Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region sees coordinated tourism development

TIANJIN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- With the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, around the corner, tourists are trying their hand at making New Year woodblock paintings at a folk culture center in Yangliuqing Township, north China's Tianjin Municipality.

"Many tourists have a natural affinity for Yangliuqing woodblock paintings. I've heard many visitors from Beijing and Hebei say that their families had the tradition of putting up such paintings when they were little," said Xia Ting, head of the tourism distribution center in Tianjin's Xiqing District.

"Tourists from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region accounted for about 70 percent of the total number of tourists we received last year," Xia said.

More than 100 million people live in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which boasts rich and profound cultural and tourism resources. In 2014, a national strategy proposed the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and since then, Beijing, Tianjin and neighboring Hebei Province have cooperated on boosting their cultural and tourism development.

Gao Cuilian, who owns a farmyard in Changzhou Village in Tianjin, is busy treating tourists to freshly cooked dishes. "Rural eco-tourism is becoming more and more popular among urban tourists from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and my business is doing very well," she said.

Data from China Tourism Academy shows that Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei are among each other's top sources of tourists in 2023. Among the tourists received by Tianjin, those from Hebei and Beijing hold the top two rankings, accounting for 49.1 percent of the total number of tourists from outside of Tianjin. Hebei and Beijing were the top two destinations for tourists from Tianjin, and they made up 52.7 percent of the total out-of-town trips made by Tianjin's tourists.

Since 2014, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have signed agreements on culture, performing arts, protection of the Great Wall and personnel exchanges to promote the integrated development of the cultural and tourism market in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have also developed high-quality cultural tourism products and tourism brands, as well as holding tourism development forums, intangible cultural heritage exhibitions and tourism promotions to enhance the coordinated development of tourism in the region.

"We've planned Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei winter-tour theme routes for the Spring Festival so tourists from the region can enjoy folk customs, go to the lantern shows, enjoy winter sports and comfortable hot springs, and celebrate the Spring Festival together," said Chen Bing, deputy head of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.

"The culture and tourism industry of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei has a good foundation for coordinated development. They are capable of becoming a tourism community of mutual resources and coordinated development," said Xu Hong, dean of the College of Tourism and Service Management, Nankai University.

"In the future, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei should give full play to the comparative advantages of their tourism industries and break down the barriers to the flow of tourism elements and effectively improve the quality of coordinated development of tourism in the region," Xu said.