producer services and improving the city's comprehensive service capabilities; highlighting the city's informatization and strengthening its radiation ability; constantly optimizing the city's institutional and policy environment to allow full play to its comprehensive service capabilities. Translator: Liu FenSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

News 2012-08-19 16:45 View：2967

Altogether one hundred and one experts and scholars from China and other countries like Korea, Japan, America, Austria and Singapore gathered in Linwu County of Hunan Province on August 16 to hold an academic discussion on the Nuo Culture (a primitive culture and part of Chinese traditional culture). According to the experts, Linwu Nuo drama is distinctive in original ecology protection and vivid inheritance. Specifically, the performances such as offering sacrifices on the route of funeral procession, stone monkey and musical accompaniment are unique and of great value in cultural protection and research. The academic conference lasts from August 16 to 19. Starting from the inspection and discussion on Nuo Culture in the county, it aims to promote the research and protection of the intangible culture heritage in new circumstances. At the conference, such topics as research on Nuo Culture in Linwu, significance and value of offering sacrifices on the route of funeral procession, history and actuality of Hunan Nuo Culture, research on Nuo Culture in the context of intangible culture heritage and its development, relations between drama art and ceremonial drama, history and actuality of overseas folk ritual drama as well as 37 academic theses were shared and discussed. Translator: Wang Bilian Source: Hunan Official Web Portal

News 2012-08-19 16:44 View：1411

According to Wulingyuan tourism administration , in order to further the brand influence of Zhangjiajie tourism and enable the whole city to share the tourism information, the micoblog of Wulingyuan scenic spots on Sina.weibo has been formally renamed as Zhangjiajie Travelling with same website（http://weibo.com/zjjwly）. It ranks forefront steadily with over 350,000 followers and more than 4700 published articles so far.In particular, the degree of attention has skyrocketed since the launch of activity named “subsidies for your low-carbon life” in summer. By the statistics, this activity has generated strong response in all walks of life by issuing more than 30,000 postings on microblog( including forwarding messages), which attracted more than 200 participants.It is said , with the purpose of giving a full play of function of Zhangjiajie travelling as a publicity platform, Wulingyuan tourism administration has formed a special network center on tourism marketing and employed technical staffs to refine the management by renewing information and issuing dynamic messages round the clock. Meanwhile , furthering the improvement of communication mechanism between different spots has been enforced.by Brenda

News 2012-08-19 08:06 View：1562

The construction project of the Yichang (located inHubeiprovince) to Zhangjiajie (Hunanprovince) highway recently held the signing ceremony. In the following time, the project will first concentrate on the Yichang section initially. It is reported that this project is planned to start break ground in September this year. When completed wholly at last, those two famous scenic spots will break all the mountain barriers, and realize the arrival between Zhangjiajie and Yichang in about two only hours.Yizhang highway starts from Dangyang city (Hubeiprovince), stops in Cili County(zhangjiajie,Hunanprovince). It is designed as a bidirectional four lane. Yichang section lasts for 118.3 kilometers; the total investment might be 14.66 billion Yuan according to preliminary estimate. The mayor of Yichang Li Lecheng mentioned tourists in the two well-known spots Yichang and Zhangjiajie reach 50 million or so every year on average. When Yizhang highway is finally finished, Wudang Mountain, Shennongjia, Yangtze Gorges, Zhangjiajie and many other famous scenic spots will be connected together, thus a distinctive ‘tourism highway’ will emerge accordingly.Translated by Becky#gallery-1 {margin: auto;}#gallery-1 .gallery-item {float: left;margin-top: 10px;text-align: center;width: 33%;}#gallery-1 img {border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;}#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {margin-left: 0;}

News 2012-08-18 02:00 View：1383

On August, 15th, a opening ceremony of the first national standard tourism taxi-way has been held at the square of Zhangjiajie’s train station and three citizens invited online cut the ribbon at the ceremony, representing the formal start of the first national standard tourism taxi-way.At the ceremony, three citizens who are chosen from the Internet, Yangzhiwen, Chenghongchun, and Xiexinhua are gladly cutting the ribbon for the new tourism busway. It is the first case in China to invite citizens to cut the ribbon at an opening ceremony.Later, the representative of the drivers of standard and model service bus has made a solemn pledge. And three passengers who just came out from the train station exit have taken a free ride on the first model bus.By Brenda

News 2012-08-18 01:59 View：1408

Zen Shaolin is performed in the valley of Songshan Mountain, the birthplace of martial arts. At the Opening Ceremony of London's Olympic Games, audiences were able to see the daily lives of the British in the past, such as factory workers and farmers in an authentic onstage setting, with chimneys, livestock and spinning wheels. But it wasn't a unique show, as China has been putting on open-air performances with scenic areas functioning as a natural stage to display local culture and traditions for many years. They're magnificent shows involving hundreds of performers. The 55-year-old director and producer Mei Shuaiyuan invented the concept of shijing yanchu, or "real scenery shows" a decade ago. In 2003, he collaborated with director Zhang Yimou to produce Impression Liu Sanjie, which was a huge success. It attracted 1.5 million visitors in 2011. The inspiration comes from the legend of Liu Sanjie, an outstanding folk artist who sings to defy evil and help poor people living along the Lijiang River in Yangshuo county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Zhang went on to produce another four Impression shows, while Mei has done nine. Mei's latest work Buddha Pilgrimages Eastward will premiere in September in Yanzhou, Shandong province. "The best culture in the prettiest scenery, rather than an artificial stage: they enhance each other's beauty. It's about Chinese philosophy - the harmony between human beings and nature," Mei says. Mei says it takes more than a year to complete a project that has about 400 to 500 performers and costs about 40-200 million yuan ($6. 28-31.4 million). Funding is mainly from the Scenery Culture Ltd Co he founded and private capital shares. In 1994, he became president of the Guangxi Zhuang Opera Troupe, but no matter how good the performance was, it lost money as the shows were not market-oriented and its target customer was the government. "I wanted to make some changes. I'd watched various Broadway shows and I was attracted by the pure commercialization and high box office," he says. "When I saw the fishermen's boats on Lijiang River in the day and their lights at night, I thought it looked like a performance." Wang Huiru, 24, an office worker from Beijing who saw the show, says: "It was so fascinating! I was touched by those pretty girls washing their long hair in the Lijiang River, with the moon over the mountains." Mei also cooperated with many famous artists, such as musician Tan Dun and dancer Huang Doudou in the Zen Shaolin, staged in the valley of Songshan Mountain near the Shaolin Temple, Henan province. "What we're exploring is the origin of the culture, which, together with the picturesque sceneries, becomes the oneness of human and nature," he says. "Tourists always want to see local life. This is the principle. A show that lasts forever must become the soul of the mountains and rivers, just like a Chinese ink-and-wash painting," he says. "It's essential to combine arts and the market." Large-scale tourist areas with 2-3 million tourists a year are priorities, Mei says. Interesting local culture is another factor. He says improved scenic design, lighting and advanced technology make shows more magnificent than was possible in the past. In The Love Story of a Weedman and a Fairy Fox, he works with American magician David Copperfield's group to build a wonderland full of magic, based on the folklore of Hunan province and about the forbidden love between a fox-woman and a woodchopper. He says it's difficult to estimate how long it takes to recoup costs because there are many factors other than ticket sales. For example, the increasing price of buying land and the profits of facilities such as hotels and restaurants need to be taken into account. Mei says tourist agencies typically account for nearly 90 percent of tickets sales, because the shows are part of a tourism experience. "It's very convenient. We only have to do our shows well and distribute revenues. Our shows boost their business, too," he says. He plans to promote the show to Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia, where there are low labor costs and good weather. "Someone invited us to demonstrate their culture in our way after watching my productions. It's a good opportunity and I'm talking it over with them."Source:China Daily

News 2012-08-17 16:48 View：1448