Pingtan: Promotes Development of All-for-one Tourism with Concept of "Original Ecology + Modernization"

This year marks a decisive year for Pingtan International Tourism Island to achieve its objective of the first phase of construction. The pilot zone puts forward new requirements in the implementation plan for the "eight major projects" in 2019. Under the concept of "original ecology + modernization," it is ramping up its efforts to expand the integrated tourism formats of coastal sightseeing, vacation, experience and sports, combined with the characteristic resources in Pingtan, with a focus on the development of all-for-one tourism and the construction of key projects.

At present, Pingtan is taking positive steps to deepen the implementation of the "eight major projects" and accelerate the key projects for the coastal sightseeing engineering with distinctive characteristics. It strives to build a wide array of knock-out products that feature beautiful ecological environment, distinctive cultural characteristics, outstanding comprehensive benefits and strong market competitiveness, and to enrich the connotation of the "Pingtan Blue" tourism brand.

As a coastal city, Pingtan abounds in tourism resources. The vast sea, soft sands, ancient stone houses, unique landforms and other sceneries all demonstrate the urban charm specific to Pingtan, and also bring infinite vitality and endless possibilities for the development of tourism in Pingtan.

"Pingtan boasts a great number of high-quality tourism resources, but there have long been problems such as low development level and the lack of supporting tourist facilities. We have been exploring our development direction," said Wu Jiehua, Deputy Director of the Tourism Development Committee of Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone. "We have proposed the concept of the integration of scenic areas and villages since the period of 'seven major critical battles', in the hope to enhance the connotation of tourism in Pingtai through the integration and development of resources. For the moment, the Dongmei Ancient Village project has started to bear fruit."

In 2018, Pingtan introduced an excellent design team to provide overall planning and design for the villages such as Xianrenjing Scenic Area, Wangyeshan Military Base and Dongmei Ancient Village, developing a tourism landscape of "scenic area + base + village". Nowadays, the first phase of the landscape improvement and restoration of Dongmei Ancient Village has been initially set in motion, drawing the attention from many tourists. "This fishing village has unique natural scenery and is very suitable for everyone to slow down and rest," said the tourist Ms. Wu. In the renovated Dongmei Village, people can experience the collision between tradition and modernity. It is believed that upon the completion, this project can provide all with a better tour experience and also attract more tourists.

In recent years, Pingtan has made continuous breakthroughs in archaeological discovery. Up to now, 26 prehistoric sites have been discovered on the Pingtan Island. Spanning from the Paleolithic period to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, these prehistoric sites make a complete prehistoric cultural pedigree, outlining thousands of years of development of the Pingtan Island. Based on its profound historical culture, Pingtan sticks to the cultural theme of the Austronesian Language family, constantly exploring new development paths of the tourism industry, and actively promoting the new model of "tourism + archaeology", with an aim to create an iconic cultural tourism label for Pingtan.

In the fusion and collision of culture and tourism and at the intersection of traditional and modern explorations, Pingtan's tourism industry has blazed a characteristic trail, which not only showcases a strong sense of hometown, but also takes the international paradigm. "The International Austronesian Archaeological Research Base is a key project that presents Pingtan's time-honored history and culture, and serves as an important carrier for the dialogue between Pingtan and the South Pacific island nations. It is a reflection of the international standard for the construction of Pingtan and facilitates further exchanges and cooperation between the Pingtan International Tourism Island and other countries and regions," said Wu.

In the past, the tourism industry in Pingtan only stayed focused on a single model of scenic sightseeing, devoid of the development of tourism products and tourist routes, resulting in the monotony and lack of innovation of the tourism industry in Pingtan. In recent years, Pingtan has embarked on the way to "transformation" by virtue of its unique coastal tourism resources. By building high-quality tourism projects, it has gradually enriched the connotation of tourism in Pingtan and brought more vitality to the international tourism island.

At the moment, Pingtan is striding forward in the process of building itself into an international tourism island, accompanied by new opportunities and challenges. The Ecological Bay Corridor in the north, the Eco-trail along the Circum-Tannan Bay, tour around the island, and high-quality tourist route and among others - all these distinctive coastal tourism projects have enabled the development of the tourism industry in Pingtan to be on a fast track.

According to Wu Jiehua, Pingtan is taking full advantage of "clear water and lush mountains" to create a broad range of tourism highlights in the tide of developing the all-for-one tourism. "The protective development of natural resources is reflected in the Ecological Bay Corridor in the north under construction currently," said Wu Jiehua. The project connects the villages and scenic spots in the northern part of Pingtan through the approach of "stringing beads together to be a chain" approach to enrich the local tourism industry. This can attract young people who love sports to come to take relaxing vacations.