The opening ceremony.
On the morning of November 26, the 2022 Yiyang Culture-Tourism Integration Development Conference grandly opened in Anhua County. Hosted by the CPC Yiyang Municipal Committee and the Yiyang Municipal People’s Government, and organized by the CPC Anhua County Committee and the Anhua County People’s Government, event after event unfolded along both banks of the Zi River: a “King of Plum Banquet” tasting, the “Splendid Zi River” drone fireworks show, tourism project tours, and the Yiyang Culture-Tourism Industry Integration Development Promotion Meeting—a series of splendid activities using culture to boost tourism.
Artistic performance at the opening ceremony.
At the opening ceremony, Changsha, Xiangtan and Yiyang signed a cooperation agreement on a premium tourism route tracing young Mao Zedong’s first social investigation; key culture-tourism projects under construction citywide were prominently presented; and 22 culture-tourism projects were signed at a centralized signing ceremony with total investment of 33.212 billion yuan… With the culture-tourism engine driving and many parties pooling strength, a new chapter of high-quality culture-tourism integration opened for Yiyang.
Projects as the lever: propelling leapfrog culture-tourism development
China Cooperation Times · Tea Weekly all-media reporters learned at the opening ceremony that, centering on the core idea of “projects are king; hosting the games prospers the city,” Yiyang now has 46 key culture-tourism projects under construction with total investment of 49.789 billion yuan, plus 9 tourism infrastructure projects under construction totaling 5.531 billion yuan. The city has created 5 national 4A-level tourist attractions, 3 national key villages for rural tourism, 5 national intangible cultural heritage items, and 10 national key cultural relics protection sites. Take the 10-billion-yuan Anhua Dark Tea Town: highlighting the trinity of “tea-tourism-culture,” it integrates the rich cultural resources of “Anhua dark tea” with the ecological resources of “lucid waters and lush mountains,” comprising “one river, four zones, a ten-li painted gallery” in four areas—health and wellness, innovation and integration, history and culture, and commercial services.
The signing ceremony of the 2022 Yiyang Culture-Tourism Integration Development Conference.
The Dark Tea Town has so far implemented 25 projects with nearly 6 billion yuan of cumulative investment, gradually growing into a specialty town with a complete tea industry chain, unique cultural experiences, and deep integration of tea, tourism, culture and wellness—laying a solid foundation for the “hundred-billion industry cluster” of culture, tourism, sports and wellness.
Shaping tourism with culture, displaying culture through tourism: advancing deep integration of culture and tourism
The ancient tea horse road suffused with old charm; Qingxi Village, witness to the great changes of mountain villages in the new era; the gorgeous, colorful tea-country flower sea; Yuntai Mountain; the Taohuajiang bamboo sea; South Dongting; Datong Lake; Ming-Qing old lanes; the Yiyang modern agriculture demonstration park.
On the afternoon of the 26th, guests toured and took in the scenery of the tea-country flower sea.
Besides online and offline presentations of Yiyang’s rich cultural and tourism resources, the opening ceremony unveiled three series of premium tourism routes: the Yiyang “1+5” premium routes series; the “Taste of Hunan—The Yiyang Flavor” gourmet tourism routes series; and the “Writing New Mountain-Village Changes, Boosting Rural Revitalization” rural tourism routes series.
On the morning of the 27th, the Yiyang Culture-Tourism Industry Development Promotion Meeting convened, along with the symposium on the advantages and utilization of Anhua’s Yuntai large-leaf germplasm resources, as numerous experts and scholars gathered in Anhua to explore the path of culture-tourism industry development together.
The Yiyang Culture-Tourism Industry Development Promotion Meeting.
The symposium on Yuntai large-leaf germplasm resources in Anhua County.
By developing specialty tea-tourism routes, visitors can not only feel the spiritual baptism of Yiyang’s revolutionary stories and the deep enlightenment of its landscapes and culture, but also experience “Yiyang on the tongue-tip” and witness the happy lives of the people of the “changed mountain villages, beautiful lake region”—further raising the fame and reputation of the “Yi Mountains, Yi Waters · Beautiful Yiyang” brand, and drawing more visitors to come to Yiyang and fall in love with it.
Brands drive development: igniting great synergy between culture and tourism
In recent years, Anhua dark tea and the tea horse road have become a shining calling card of Yiyang. The locality has set the development strategy of “tea as the foundation, tourism as the medium, culture as the substance, sports as the vitality, wellness as the extension,” advancing deep integration of the tea, tourism, culture, sports and wellness industries and writing a new chapter of graceful Anhua.
At the conference, the thousand-screen livestream cloud sale of Anhua products.
Guests tour the Anhua Dark Tea Culture and Art Museum.
To strengthen outside awareness of “Anhua dark tea,” the grand livestream event “Dark Tea of the World, Charm of Anhua” opened at the Wanlong Dark Tea Square in Anhua County. Taking Anhua dark tea as its creative element, it drew fire from Mount Heng, water from the source of the Zi River, and the century-old King of Tea to brew together “the one pot of Anhua dark tea for all under heaven”—culture-tourism enterprises, industry associations, tea experts and scholars, travel agencies, media and visitors from across the country watched the world’s tea ceremony together and drank the world’s dark tea together.
It is understood that the giant artistic teapot is currently China’s largest copper teapot, and its Guinness World Record certificate was certified and presented live during the broadcast. The teapot’s handle measures 10.72 meters to the tip, signifying the history of Anhua’s county governance beginning in 1072, under Emperor Shenzong of Song. The pot’s diameter also carries deep meaning: 4.9268 meters symbolizes June 8, 1949—the date Anhua was liberated as the first liberated county of Yiyang. The relief sculptures on the pot’s body take the local intangible cultural heritage craft “Meishan paper-cutting” as their finishing touch.
“China’s largest copper teapot” brewing tea on site.
Tea Weekly reporters noted that besides the opening ceremony, the conference featured main activities such as the culture-tourism project tours and the Yiyang Culture-Tourism Industry Integration Development Promotion Meeting, plus six supporting events.
On the evening of the 25th, the “Splendid Zi River” drone fireworks show.
“Host the games, prosper the city”—hosting is the lever, prosperity the aim. Taking the culture-tourism integration conference as its opportunity, Yiyang will explore in depth around the eighteen characters “strengthen capacity to promote blossoming; add vitality to optimize supply; display charm to raise image,” seize opportunities, enliven resources, enlarge the industry, refine its specialties, advance culture-tourism project construction and raise the fame of the “Yi Mountains, Yi Waters · Beautiful Yiyang” brand—letting people feel the acceleration of building a new, Chinese-style modernized Yiyang amid the scroll of changed mountain villages, the fragrance of tea over a thousand li, and the fishing songs of Dongting!
Produced by: China Cooperation Times · Tea Weekly All Media
Chen Hao,
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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