Ruins of quake-hit Sichuan become new tourist hotspots

Source: People's Daily | 02-05-2009 08:15

During the recent Spring Festival Golden Week, traveling to earthquake-stricken areas for consolation visits, honoring the deceased and celebrating the Chinese New Year with local people had become popular new activities for tourists visiting Sichuan. Some of the ruins of the earthquake had turned into new tourist destinations.

The city of Dujiangyan, a World Cultural Heritage site known for the Dujiangyan water conservancy project, have launched a theme tour entitled "visiting the disaster area and experiencing the reconstruction". Visiting the new homes under construction in the earthquake-stricken areas and experiencing the optimism of the local people have become new items in the tourism programs of Dujiangyan.

Donghekou, a village in Hongguang Township of Qingchuan County, is an area that was seriously stricken by the earthquake. It used to be a village beside green hills and clear waters, but today the only things left are never-ending gravel and earth mounds. There is no trace of people ever living there. On November 12 last year, an earthquake relic park opened here. During the Spring Festival holidays, the Donghekou Earthquake Relics Park received a total of 64,300 tourists and over 3,000 vehicles on self-driving tours.

"One day in Beichuan, warmth in the disaster-hit areas" is the theme of tourism reconstruction chosen by the Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County. During the golden week, Beichuan received nearly 100,000 tourists who visited ruins of the original county town to mourn and give condolences.

"These tourists came with hope and gave Sichuan the confidence for reconstruction," an official from the Sichuan Tourism Bureau said. "The recovery of tourism in quake-hit areas is telling the world: Sichuan is still beautiful and safe."

During the Spring Festival Golden Week, the six worst-hit cities and prefectures in Sichuan received a total of 7.1296 million people, an increase of 12.6 percent compared to the same period last year. These 6 cities and prefectures generated a tourism revenue of 1.869 billion yuan, accounting for 40 percent of Sichuan‘s gross tourism revenue during the golden week.

Editor:Shi Taoyang