A new trend of leisure vacation featuring “a weekend tour to beautiful Hebei” has formed. The Hot Spring Tourism (Chengde, Hebei Province) Promotion Seminar themed on “Royal Summer Resort of Rehe Hot Springs ” was held in Beijing on January 12 during which over 300 representatives from the Culture and Tourism Ministry of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, dominant companies of culture and tourism, primary travel agencies and main tourist destinations gathered together to plan on high quality development of hot spring healing, nursing and health tourism.
On behalf of the CPC Chengde Municipal Committee and the Chengde People’s Government, Deputy Secretary of CPC Chengde Municipal Committee Jiang Wendong sincerely welcomed leaders and guests who attended the seminar and extended his heartfelt gratitude to all the care, support and love Chengde received from the public in the past. He pointed out that Chengde’s department of all levels had been deeply and fully implementing key spirits of the 20th CPC National Congress and the second and the third Plenary Session of the 10th CPC Hebei Provincial Committee as well as instructions delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping when he inspected Chengde. Besides, Chengde adhered to the principal of prioritizing ecology and advancing green development and moved faster to expand dominant industries that have local features driven by the goal of building a modernized Chengde with Chinese characteristics. A number of companies operated in Chengde indicated an optimistic trend for economic and social development of the city. Deputy Secretary Jiang also expressed his wish on more support and recommendation of Chengde by the public so as to attract more companies to run their businesses in the city. Chengde Municipal Party Committee and the Chengde Municipal government will create a top-notch business environment by providing the best services, environment and conditions and jointly write a new chapter of opening and cooperation for a new era.
During the seminar, Chengde publicized 6 routes for hot springs travels, a range of preferential policies in culture and tourism and 18 key investment projects. Hot springs tourism with topics including “source of Rehe:the medicine hot spring”, “snowy city at north pole of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region: royal spa” and “beautiful hot spring leisure resort” were also introduced. With a total investment of 10.96 billion yuan, 6 hot spring projects were signed on the seminar such as Anaya hot spring healing and health resort in Longhua and Yangshugou hot spring healing and health town in Fengning.
Inheritors of intangible cultural heritages like cloth paste paintings, wrought iron lamps and dough sculptures displayed the techniques. Guests were attracted by more than 400 cultural and creative products of 8 series and over 120 intangible cultural heritage exhibits that fall into 7 categories, enabling them to learn the unique culture of Chengde which was also known as Zisai.
Rehe, which means hot river in Chinese, was the name for Chengde in ancient times because it abounds in hot springs, one of the geothermal resources and it has become a spa resort ever since. To exploit geothermal resources in a scientific way, the city invited 10 geological exploration teams from Hebei Provincial Geological Prospecting Bureau to investigate on conditions of geothermal resources in various regions. Results showed that geothermal resources are not only plentiful , but also buried in vast and shallow areas and the water is hot and of high quality.
The hot spring industry offers the best opportunity for Chengde to promote “travelling in Chengde throughout the year” which changes its off seasons into travel seasons. New measures of exploration and exploitation must be taken to guarantee outcomes in 2023, proposed by Chai Baoliang, secretary of Chengde Municipal Party Committee. He also mentioned that the city should upgrade tourism driven by the hot spring industry in a scientific approach, develop hot spring healing, nursing and health industry and explore a high-quality development path for high-end “hot spring plus” industries with local characteristics.
Taking advantages of its rich resources, Chengde developed the hot spring healing, nursing and health industry and founded a work panel for the industry. It helps to modernize Chengde, one of the efforts to apply Chinese modernization mode in Hebei. The city launched the Implementation Plan on Accelerating Developing Chengde’s Industry of Hot Spring Healing, Nursing and Health after research. An industry development responsibility system was established to report progress of key projects at the end of every month, quarter and year. Timely supervision and guidance were conducted as well.
Chengde will advance the “hot spring plus” strategy, establish a development landscape for the hot spring industry featuring “one core, two poles and multiple support bases”. To be specific, “one core” refers to the core development region spanning from Qijia Township, Longhua County to Maojingba Township. Based on the current foundation, the region ought to upgrade itself across the board, act as a renowned exemplar of the industry to facilitate high-quality development of the city’s hot spring industry. “Two poles” refers to building Tangjiawan, Chengde and Tougou into hot spring towns, establishing a large-scale hot spring industry park with various sectors and products. “Multiple support bases” means that hot spring industry should serve as the driving force of high-quality development to form a development landscape supported by Weichang Shanwanzi, Kuancheng Huaxicheng and Xinglong Lijiaying.
Counties(cities and districts) in Chengde that are equipped with geothermal resources will launch one or two hot spring development projects as scheduled in 2023. Those countries will construct or renovate a couple of high-end spa hotels and construct a number of demonstration projects in healthcare and coordinated nursing based on further cooperation with grade A tertiary hospitals and specialized hospitals in Beijing. In the mean time, Chengde will convene national investment fairs, promotion seminars and press conferences themed on hot springs with various topics, to introduce Chengde to other regions across China especially Beijing and Tianjin. Mainstream medias, we-medias and public service advertisement will be used comprehensively to promote the city in all respects. Chengde hopes that by 2027, the visits of hot springs for the purposes of treatment and nursing will stand at over 5 million, which will make the city a well-known destination for hot springs healing, nursing and health across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region or even across the country.