Tourist towns: A new reason to visit Mile
Building tourist towns can help improve rural infrastructures and public services, provide more job opportunities, promote the convergence of different industries, and ultimately contribute to the balanced development between urban and rural areas.
—From President Xi Jinping’s speech during his 2017 inspection tour in Zhejiang province
For the past few years, tourist towns have been applied as a tool to successfully boost local travel and tourism by Mile city in Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture, southeast Yunnan province.
The Dongfengyuan Art Town, Mile city
The Dongfengyun Art Town in Mile was designed by Luo Xu, a world-renowned Yunnan artist. As a local landmark and the city’s major tourist destination, it combines wine culture, natural landscapes and cultural tourism together.
The pictures of Kaleidoscope Art Museum and MGallery Hotel inside the town have gone viral on China’s social media due to their unique architectural designs. According to the manager, this art town has become a new center for Yunnan’s art activities, as a wide range of events like concerts, fashion shows, art and cultural heritage exhibitions can all be found there. In other words, its artistic atmosphere – as a whole - is the best thing that the town can ever offer to tourists.
Strolling into the Honghe Nativeland, another popular tourist town in Mile, what comes to people’s eyes first must be the pagodas, pavilions and stone bridges with a traditional Chinese style. Located not far away from the city center, this town attracts not only tourists around the province, but local citizens as well.
Luo Xu, designer of the art town
“We would love to introduce international sports events such as auto and motor rallies to Mile in the future, because we believe these competitions can bring the development of local tourism to a new level,” says Chen Wensheng, General Manager of Xincheng Investment Company – the town’s operator.
Since 2019 when it opened, the Taiping Lake Forest Park which is primarily characterized by its wild and bucolic highland scenery has been visited by hundreds and thousands of people nationwide.
According to Xue Gao, the vice general manager of Yunnan Taiping Lake Investment and Development Company, this park meets the multiple needs of tourists, from eco-tourism to culture and art, from sports to outdoor activities. “Our cottage hotels, resort tents and RV camping sites are very popular among tourists. I’ve seen guests staying in one hotel for over half a month,” he adds.
Chorus of One Thousand Singers, a pottery work of Luo Xu
Today, this park has about 440 employees. Over 80% of them are local residents who have spent almost their whole life in Mile. Each of them can earn around 50,000 yuan per year by working in the park.
“Since the park was opened, more and more villagers have been involved in the development of local tourism. Tourism is essential to Mile’s economic growth, and the livelihood of every family,” Xue emphasizes. From now on, the park will continue to satisfy the needs of tourists while taking concrete measures to help protect the environment.
The Dongfengyuan Art Town, Mile city
Keyi is also a newly-emerged tourist town in Mile that became popular recently. What makes it different from other places are the paintings, dances, music as well as food of Yi people. In other words, ethnic culture and tradition have been utilized as a main tourist resource to bring more tourists to the town.
“A booming tourist industry has attracted dozens of young villagers to stay and devote themselves to the development of eco-tourism,” says Chen Min, a young girl who was born and grown up in the village.
From Yunnan Daily; trans-editing by Wang Jingzhong; photographs by Wang Jingzhong