Zunyi boosts red tourism

Updated: 2009-09-23 20:00

If there is one color to describe Zunyi, red has to be it.

Yes, Zunyi is a red city with an abundant revolutionary heritage.

During the Long March of the Red Army in January 1935, an expanded meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Zunyi, which was widely known as the "Zunyi Meeting".

At this conference, participants discussed military failures in former battles and reshuffled the Party's political bureau. Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Wang Jiaxiang formed a new military command group to lead the Red Army.

With the leadership switching to Mao, the Red Army won several battles after the meeting. The troops crossed the Wujiang River, did the same for the Chishui River four times, and successfully transferred to the Shaanxi-Gansu revolutionary base areas. Therefore, Zunyi was named the "city of the turning point".

A point worth emphasizing is that Mao had an indissoluble bond with the city of Zunyi during the Long March.

As a great politician, he gained the leadership of the party at the Zunyi meeting and brought about a turning point for the Chinese revolution; as a sagacious military strategist, he completed one of the greatest battles in his military career by commanding the Red Army across the Chishui River four times to victory; as a talented poet, he wrote a famous poem here after the victory in Zunyi's Loushan Mountain Pass with popular verses such as 'the strong pass of the enemy is like a wall of iron, yet with firm strides, we are conquering its summit'; as a noted calligrapher, he left his valued writing on the site of the Zunyi Meeting, which is said to be the only case of its kind among monumental revolutionary sites across the country.

All these form the classic red heritage of Zunyi and have made it a must-see for visitors interested in Chinese contemporary history.

Local officials believe the city is not only attractive to domestic visitors but also very appealing to foreign guests - even for those who might not know much about the Chinese revolution and the Long March - because of the turning point of the revolution that had taken place here to mark the mountainous city as an extraordinary and inspiring location.

"How can one seize the opportunity and make a turn for the better when facing failures and frustration? The answer is very important both for a nation and for an individual," said a local official. "The Long March route inside Guizhou is a journey to that answer."

According to statistics, the "red tourism" sector in Zunyi netted a revenue of 3.36 billion yuan and helped the area receive a total of 4.32 million visitors in 2008. For the first half of this year, Zunyi's red tourism welcomed 2.34 million tourists and income from the sector rose to 1.96 billion yuan.