East Huangshan Tourism Resort

East Huangshan Tourism Resort

East Huangshan Tourism Resort is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

East Huangshan Tourism Resort is located in the tranquil and picturesque environment at the eastern entrance of the Huangshan Scenic Area, 22 km from the southern entrance, at the intersection of National Highway 205 and Provincial Road 103.

　East Huangshan Tourism Resort is located at the tranquil and beautiful eastern entrance of the Huangshan Scenic Area, 22 kilometers from the southern entrance, at the junction of National Highway 205 and Provincial Road 103. It was invested in by Shanghai Xinzhu Industrial Corporation and is affiliated with Bright Food Group. The resort includes Xinzhu Journey Hotel, East Huangshan International Youth Hostel, East Huangshan Expansion Camp, Health Center, Ball Sports Management Center, and East Huangshan Agriculture and Forestry Park. In the 2007 Anhui Tourism Style Golden List Awards, Shanghai Huangshan Tea Farm was awarded one of Anhui’s Top Ten Tourism Investment Projects; East Huangshan Tourism Resort was honored as one of Anhui’s Top Ten Tourism Resort Bases. The resort covers an area of approximately 2.8 million square meters.

The resort boasts abundant natural and cultural historical resources, focusing on building a distinctive tourism culture brand centered around three major themes: Shanghai-style culture, educated youth culture, and tea culture. According to the "Decision on Approving the Release of 147 Scenic Spots Including Shichahai Scenic Area in Xicheng District, Beijing as National AAAA-Level Tourist Attractions" issued by the National Tourism Administration on January 23, 2009, and the "Announcement of the National Tourism Attractions Quality Rating Committee (2009 No. 1)," East Huangshan Tourism Resort, along with 146 other scenic spots nationwide, was officially rated as a national AAAA-level tourist attraction. Recently, following the national AAAA-level tourism area standards, preliminary developments include the Intimate Town Shanghai-style Cultural Area, Farming Culture Scenic Area, and Educated Youth Tribe Nostalgic Scenic Area. The medium- to long-term goals of the resort involve aligning with domestic and international trends in sightseeing, leisure vacation, historical culture, and eco-tourism, as well as the actual development of tourism within the East Huangshan region. Following national AAAAA-level tourism area standards, plans include constructing an International Health and Wellness Resort, East Huangshan Leisure Resort, Outdoor Sports Development Zone, and further enhancing the Educated Youth Tribe Scenic Area.

Shanghai Huangshan Tea Farm (East Huangshan Tourism Resort) is now an independently operated state-owned enterprise under the leadership of Shanghai Bright Food Group. Its predecessor was a labor farm established in 1955 by the Anhui Provincial Public Security Department, initially named Anhui Local State-Owned Huangshan Tea Farm. In October 1965, it was officially handed over to Shanghai for management, becoming Shanghai Huangshan Tea Farm. In December 1965, the Shanghai Huangshan Tea Farm Party Committee was established. The tea farm currently has 4,666 mu of mountain land, including 498 mu of tea plantations and 1,485 mu of forested land, with over 180 employees. Affiliated units include Xinzhu Journey Hotel, International Youth Hostel, Party and Government Office, Hospital, School, Community Neighborhood Committee, Police Station, Human Resources Department, Industry Department, Engineering Department, Property Management Office, as well as three agricultural brigades: Dongqiao, Huanglong, and Machuan. The surrounding area hosts five sanatoriums established by Shanghai and various natural tourist attractions.

Geographic Location

East Huangshan Tourism Resort is located in Tanjiaqiao Town, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, at the foot of the eastern Huangshan Mountain. It lies between 117°–118° east longitude and 30° north latitude, covering a total area of 136 square kilometers, with jurisdiction over 6 villages and 49 villager groups. The town borders Jingde County and Jixi County to the east, She County and Tangkou Town to the south, the world-renowned Huangshan Scenic Area to the west, and Sankou Town and Xinming Township to the north. It serves as the essential gateway to Huangshan, known as the eastern entrance. Located 27 km from the urban area (Gantang) and 18 km from the southern Huangshan entrance (Tangkou), it is at the intersection of National Highway 205, Provincial Road 103, and the soon-to-be-completed Hefei-Tongling-Huangshan Expressway, making it one of the key towns on the “Huangshan–Tai Ping Lake–Jiuhua Mountain” tourist route.

Tanjiaqiao Town, where East Huangshan Tourism Resort is located, connects transportation from the east, south, and north. The north-south oriented Hefei-Tongling-Huangshan Expressway intersects with the eastward National Highway 205 here, making East Huangshan a hub connecting Huangshan to the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region. The mountainous regions of southern Anhui are part of the northern extension of the Wuyi Mountains, featuring ever-changing landscapes. As the highest point in southern Anhui, Huangshan naturally forms the watershed between the Yangtze River and the Xin’an River. East Huangshan Tourism Resort is located at the eastern entrance of Huangshan, on the Yangtze River side of the watershed.

Geology and Landforms

Eight hundred million years of seabed sedimentation, crustal movements, and marine transgressions laid the foundation for the rich sedimentary rock layers in the Huangshan region. By 200 million years ago, the Huangshan land had completely risen above sea level. In the early Cretaceous period, underground granitic magma rose and intruded into surface rock layers, solidifying into the embryonic form of the Huangshan rock mass. The Himalayan orogeny during the Tertiary and Quaternary periods of the Cenozoic Era caused widespread crustal uplift and expansion, with the vast sedimentary cover over the granite continuously eroded and carved by glaciers, eventually forming granite peak forests towering over a thousand meters high into the clouds. Accompanying this dramatic process, the sedimentary rock layers on the surface around Huangshan also displayed ever-changing forms. Quaternary glaciers left their traces, creating the “U”-shaped gorges of Shimen Gorge. The strata of East Huangshan belong to the Cambrian period, consisting of black platy gray shale and limestone, with some areas rich in coal-bearing strata.

Ecological Environment

“Ecotourism” refers not only to enjoying beautiful scenery during travel but also emphasizes a behavioral and thinking approach—protective tourism. It means not damaging the ecology, understanding the ecology, and protecting the ecology to achieve permanent harmony—an incremental and layered behavior. Ecotourism promotes ecological protection through tourism and vice versa. To be precise, it involves purposefully visiting natural areas to understand environmental culture and natural history without destroying nature, while enabling local communities to gain economic benefits from conserving natural resources.

The aesthetic value of protecting the natural environment and maintaining ecological balance

Experiencing beauty and joy in the natural landscapes of mountains and waters requires not only the subject’s aesthetic consciousness but also moral consciousness—the two are inseparable. Ancient Chinese thinkers never separated moral experience from aesthetic experience. Confucius once said, “The wise find joy in water; the benevolent find joy in mountains. The wise are active; the benevolent are tranquil.” Although wisdom and benevolence are discussed separately with different emphases, the wisdom referred to here is not purely intellectual knowledge disconnected from benevolence, nor is the benevolence mentioned an emotional attitude unrelated to wisdom. The two are closely linked. Joy is the experience of life and the revelation of the meaning of existence amidst mountains and waters, expressing a subtle life relationship between humans and nature—a form of life experience, reflection, and exclamation.

East Huangshan Tourism Resort is located in a subtropical monsoon climate zone. The four seasons are distinct, the climate is mild, and rainfall is abundant. With long hours of sunshine, the annual average temperature is 16.3°C, annual precipitation is 2,058 mm, and the frost-free period lasts about 230 days. Approximately 70% of the precipitation is concentrated in the spring and summer rainy seasons. The prevailing wind direction is southeasterly in summer and northerly or northwesterly in autumn. The high mountain areas near Huangshan in the south experience slightly later crop seasons compared to the flatland areas, and deciduous trees shed their leaves earlier.

East Huangshan Tourism Resort enjoys a uniquely superior natural environment with extremely rich resources. The area features numerous peaks, crisscrossing rivers, pristine waters, lush landscapes, abundant produce, and diverse scenery. The resort encompasses three major water systems: the east-west oriented Mengjia River, the north-south oriented Nanshan River, and the main regional river, the Machuan River.