On November 30, 2017, heads of relevant departments from sports, tourism and other industries across 29 provinces nationwide, members of automobile sports associations, as well as automobile and motorcycle sports and self-driving travel enthusiasts gathered at the Xishanquan Automobile Camping Site in Guiping City, Guangxi, to attend the 4th China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress. The four-day event attracted hundreds of RVs, over 5,000 self-driving vehicles, and tens of thousands of visitors from provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, as well as some ASEAN countries including Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia.
The China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress is a professional, authoritative, and industry-guiding camping event initiated by the Automobile and Motorcycle Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China and other sports authorities. The first three editions were successfully held at Badaling in Beijing, Damaoqi in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, and Shuicheng in Songzi, Hubei. After three years of careful development, the China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress has become an event with significant influence and brand appeal in the industry. It not only reforms the forms and contents of supply-side innovation in the sports fitness and leisure industry but also strongly promotes the cross-sector integration of sports with tourism, culture, and trade.
The 4th China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress comes to Guangxi
The successful hosting of the 4th China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress in Guiping marks the first time such a national-level automobile and RV camping event has taken place in Guangxi. This edition of the China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress was co-hosted by the Automobile and Motorcycle Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China, the Department of Sports of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Tourism Development Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and the People’s Government of Guigang City. It was organized by the Automobile Camping Branch of the Federation of Automobile and Motorcycle Sports of China, the Department of Sports of Guigang City, the Tourism Development Committee of Guigang City, the People’s Government of Guiping City, Beijing Guoao Zhongjian Sports Development Co., Ltd., Guiping Dateng Gorge Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd., and Beijing Huawen Shanshui Marketing Planning Co., Ltd. The event lasted for four days, from November 30 to December 3.
Guided by the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of Self-Driving and RV Tourism" and the "Belt and Road Sports Tourism Development Action Plan," jointly issued by the Ministry of National Tourism and the General Administration of Sport and other ministries, Guangxi relies on its unique strategic position as China’s international gateway to ASEAN, a new strategic fulcrum for opening-up and development in the southwest and central-south regions, and an important portal organically connecting the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Silk Road Economic Belt. Taking the 4th China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress as an opportunity, Guangxi will actively promote the culture of sports, leisure, and camping travel, advocate for a natural, free, healthy, and green way of vacationing, showcase the high-quality tourism resources of Guangxi and Guiping, and drive the transformation and upgrading of related service and manufacturing industries through the integrated development of the sports tourism industry, thereby enhancing regional value and creating profound and meaningful impacts for Guangxi and Guiping.
Grand opening on the morning of November 30, featuring numerous highlights
The opening ceremony of the Congress was held on the morning of November 30 at the Xishanquan Automobile Camping Site in Guiping. Vice Minister Zhao Yong of the General Administration of Sport of China, Vice Chairman Huang Weijing of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and leaders from various levels, as well as representatives from the automobile camping industry, attended the ceremony. Nearly 100 domestic and international media outlets, including Xinhua News Agency, CCTV, Travel Satellite TV, Guangdong Radio and Television, Guangxi Television, Cambodia NICE TV, and Thailand TUTULIVE, were present and provided coverage.
With the theme slogan “Lose Yourself in the Landscape, Camp in Guiping,” the Congress innovatively proposed the philosophy of “harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.” Han Han, the Congress’s goodwill ambassador, sent his blessings via VCR. Zhong Changzi, Deputy Secretary of the Guigang Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Guiping Municipal Party Committee, read out the inaugural Guiping City Declaration together with a representative of Guiping citizens at the opening ceremony. Representatives from 29 self-driving sports camps across the country, along with two three-star camps, four four-star camps, and seven five-star camps—including the Xishanquan Automobile Camping Site in Guiping—took the stage to receive their plaques. In the closing segment of the ceremony, Vice Minister Zhao Yong officially announced the launch of the Congress.
The Guiping camping congress innovates with experiences across three activity segments and diverse functional areas to meet visitor needs
Over the course of the four-day event, the Congress focused on three major activity segments—Camp Joy · Base Camp, Camp Joy · Carnival, and Camp Joy · Sharing Community—to deliver a comprehensive experience of local-character automobile and RV camping. These included: the Sports and Camping Industry Integration Development Forum and China Camping Industry Open Class, the 2017 Automobile Self-Driving Sports Camp Attack Arrow Competition, the Camping Food Carnival (Guigang Agricultural Specialty Products Trade Fair), performances of Guangxi folk sports competitions, ethnic unity sports gatherings, the “Camp Light” Outdoor Music Festival, the “Camp Light” Night Run Party, factory outlet exhibitions, and showcases of new leisure sports projects at the camp.
In its functional area planning, the Xishanquan Automobile Camping Site in Guiping provides both standard RV parking spots, motor hotels, and temporary RV sites, as well as diverse camping accommodation options like stargazing tents, rice field tents, luxury wild tents, and streamside wooden cabins. There are also outdoor experiences such as attack arrow games, cage football, paintball, water sports zones, and non-powered amusement parks, plus training functions like nature classrooms, offering course spaces such as nature schools and natural grass halls. This ensures that visitors to the camping congress can fully experience its four key features: authority, professionalism, joy, and interactivity.
Comprehensive impact of the camping congress boosts the development of the “sports + tourism” industry in the host location
It is understood that the Xishanquan Automobile Camping Site in Guiping will continue to be upgraded according to the standards of a five-star automobile self-driving sports camp, forming a hub of regular foot traffic and becoming an innovative flashpoint, breakthrough, and core driving force for self-driving RV tourism in Guigang and even Guangxi.
According to information from the Department of Sports and the Tourism Development Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the success of the 4th China Automobile (RV) Camping Congress marked the market opening of the first camp in the “China–ASEAN Automobile and RV Camping Circle,” kicking off the first year of construction for Guangxi’s automobile camping circle. In the future, Guangxi will continuously promote exchanges and cooperation between China and ASEAN countries in sports tourism through the construction of the “China–ASEAN Self-Driving and RV Camping Circle,” practice the peaceful development path of the “Belt and Road,” and further enhance people-to-people and cultural connectivity among countries along the route.