In mid-April, Zhangjiajie Wulingyuan scenic area continues to appear a blue sky days of good weather.Under the blue sky, The beautiful and verdant trees, pure and fresh and bright air, All of them attract tourists to experience the “Lung” tour.According to statistics, since April 11, Wulingyuan scenic area has received over 30,000 tourists every day.Translated by Sophia

2015-04-18 12:25 View：1368

My name is KEO Borin (高博仁), from Cambodia（柬埔寨), one of the participants in the Photo Expedition Tour to Western Hunan 2014. I have been allotted a full scholarship to pursue a Master degree in AppliedEconomics at Hunan University, China. Before I start expressing my immense impression on the five-day trip to Xiangxi, let me extend my profound gratitude and appreciation to the following people.“A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”- ConfuciusFirst and foremost, I would like to thank Hunan Provincial People’s Government, Hunan Provincial InternetInformation Office, the Hunan (China) Official Web Portal (www.enghunan.gov.cn) and the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Tourism for inviting me for such an amazing 5 day trip. Secondly, my special thanks are also conveyed to the team leader, deputy team leader, translator, camera operators, photographers, reporters, tour guide, driver and other relevant personnel who accompanied us during this trip. Before arriving in China, Hunan nearly one year ago, I had not known much about the province. However, what was previously  known to me was that this province is the hometown of the great leader, Chairman Mao Tse Dong. Located in the south central part of the Chinese mainland, Hunan has long been known for its natural beauty. It is surrounded by mountains on the east, west, and south, and by the Yangtze River to the north. Its assortment of mountains and waterways makes it among the most beautiful provinces in China. Being a postgraduate student studying in China and having a great opportunity to visit the places I have never been, and to try new foods I have never tried mostly are done as a manner to deepen my own knowledge and experience, I found it extra rewarding for myself as a student living abroad. The morning of November 1st 2014 was not a normal day; it was extra special since it was the day that we, 6 foreigners including myself，5 organizers, 2 reporters, and 1 tour guide began our trip to visit and explore Luxi-Huayuan-Jishou-Guzhang-Yongshun in Xiangxi Tuji & Miao Autonomous Prefecture. We left Hunan University on Saturday 1 November at around 7.30 AM by bus. Even taking around 6-7 hours to reach the destination, I never experienced fatigue because of the amazing natural scenery and topography as well as the infrastructure development along the way.  Finally, we arrived in Yuanshui Scenic Area(沅水风光带), Luxi. After having visited Xinnv Square and Shejiang Pavilion in Luxi City in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the afternoon, we took a luxury “Xinnv Princess” cruise ship to admire the Luxi Yuanshui Scenic Area including wonderful landscapes of limestone karst scene, the Temple, Xinnv Princess Cliff and the hanging coffins on the river. We took a good collection of photos there, as we could not resist the natural beauty of the scenery, the numerous cultural landmarks and folk customs. After dinner, we were led to enjoy the night view along the Yuanjiang scenic belt.  More interestingly, I was watching kids having fun, taking photos, and enjoying the late evening in the age-old buildings.Day 2: We were scheduled to visit Chadong (茶峒) in the Border Town of Huayuan County. Actually, the guide explained that Huayuan County, popularly known as “Frontier City” (Biancheng Town,边城), is located at the junction of three provinces of Hunan, Chongqing municipality and Guizhou. It is one of the four famous towns in Xiangxi. I was impressed by the reflection of bridges and towers in the calm river waters and the bamboo houses propped up by supports in the distance. This place is as tranquil and beautiful as paradise. After we visited those places, we were boated across the river from Hunan to Chongqing to have a group dinner in Chongqing near the border of Hunan and Chongqing. In the afternoon, we were invited to have an exchange of ideas meeting concerning the development and promoting of tourism locally and internationally by Chadong Border Town Tourism Development Company. During the meeting of about 2 hours, we had shared our own impressions and experience individually and come up with ideas to promote the area for its tourism development to the rest of the world.Day 3:In the morning of November 3, 2014, we went for a tour of Aizhai Suspension Bridge(矮寨特大桥), the world largest cross-canyon suspension bridge.  Before visiting this bridge, I have known that the bridge was built as part of an expressway from southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality to Changsha. As the world’s highest and longest tunnel-to-tunnel bridge, the Aizhai suspension bridge links two tunnels 1,176 meters apart, carrying traffic 330 meters above the foot of Dehang Canyon.  Having seen the stunning bridge at a glance, I did not forget to bring my camera instantly to capture the spectacular scenery of the bridge. I really admire the value and the utmost importance of the bridge since it is designed to facilitate in easing traffic in the mountainous region, where queues are common due to the narrow, steep and winding roads. More importantly, this bridge is expected to bring about vitality to local and international tourism. Dehang Village of Miao Ethnic Group（德夯苗寨）:Arriving Dehang village of Miao Ethnic Group, we were not allowed to enter the miao ethnic group village immediately unless we competed with them via exchanging songs at the gate. After competing with them, we were offered to drink their traditional wine before breaching their gates. What impressed me the most is that we were told to close our eyes and the excited villagers promised to give us a gift. After we closed our eye, they smeared pot ash over our faces as a sign of peace, luck and prosperity. For me, it is really worth visiting. It is a good choice to experience the culture and customs of Miao people and feel the charming mysteries of Xiangxi. There are excellent hikes around the village and its extraordinary karst setting, beside a wide stream in a deep gorge surrounded by towering limestone pillars and pinnacles. After lunch, we went to visit the Ancient Town of Qianzhou（乾州古城）. For me, the culture of this ancient town is very profound. Several ethnic minorities that lived here made a splendid civilization and antique folk customs. The town remains intact with ancient architectural complexes, slates, old avenues, rivers and so forth, making us enjoy ourselves so much as to forget to leave.Day 4: Zuolong Gorge（坐龙峡） is all about relaxation and a break from the sheer intensity of my 5-day trip. Although there is supposed to be the most challenging day trip of our 5 day journey to do in the area, it is hard to tell everything about my exciting experience and the amazing scenery of the gorge nor the treacherous path we took. After three hours of hiking, balancing on spikes and climbing ladder on the gorge wall, we reached the top of the gorge, Tujia Village. Looking back at the path we had walked, we did not forget to share our fear, excitement and amazement to our family and friends.After a lunch break around 40 min, we continued our trip to the Red Carbonate-rock Forest NationalGeopark（红石林国家地质公园）. I was so fascinated by the rock forests, pillars, walls and peaks that they all had pictures with the scenery. It is really a nature-made-awesome rock for me when the guide explained to us about the attractive and mysterious thing which is that the color of rock here can change with weather and temperature. In summer with hot sun, its color turns into fiery red. During cloudy day, it would be maroon with purple. However, in heavy rainy day, it turns black.The last day of the trip: We were scheduled as proposed to visit Furong Town （芙蓉镇）for the last stop of our journey tour to western Hunan. It is a peaceful small village hanging on a waterfall. This is again unique and relaxing scenery to enjoy. This town is famous because it served as the shooting stage of a Chinese film “Furong Town” which is adapted from a novel. After the trip, we, the six foreigners including myself were invited to interview individually in particular to express our delights over the trip.From the bottom of my heart, I will always remember this marvelous trip. I will not forget to tell my family members and friends about Hunan's long history, beautiful lands, customs and economic progress in the new era. Next time, I will bring them here and I will be one of the international goodwill ambassadors for Hunan's international image and deep association of International friend’s with Hunan people. Once again, I cannot stress enough my gratitude to the organizers of the Hunan Province Foreigner Photo Contest for such an extraordinary initiative and for inviting me to closely experience local customs and practices of Western Hunan.Mr. Borin KEO, a master student in Applied Economics at Hunan University. He can be contacted by H/P: 18274972984, QQ: 2049798730, Wechat: Borin888,

2015-04-18 00:06 View：4936

Changsha county in Hunan province is set to open its fourth cycle race around the Songya Lake on April 30, reported rednet.The organizer has arranged two parts for the cycling activity, a competition section and a healthy cycling section. The healthy cycling group allows the players to take a leisurely ride with families or friends.Players in the competition group will go five rounds around the inner loop of the lake, while the other group will ride one round along the outer lane of the lake, which lasts 15 km.People can sign up for the race in the county’s cultural and sports service center, on the 10th floor of the Changsha Broadcast Tower. The deadline for registration falls on April 23.The third session of the Changsha county cycle race Source: China Daily

2015-04-16 00:04 View：1194

With over 120 thousand Hunan visitors to Macao for the first three months this year, Hunan has domestically become Macao’s third biggest market for tourism. On April 10, the Dynamic Macao Business and Trade Fair & Hunan-Macao Tourism Promotion Meeting was launched in Changsha. Tourism enterprises from both sides discussed cooperation issues to provide more tourism platforms and better travel experiences for Hunan-Macao travel enthusiasts.Tourism is a pillar industry of Macao’s economy. According to statistics from the Macao Government Tourist Office, mainland China is the biggest market of Macao tourism, whose visitors account for 60% of all Macao visitors. Moreover, Hunan is one of provinces that have the most visitors to Macao. At present, short-term self-guided tours such as weekend trips are the main form for Hunan people to visit Macao. To attract more Hunan visitors, Macao will mainly promote leisure tourism, focus on more convenient transportation and more abundant tourism products, in addition to providing various discounts.Translator: Liu FangSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

2015-04-15 00:02 View：1436

The inaugural Nanyue Tea Culture Festival was held from April 8 at the Grand Temple (Nanyue Damio) in Hengyang City to showcase the 1000-year-old tea worshipping culture.During the Tea Worship festival, "Ming Qian," or pre-qingming tea, was introduced by two parades bearing flags displaying signs of the 24 traditional Chinese solar terms. With much anticipation from the audience, the pre-qingming tea was ceremoniously prepared for worship by government agricultural officials at district, municipal, and provincial levels as the audience greeted them along the forecourts of the main hall in the Grand Temple all the way through the Tianxia Memorial Archway in Yujie Street, Shoujian Bridge and Jiaying Gate.The tea worship ceremony was one of the eight official festivities during the festival. The festival, themed "enjoying the tea while immersing in greenery" will last for one month. In addition to the tea worship ceremony, other activities included mountain tea gathering, tea parties, picking tea and going hiking, zen meditation via drinking tea, celebrities gathering, 10,000-people tea-related contest, and tea photography.Translator: Li XuanSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

2015-04-14 00:00 View：1808

Recently, QR (Quick response) codes have been widely adopted in tourism sector. When scanning the QR code reader on tourists’ mobile phones, information about nearby scenic areas and tourist attractions will show up. This application not only saves costs on tour guide, but also facilitates promotion of travelling.At Yanghu Wetland Park of Changsha, a QR code could be easily found at major scenic spots. By scanning the code, tourists could receive text information about the scenic spots accompanied by pictures and audio. Scanning the QR code also provides tourists a platform to provide their opinions about Yanghu Wetland Park to park management. According to the chief of the park, the QR code system costs less than 2,000 yuan.The Smart Tour Guide System has already been broadly installed at 5A-level scenic areas such as Wulingyuan Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie, Shaoshan, Junshan Island,Yueyang Tower, Yuelu Mountain, Orange Isle and the Liu Shaoqi Museum in Huaminglou Town of Ningxiang, as well as over 50 3A-level or abovescenic areas including Taohuayuan (Peach Garden) in Changde and Tianxin Pavilion in Changsha.Translator: Yang ChengfeiSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

2015-04-13 23:58 View：1934

Scenic spots in Zhangjiajie have received over 5.42 million tourists during the first quarter of 2015, and realized tourism revenue of over 3.94 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 30.11% and 35.12% respectively, hitting a record high since 2010.According to monitoring results of Zhangjiajie's core scenic areas provided by zjjgood.com.cn, Zhangjiajie's tourism management system, group tourists only occupy 38% of total tourists, while self-guided tourists account for 62%, an increaseof 10% compared with the same period of the previous year. Zhangjiajie has witnessed a steady market of domestic tourists, especially from Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Economic Rim, Sichuan Province, Chongqing, Hunan Province and its neighboring places. It has maintained a promising overseas tourist market and attracted 296,000 inbound tourists from 31 countries including South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, and regions including Hong Kong and Taiwan.Translator: Wang XiaoluSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

2015-04-12 23:57 View：1909

After school, students read "Ti Tzu Kui" (Standards for Being a Good Pupil and Child) in front of a cultural wall at Tencent Chunlei (Spring Bud) Nanzhu (Southern Pearl) School in Jingzi Town of Shuangfeng County in Loudi City. A cultural wall was completed on April 9, with 12 pristine and elegant paintings and calligraphy works presenting the virtues of piety, reliability, righteousness, etiquette, benevolence, wisdom and faithfulness in "Ti Tzu Kui".Translator: Liu FenSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

2015-04-11 23:56 View：1636

On April 8, seas of clouds appeared around Tianmen Mountain of Zhangjiajie City. At 8:00 a.m., snowflakes fell down on the scenic spot. The sun rose at 9:00 a.m, melting the snow, and making seas of clouds form at the top of the mountain. On April 8, a tourist was playing excitedly with snow at the mountain top.Translator: Zhu MengxiaSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

2015-04-09 23:54 View：2099

The 2015 Dawuliang Singing Festival of Dong Minority & Hunan-Guilin Ecological Art Festival is to be launched in Tongdao Dong Autonomous County from April 16 to 17.Dawuliang Singing Festival, with full-scale programs and the largest number of participants, is the biggest and time-honored folk music feast among all Dong areas across the country and even the whole world at present.Themed "Gathering in Daxuliang and Singing for New Tongdao", the festival presents various theme activities including songs prelude and songs for China and prosperous Dong Village. During the festival, tourists can enjoy ecological folk songs of Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou, and songs of Dong, Miao and Yao minorities, and experience the get-together banquet, campfire party, and folk sports including cocks fighting, birds fighting and fish catching. They can learn how people of Dong ethnic group make costumes, silver ornaments, Lusheng (a reed-pipe instrument) and bamboo-made daily necessities. They can also enjoy delicious food there like oil tea, ciba (a kind of cake made of glutinous rice), salted fish and bacon.Translator: Wang XiaoluSource: Hunan Official Web Portal

2015-04-07 23:53 View：1380