“SELLING bamboo earned me a net profit of around 200,000 yuan ($27,987),” said bamboo grower Li Kaiming from Tianchi village, Qingshen county, Meishan, southwest China’s Sichuan province, while harvesting bamboo that had just matured.
These bamboos were later sent to a bamboo industrial park 15 kilometres away, where they were processed into bamboo pulp paper. The paper manufactured in the industrial park now holds a 30 percent market share of natural-colour tissue paper in China.

As the use of plastics is gradually replaced by bamboo, the industrial park is working to establish a new production line of mulch made from bamboo fibre to seize market opportunities.
Recently, a three-year action plan on promoting the substitute of plastics with bamboo was jointly released by China’s National Development and Reform Commission and other departments. This has presented new opportunities for Sichuan, which ranks second in China in terms of bamboo forest area, to strengthen and extend the chain of the bamboo industry.

“I was so busy! I never thought that bamboo-related tourism would be so popular,” said Nie Zhijun, head of the collective economic organisation of Zhaoping village, Baijie township, Naxi district of Sichuan’s Luzhou, referring to the tourist boom at a bamboo-culture attraction in the village during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday.
It was the first long holiday since the attraction opened, and its business volume more than doubled, according to Nie.

The integration of the bamboo industry and cultural tourism has brought benefits to Naxi district, prompting it to launch 20 provincial-level cultural tourism programmes that cover rehabilitation, nature education, floral parks and many other sectors. Tourists flock to Naxi district almost every holiday and weekend.
Taking advantage of this momentum, Naxi has gradually developed a circulation of the bamboo industry in which it grows and processes bamboo, as well as farms and feeds poultry in bamboo forests. Bamboo fungus, black fungus, herbal medicines and chickens are cultivated in bamboo forests to bring extra income to farmers.

“It is important to ensure that the people engaged in the bamboo industry can truly get rich,” said an official in Naxi. According to the official, more than 34,500 mu (2,300 hectares) of under-forest cultivation and breeding bases have been established in the district, and the output per mu is expected to increase by over 4,000 yuan.
Statistics show that the total area of bamboo forests in Sichuan province stands at 18.35 million mu. However, the province has long suffered from low bamboo yield per unit area.

There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, about 2,000,000,000 (two million) mu of bamboo forests were low-yield and low-efficiency forests, with poor varieties and insufficient irrigation facilities, resulting in slow growth of bamboo. Secondly, the lack of well-developed transportation and other infrastructure leads to high logging costs, making farmers unwilling to harvest.
According to the Sichuan forestry and grassland administration, 1/3 of bamboo in Sichuan was left unused every year.

“By building roads and standardising plantation bases, the labour cost for bamboo harvesting can be reduced by half,” said an executive of a state-owned forest farm in Guang’an, Sichuan province.
The forest farm divided its 2,250 mu of bamboo forests into 15 small sections, standardised spacing and built operational pathways, thus gradually making mechanised bamboo harvesting possible.

“In the past, a worker could only harvest one tonne of bamboo per day, but now, with the help of machinery, the number is lifted to six to eight tonnes,” said the executive.
In October 2023, Renhe township in Jiang’an county, Yibin, Sichuan province launched a train for transporting bamboo, which has reduced labour cost per ton of bamboo by 80 percent and made unharvested bamboo forests useful.

To promote the substitute of plastics with bamboo, it is necessary to develop new technologies in bamboo processing and expand new scenarios for bamboo applications.
In 2018, Xingwen county of Yibin developed over 1,000 (a thousand) types of bamboo products for hotels, restaurants, long-haul transportation, and home furnishing. It also established China’s first comprehensive trading platform for bamboo-made daily necessities.

On Nov. 14, a bamboo technology firm based in Guangyuan completed tests for a clean and environmentally friendly fibre-production programme that was led by its chief engineer Qiao Guanfang. This programme will soon be put into trial operation.
Thanks to new techniques employed, no wastewater will be discharged during bamboo fibre production, and each fibre produced is as strong as two in the past.
Recently, Sichuan province issued relevant policies to promote the development of the bamboo industry. These policies further emphasise the need to strengthen technological support and initiate extensive research on the production of bamboo products for daily use, with an aim to substitute more materials with bamboo.

China’s thriving rural tourism attracts global attention
CHINESE villages once again received worldwide attention recently as four of them earned a coveted spot on the “Best Tourism Villages” list for 2023 in the latest announcement by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
The four villages are Huangling village in Jiangxi province, Xiajiang village in Zhejiang province, Zhagana village in Gansu province, and Zhujiawan village in Shaanxi province.

Together with Yucun village in Zhejiang province and Xidi village in Anhui province listed in 2021, as well as Dazhai village in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Jingzhu village in Chongqing municipality listed in 2022, China now has eight UNWTO “Best Tourism Villages,” more than any other country in the world.
The list of “Best Tourism Villages” by UNWTO, which was initiated in 2021, has brought more and more Chinese villages to the international arena, mirroring the prosperous rural development of China and providing a perspective for the world on China.

Huangling village is known as a village “hanging” on the cliffs, and it has gained worldwide fame for its unique tradition of drying colourful crops on rooftops of Hui-style buildings, including chilli peppers, ears of corn, rice and green beans. This tradition not only showcases bountiful harvests, but also reflects the prosperous and fulfilling lives of the villagers.
In recent years, Huangling village has hosted the International Tourism Village Chief Summit, engaging in dialogues with renowned villages from France, the Netherlands, and other countries, and continuously enhancing Huangling’s international influence.

An executive of Wuyuan Huangling Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. told People’s Daily that by exploring local culture, Huangling village has made great efforts to create tourism products, restore the traditional architecture and layout of the village, and integrate intangible cultural-heritage resources.

In Xidi village, ancient architecture is cherished deeply by the villagers. Currently, the village houses three ancestral halls, an archway, and 224 ancient residential buildings built in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), making it an outstanding representative of ancient villages in Huizhou, Anhui province.
In order to boost local tourism, Xidi village set up a tourism development company and built a place where tourists can experience the intangible cultural heritage and local farming culture, said Hu Aoli, director of the village committee. Today, the village is attracting visitors with not only its beautiful scenery, but also the splendid local culture.

Recently, multiple places in Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Gansu province saw snowfalls, including Zhagana village, which has shown a unique winter scenery.
In recent years, the village has leveraged its unique natural and cultural landscapes, as well as its folk customs, to explore a path of rural tourism that not only contributes to ecological conservation, but also promotes exchanges, communication, and integration among different ethnic groups.

Many tourists shared their experiences about the tour on social media, saying it is worthwhile to see this tranquil and enchanting place with ancient architecture and beautiful scenery.
Li Baiwen, a professor at the Tourism College of Beijing Union University, noted that the villages on the “Best Tourism Villages” list boast distinct cultural diversity and advantages in ecological and environmental protection, and retain rural traditions.

Villages serve as the foundation of China’s fine traditional culture and the fertile soil for the inheritance and development of Chinese civilisation.
In recent years, various regions in China have leveraged their unique resources and developed a diverse and vibrant rural tourism industry according to local conditions. They have created innovative and distinctive development models, giving rise to a number of desirable rural tourism destinations.

They have paved the way for Chinese rural development that integrates culture and tourism, promotes harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and strives for both material and cultural prosperity.
With different types and rich forms, rural tourism is gradually becoming a new hotspot in the Chinese tourism market. The annual reception and the tourism revenue have seen significant growth, injecting vitality into the world’s tourism development.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a total of 1,597 national-level tourism-focused villages and towns have been established nationwide, with over 60,000 administrative villages engaging in rural tourism operations.
For foreign tourists, visiting rural areas in China is not just about sightseeing, but it is also an opportunity to get a view of Chinese culture and customs. The beautiful countryside in China holds a strong appeal for foreign visitors.

In recent years, some foreign tourists have shown a preference for immersive experiences in rural areas, such as enjoying tea and traditional opera performances in rural villages in Zhejiang, watching face-changing and fire-spitting performances of Sichuan Opera in rural parks in Sichuan, experiencing New Year woodblock printing in folk courtyards in Shandong, and listening to folk songs in ethnic villages of Guangxi.
Sandra Carvao, Chief of Market Intelligence and Competitiveness at the UNWTO, recently told an interview that China is a global leader in rural tourism, and the UNWTO looked forward to the full recovery of China’s inbound and outbound tourism markets.

China’s high-speed rail journey on faster track in 2023
EVERY workday, Wang Manman takes the high-speed train from the Chinese city of Tianjin to Beijing, with a journey that takes just around 20 minutes. During the morning rush hour, she has the flexibility to choose from over 10 trains.
Passengers read magazines, bury themselves in their phones, or simply doze off while waiting to arrive.
“It is fast and very convenient, just like taking a subway ride,” Wang said.

In 2008, the year China hosted the Summer Olympic Games, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, with a design speed of 350 km per hour, entered operation, unveiling a fast-expanding, modern high-speed railway network in the world’s second-largest economy.
China, originally a latecomer to modern transport, now has the world’s largest high-speed railway network. As of the end of November, the total operation mileage of China’s railway network exceeded 155,500 km, including 43,700 km of high-speed railways.

China’s rail development continues to speed ahead in 2023, with the launch of more lines aimed at fostering economic and social development within the country and beyond.
One of the most notable additions to China’s vast high-speed rail network this year is the Fuzhou-Xiamen-Zhangzhou railway, the country’s fastest cross-sea high-speed rail, where trains reach a maximum speed of 350 km per hour along the west coast of the Taiwan Strait.

Starting operation on Sept. 28, the 277-km railway slashes travel time between the cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen, both in east China’s Fujian Province, to just under an hour.
The railway features a breathtaking sea view with 19.9 km of tracks built over the sea. It will connect multiple city clusters and transform the areas of Fuzhou and Xiamen into a one-hour living circle, officials said.

China has mastered advanced technologies for building tracks, long-span bridges, and complex tunnels in challenging geological and climatic conditions, expanding high-speed rail to remote and ethnic-minority areas to foster economic and social development.
In late November, a 238-km section of the Sichuan-Qinghai railway in western China became operational after 12 years of construction, providing high-speed train travel options for Maoxian, the largest county inhabited by the Qiang ethnic group.

In the same month, the railway connecting the captivating city of Lijiang and Shangri-la in southwest China’s Yunnan Province opened to traffic. The new line will boost tourism and industrial development, particularly benefiting Shangri-la in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
In August, the Guiyang-Nanning High-speed Railway started full operation, linking the capital cities of Guizhou Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The railway, designed for a top speed of 350 km per hour, is the first of its kind in both Guizhou and Guangxi, known for their karst landscapes.

High-speed rail is symbolic of the new structure of the Chinese economy, influencing all aspects of society.
From January to November, a total of 3.56 billion railway passenger trips were made nationwide, more than double from the same period last year, the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway) said.

To meet booming travel demand, China Railway has improved its railway operating plan and increased transport capacity. The average daily number of passenger trains reached 9,638 in China, a year-on-year increase of 52 percent.

China’s high-speed railway has also gone global.
The latest example is the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway in Indonesia, officially launched in October. It is the first overseas high-speed railway project fully utilising Chinese railway systems, technology, and industrial components.

With a design speed of 350 km per hour, the 142.3-km high-speed railway shortens the journey between Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, and Bandung, a famous tourist city. It has handled more than 1 million passenger trips.

The train service can bring lots of convenience to locals and help boost the economy along the route, said Juni Stefanus Santoso, a 23-year-old Indonesian student who is studying at Tianjin-based Tiangong University.
“China’s high-speed rail provides more countries and regions with the opportunity to join the fast track of shared development,” said Cong Yi, vice president of Tianjin Administrative Institute. “In the future, it will continue to contribute to China’s modernisation and opening up, and promote global balanced, coordinated and inclusive development.”