To Establish a "Greater Biancheng" Cultural and Tourism Community Across the Three Border Counties of Hunan, Chongqing, and Guizhou

On October 18, the 5th Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Tourism Development Conference kicked off in Biancheng Town, Huayuan County. With the theme "Mysterious Xiangxi: A Dream of Returning to Biancheng Town," the conference brought together government officials from within and outside the province, prominent figures from the culture and tourism industry, and experts from investment institutions at the junction of Hunan, Chongqing, and Guizhou. They jointly explored pathways for interprovincial cultural and tourism cooperation and charted a new blueprint for the high-quality development of Xiangxi's cultural and tourism sector.

Aligned with the goals of "promoting development, integration, and revitalization through the conference," the event has leveraged the geographical advantage of Biancheng, known as "a place where one step spans three regions" and the literary IP of Shen Congwen's novel Border Town to organize a series of activities. They included two observation routes, interprovincial cooperation agreement signings, and immersive cultural performances, thereby creating diverse cultural and tourism experience scenarios.

The conference has set up two distinctive observation routes. The first is a water tour route, where participants travel by boat along the river to enjoy live waterfront performances and dynamic intangible cultural heritage demonstrations. The second is an ancient street stroll route, where visitors walk along the bluestone-paved old street to appreciate folk performances such as Miao lion dance, the Sidao Liujin ritual dance, and Miao songs, while costumed performers dressed in Republic of China-era costumes interact with visitors along the street, bringing to life the bustling commercial atmosphere of this century-old border town.

At the conference, Huayuan County in Hunan, Xiushan County in Chongqing, and Songtao Miao Autonomous County in Guizhou will jointly sign a framework agreement on the coordinated development of "Greater Biancheng" culture and tourism. The three localities will break down administrative barriers and collaborate on jointly developing resources, jointly building brands, jointly linking itineraries, jointly expanding markets, and sharing benefits. This will drive the region's transition from the development of scattered attractions toward integrated development, with the goal of creating a world-class culture and tourism destination. The conference will also feature a centralized signing ceremony for nearly 20 key cultural and tourism projects, covering sectors such as cultural and tourism camps, homestay clusters, and intangible cultural heritage revitalization bases, thereby injecting momentum into industrial upgrading.

On the evening of October 18, the immersive cultural performance "Mysterious Xiangxi: A Dream of Returning to Biancheng Town" was staged. With the riverside landscape as a natural stage, the performance used modern sound and light technology to integrate intangible cultural heritage such as Miao drum dance, Miao songs, and Tujia hand-waving dance with the imagery of characters from the original work Border Town, delivering a brand-new cultural experience to the audience.

The conference serves as a key initiative for Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in implementing its strategy of "strengthening the prefecture through cultural tourism." Using Biancheng as a showcase, the local authority highlights the synergies between its natural landscapes, intangible cultural heritage of ethnic groups, revolutionary sites, and literary IPs. It is striving to create a "Greater Biancheng" model for coordinated development across interprovincial border areas, enhance the "Mysterious Xiangxi" cultural and tourism brand, and help build a tourist destination known at home and abroad.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn. 

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn