Widely Famous, Pingtan’s Tourism Comes to International Stage

PINGTAN, CHINA – Media OutReach – 4 October 2021 – Pingtan
has embraced unprecedented opportunities since the establishment of Pingtan
Comprehensive Pilot Zone. On November 1, 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping
came to Pingtan for the 21st time and said with genuine concern: “Tourism is
the greatest resource of Pingtan and it must be well protected to build Pingtan
an international tourism island.”, which has been
kept in mind and implemented in actions.

Pingtan has
actively explored and taken many pilot trials to develop tourism, which has
made Pingtan widely famous. The annual tourist
reception of Pingtan has increased from 537,200 in 2010 to 2,895,000 in 2016
and 3,868,100 in the first half of 2021. With the leading concept of “modern
and pristine development”, Pingtan’s tourism brand – “Pingtan Blue” has become
more and more popular and Pingtan is striding toward an international tourism
island.

Enhancing
infrastructure to upgrade soft power of Pingtan’s tourism

The Pingtan
Southern Bay Resort in autumn is marvelous as before, with tree-lined roads.
Ubiquitous mobile food trucks and assembled commercial houses and even floods
of visitors. But it’s hard to imagine that it was a place off the beaten track
just a few years ago. The transformation and upgrading of scenic spots in
Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone have brought such tremendous changes.

Under the principle
of “high-quality building and low-intensity developing”, Pingtan Comprehensive
Pilot Zone has transformed and upgraded many traditional scenic spots – the
Tannan Bay, Xianrenjing, General Mountain, Shipaiyang, and so on. The
ecological parking lots, public toilets, viewing platforms, and other
supporting facilities have been built. In addition, the sightseeing train, art
station, music dining bar, and other special creative products have brought the
scenic spots a new look.

Lin Yuchuan, the
CPC representative of Tourism Group of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, said
that 15 scenic parking lots had been upgraded, providing about 3,500 parking
spaces in recent years. It has effectively solved the difficulty in parking for
tourists and further improved the service and reception of the scenic spots. At
the same time, the south and north ecological corridor and a countryside
walkway connecting different scenic spots have been built to provide visitors
with a better and more convenient environment.

Apart from
infrastructure development, Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone also attaches
great importance to its soft power to facilitate the high-quality and effective
development of tourism. Through the big data analysis of tourism, the travel
preferences of visitors can be studied and the scenic spots can provide better
services and the management can be more comprehensive. In addition, Pingtan
Comprehensive Pilot Zone also actively promotes the integration of culture and
tourism by introducing outstanding teams from Taiwan to carry out various
colorful cultural and artistic activities. For example, the Cou ( also known as
Tsou, an ethnic minority in Taiwan) Troupe from Mount Ali stationed in
Tianmeiao Beach, and the Wind-blowing Artist Festival have brought new cultural
hotspots to Pingtan’ s tourism.

Upgrading business
modes to fit various needs

Pingtan
Comprehensive Pilot Zone has made every effort to promote the upgrade of
tourism mode, optimize the tourism environment greatly and enrich the tourism
product system to meet the personalized and diversified needs of tourists. The
highlights of tourism have emerged frequently. The south and north ecological
corridors that have become a popular scenic spot in the past two years, are
based on the unique tourism resources and in combination with the ecological
landscape of the island. Built between the mountains and the sea, the
ecological corridors, with the incredible scenery, shape Pingtan’s “most
wonderful coastline”.

Weng Bin, deputy
head of Tourism, Culture and Sports Bureau of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone
introduced that the ecological corridors include four parts – south, north,
east, and west, with a total length of 195 kilometers, connecting more than 90
villages along them. Thus, it greatly revitalizes the countryside and meets the
diversified needs of tourists in the era of mass tourism. In addition to the
ecological corridor tourism, Pingtan also actively expands the sea tour around
the island, rural special tour, and other business modes to stimulate the
development of tourism.

Weng Bin said, “The
brand popularity and reputation of Pingtan International Tourism Island are
increasing, and its brand effect is gradually emerging. I believe that Pingtan
will gradually become a happy home for compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan
Straits and an internationally renowned tourism island for leisure.”