Photography: Wu Yanan
On April 22, the 2018 Liaoning (Yingkou) Spring Flower and Bird Watching Season, jointly organized by the Liaoning Provincial Tourism Development Commission, the People’s Government of Yingkou City, and co-hosted by the Yingkou Municipal Tourism Development Commission, the People’s Government of Gaizhou City, the People’s Government of Xishi District, the Coastal Industrial Base Management Committee of Yingkou, the Foreign Propaganda Office of the CPC Yingkou Municipal Committee, the Yingkou Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Photography Magazine, the Liaoning Photographers Association, Yingkou Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd., Yingkou Bingquan Catering Service Co., Ltd., and Yijiangnan Hot Spring Valley Resort Hotel Co., Ltd., officially kicked off at Bingquan Mountain Villa in Gaizhou City, Yingkou.
Speech by Wang Xiaojian, Deputy Director of the Liaoning Provincial Tourism Development Commission
Address by Wang Hongming, Executive Deputy Mayor of the People’s Government of Yingkou City
Hosted by Xu Hailong, Deputy Secretary of the Gaizhou Municipal Party Committee and Mayor
Photography: Wu Yanan
Over 300 people attended the launch ceremony, including Wang Xiaojian, Deputy Director of the Liaoning Provincial Tourism Development Commission; Wang Hongming, Executive Deputy Mayor of the People’s Government of Yingkou City; leaders from tourism commissions (bureaus) of various cities inside and outside the province, travel agency representatives, and journalists from mainstream domestic news media.
Photography: Wu Yanan
Themed “Birds Soaring Over Wetlands, Flowers Blooming in Yingkou,” the event will run from April to June 2018 and will host more than ten spring tourism activities, including the First Pear Blossom Music Festival of the 2018 Liaoning (Yingkou) Spring Flower and Bird Watching Season, the National Tourism Photography Exhibition and 2018 China (Yingkou) Tourism Photography Festival, the Second Yijiangnan Peony Festival of Yingkou, the 2018 Liaohe Old Street Tourism Culture Festival, the “2018 Yingkou Travel Gifts” Tourism Commodities Exhibition, the Sino-Russian Hongxigou Valley Locust Flower Hot Spring Tourism Festival, the 2018 Yingkou Xianren Island Seaside Locust Flower Festival, the 2018 Yingkou Azalea Festival, and the Second Sunflower Festival of Yingkou. These events aim to further establish Liaoning’s spring tourism brand, deeply explore spring tourism resources such as flower viewing, bird watching, and rural leisure culture, expand the spring tourism market both within and outside the province, enhance the visibility of Liaoning’s spring tourism, and promote the sustainable development of Yingkou’s tourism industry. By promoting the river mouth bird flocks, the coastal and riverside tourism of Yingkou will be boosted, while spring flower appreciation will drive the development of rural and hot spring tourism in Yingkou.
Opening venue of the First Pear Blossom Music Festival of the 2018 Liaoning (Yingkou) Spring Flower and Bird Watching Season
Opening venue of the 2018 China (Yingkou) Tourism Photography Festival
On the day of the launch ceremony, four themed sub-venues were set up: the opening venue of the First Pear Blossom Music Festival of the 2018 Liaoning (Yingkou) Spring Flower and Bird Watching Season, the opening venue of the 2018 China (Yingkou) Tourism Photography Festival, the opening venue of the Second Yijiangnan Peony Festival of Yingkou, and the opening venue of the 2018 Liaohe Old Street Tourism Culture Festival. Through various forms such as Yingkou promotional videos, spring tourism brochures, photography exhibitions, Yingkou tourism resource presentations, Yingkou tourism product tours, Yingkou tourism commodities exhibitions, intangible cultural heritage displays and performances, Yijiangnan peony viewing, and wetland bird watching, the romantic atmosphere of Yingkou’s spring—“Birds Soaring Over Wetlands, Flowers Blooming in Yingkou”—was showcased.
Birds soaring over wetlands
Flowers blooming in Yingkou
During the launch ceremony, the Liaoning Provincial Tourism Commission organized a symposium on tourism cooperation between Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces, while the Yingkou Municipal Tourism Commission held a symposium on tourism cooperation between Yingkou and Foshan. Both aimed to facilitate project connections and negotiations to enhance collaboration. During the Yingkou Tourism Promotion Conference, Yingkou also engaged in further discussions with key air route cities such as Nanjing, Foshan, and Xi’an to promote future tourism exchanges and cooperation. Additionally, travel agencies from within and outside the province conducted one-on-one targeted meetings after the conference, laying the groundwork for further expansion of the tourism market.
In recent years, the Yingkou Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have placed high importance on the development of the tourism industry, aiming to cultivate it into a new strategic pillar industry for national economic and social development. They have established a tourism industry development pattern of “one belt, two cores, and four clusters,” actively developing coastal leisure tourism products, hot spring wellness resort products, downtown commercial and cultural tourism products, and the ecological products of the “three mountains and one water” valley areas. The goal is to create a destination image that includes the world’s largest coastal hot spring cluster, the most distinctive coastline in Northeast Asia, China’s most influential motherhood-themed wellness resort area, and the earliest emerging port and commercial culture site in Northeast China.
In line with the seasonal tourism arrangements of the Provincial Tourism Development Commission, the Yingkou Municipal Tourism Development Commission has tailored different promotional themes based on the city’s unique tourism resources and the brand “Yingkou: A Leisure Coastal City of Rivers, Seas, and Springs.” These include “Birds Soaring Over Wetlands, Flowers Blooming in Yingkou” (spring), “Romantic Sea Hot Springs, Leisure in Yingkou” (summer), “Land of Six Waters, Wellness in Yingkou” (autumn), and “Warm and Fresh in Yingkou” (winter).
Spring: Watch birds soaring over wetlands and enjoy blooming mountain flowers
Summer: Experience romantic leisure and seaside bathing
Autumn: Enjoy the land of six waters and wellness in Yingkou
Winter: Admire the frozen sea and sky, and experience a heartwarming journey
Currently, Yingkou’s tourism industry is developing rapidly. Gaizhou City and Bayuquan District have been named National Demonstration Counties for Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism; Shuangtai Town has been recognized as a National Agricultural Tourism Demonstration Town; Xiongyue Town has been designated as a National Second Batch of Characteristic Towns; Hongxigou Valley Tourist Resort and Moon Bay Tourist Resort have been rated as Provincial Tourist Resorts; and Moon Bay, Tuan Shan, and Hongxigou Valley have been acknowledged as Provincial Ecotourism Demonstration Areas. Meanwhile, Yingkou has been awarded titles such as 2016 China’s Most Charming Livable, Business-Friendly, and Tourist-Friendly City, one of China’s Top Ten Quality Leisure Cities, one of China’s Top Ten Hot Spring Wellness Bases, and one of China’s Top 40 Cities with Optimal Investment Environments. In the future, Yingkou’s tourism will continue to stride forward, deepen industrial integration, fully leverage the decisive role of the market in tourism resource allocation, continuously tap and activate the intrinsic driving forces and vitality of tourism industry development, and strive to become a city of all-for-one tourism.