Shaanxi “Happiness Industry” as a New Way to Enrich the People and Develop the Province
A group of tourists from Europe at Changkong Plank Road, Huashan Mountain. Huashan Mountain is situated south of Huayin County in Shaanxi Province, well-known for its sheer cliffs and plunging ravines. As the most dangerous mountain with awesome grandeur in China, it attracts millions of visitors both local and foreign.
Service consumption industry concerning tourism, culture, aged care and sports is called “Happiness Industry” due to its close connection to the common people’s living standard and happiness index. Located in the western region of China, Shaanxi Province has energetically supported development of emerging industries, among which the “Happiness Industry” revealed irresistible momentum and played a crucial role in stimulating consumption, bringing real benefit to the people and promoting transformation and development.
Tourism Industry Enriches the People and Enhances Development
Lantian County in Xi’an, Shanxi Province has been honored as “a land of cook”. Due to remoteness and backwardness in the past, many cooks had to leave their hometown to earn a bare living. In order to make change, Lantian County has determined to develop “all-for-one tourism” and invested hundreds of million investment to improve tourism infrastructure construction in recent years. In 2016, the policy of free admittance to all scenic spots administrated by the County Government and implementation of a series of cultural tourism projects generated comprehensive tourism revenue of more than RMB 3 billion yuan.
At present, tourism industry has become the pillar industry in Lantian County. In Qingping Village, the largest village in Bayuan Town, Liantian County, the cooks who left home in the past returned one after another and established more than 20 “Happy Rural Life” restaurants. Pan Zhihong, who is a 50-year-old villager returned home in 2015 to run “Happy Rural Life” restaurant, earned annual net revenue of more than RMB 100 thousand yuan this year.
“In busy period, our restaurant hosts more than 300 guests a day and a booking in advance is necessary.” Though leading a busy life now, Pan enjoys the comfortable and stable life rather than rushing about from one place to another for 30 years.
As a province with abundant historical sites, revolutionary sites and natural landscape resources such as Emperor Qinshihuang’s Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses, Famen Temple, Yan’an, Huashan Mountain, Shaanxi Province achieved total annual income growth rate of 25% in tourism industry in “the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015)”. The total revenue in 2016 from tourism industry reached RMB 381.3 billion yuan with growth rate of 26.87%.
While maintaining a high growth rate, Shaanxi tourism industry has played a prominent role in improving people’s livelihood. Within “the 12th Five Year Plan”, the development of tourism industry effectively helped more than 600 thousand rural people in Shaanxi Province to get rid of poverty, especially in those regions with abundant eco-tourism resources.
Fengshou Village, located in the hinterland of Qinling Mountain, is a remote village in Qingtongguan Town, Zhen’an County, Shangluo. In the past, villagers subsisted mainly on scarce farmland produce due to natural environment restrictions. Party Secretary Wu Xiangqin said that, in recent years, thanks to the immigration and relocation policy, the first batch of 57 village families moved down to residential areas and benefited a lot from the favorable policies of supporting tourism industry in Tayun Mountain scenic area. Each family gained at least RMB 50 thousand yuan from the “Happy Rural Life” restaurant.
The development in tourism industry also promoted regional economic transformation and development. Located in Qinling-Bashan Mountains, Ningshaan County in Ankang has 28 tourism projects under construction at present with total investment of RMB 38 billion yuan. “In the past decade, the proportion of tourism revenue to GDP in Ningqiang County has increased from less than 3% to more than 20% and tourism industry has become a pillar industry.” said Lv Xuanqiang, Director of Tourism Administration of NingShaan County.
Yan’an, Yan’an, the first red theme show in China in commemoration of the 95th Founding Anniversary of CPC and the 80th Anniversary of the Long March, achieved a triumph on July 7th 2016 after its premiere at Dongfanghong Theater, Zaoyuan Cultural Square.
Culture Industry with Remarkable Achievements
On April 15th, the first red theme show in China entitled Yan’an, Yan’an was premiered at Dongfanghong Theater, Zaoyuan Cultural Square, Yan’an City and meanwhile the 2017 show season kicked off. It is produced by Shaanxi Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shaanxi Culture Industry Investment Group. Zou Linfeng, Chairman of the Group said, “The enormous cultural charm generated from the innovative combination of red theme materials and hi-tech will attract more young people to traditional and revolutionary culture.”
As the cradle for the Chinese nation and civilization, Shaanxi Province is abundant in cultural resources. Xiao Yunru, a distinguished local scholar argued that the enormous cultural advantages in Shaanxi have not been fully demonstrated, and the cultural construction still need to be enhanced to build Shaanxi into a cultural power.
To solve this problem, great efforts have been made in Shaanxi Province since 2013 in integration and upgrading of major historical & cultural sites and public cultural facilities. As a result, more the 30 unique and iconic cultural projects, such as Emperor Qinshihuang’s Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses and National Museum for Revolutionary Artist, have been established with a total investment of exceeding RMB 50 billion yuan.
At present, many scenic spot projects have been completed and opened to the public, such as Wen’an Station Culture Park, Bai Lu Yuan Studios, National Heritage Park in Chang'an City of Western Han Dynasty and Yaowang Mountain. People’s livelihood has been the focus of these projects. Yaowang Mountain cultural project, with traditional Chinese medicine as its main research focus, becomes the major project for economic transformation in Tongchuan, a resource-based city. The new Shaanxi Library with reading rooms of 40.4 thousand square meters and reserve depository of 12 thousand square meters will effectively improve the public cultural service standard in Shaanxi. The tourism projects of mausoleums of emperors in Han and Tang Dynasties will provide employment opportunities for the nearby local people.
Located in Mianxian County, Shaanxi Province, Zhuge Ancient Town is a part of cultural regions of the Three Kingdoms (AD 220–280) and the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD). Liao Juan from Tonggousi Town worried a lot by the long distance between home and her child’s school, so she moved to Zhuge Ancient Town to do business. She said, “I can earn a living through my business while looking after my child who studies in the county.”
On November 5th 2016, Tour of Xi’an Race Competition of 13.7 km kicked off at Yongning Gate of Xi’an City Wall. On the same day, 2016 Xi’an City Wall International Marathon kicked off at the same place. 3000 sportsmen from 27 countries and regions took part in the competition.
“Happiness Industry” with a Promising Future
In addition to cultural and tourism industry, other industries belonging to “Happy Industry” came into prominence. Aged care and service industry is not only of great importance to senior people’s livelihood, but also an uprising industry with a promising future. Zhao Zhengcai, Director of Department of Civil Affairs of Shaanxi Province said that the population over 60 in Shaanxi reached 6.13 million and the development of aged care and service industry demands immediate action. Aged care and service industry has been included in important assessment indicators for the construction of a well-off society in Shaanxi and an aged care and service system integrated with families, communities and institutions is under construction.
To satisfy diversified needs for aged care, the Department of Civil Affairs of Shaanxi Province encouraged the non-governmental sectors to take part in the aged care and service industry. Many competitive enterprises have joined the cause and 62 projects have been established or are under construction through non-governmental investment or government and enterprise cooperation. “At present, there are 273 non-governmental aged care institutions in Shaanxi, providing 510 thousand job vacancies.” said Liu Hongyan, a researcher at Social Welfare and Charity Promotion Office, Department of Civil Affairs of Shaanxi Province.
In recent years, with increase of leisure time and people’s living standard, the sports industry has come into prominence. In response to the strategies of “Healthy Shaanxi”, sports departments in Shaanxi Province has started the construction of bicycle lane in Shangluo, bicycle track construction along the Huanghe River in Dali County, Weinan and ski resorts, venues for aquatic sports, outdoor development, and rock climbing. Meanwhile, a series of influential sports events have been organized, such as Xi’an City Wall International Marathon, Straightway Cycling Race, Yangling International Marathon, Ankang Dragon Boat Race and so on.
In order to accelerate the development in sports industry, the construction of sports and tourism city and sports theme town is well underway in light of local conditions. As the first sports and tourism town in Shaanxi Province, Zhaojin Town in Yaozhou District, Tongchuan fully developed fitness and leisure program covering skiing, horse riding, archery and mountain biking. “In the past three complete snow seasons, the annual increase rate of visitors to the ski resort raised from 25% to 40%. In the last snow season, we have visitors of 80 thousand person-times within 100 days” said Zhang Ting, Manager for Shaanxi Zhaojin International Ski Resort.
