Tengchong Heshun Ancient Town, a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in Yunnan, is a national 4A level tourist attraction. For more than 600 years, the central plains culture, foreign cultures, nanzhao culture, frontier culture, overseas Chinese culture and horse caravan culture have merged and collided here, forming a harmonious and inclusive Heshun culture, making Heshun one of the four typical eco-cultural villages in Yunnan Province. In November 2020, Heshun Ancient Town scenic spot successfully passed the landscape quality assessment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and was listed in the national 5A-level scenic spot creation list, which officially sounded the pioneer call to create national 5A-level scenic spot.

 "4A to 5A is not a simple numerical change, but a necessary process to realize the leap of tourism quality in Tengchong. Heshun Ancient Town will closely focus on the establishment of national 5A tourist scenic spot, increase investment, strengthen management, and optimize services, to create promotion and integration, make the 5A establishment become a strong driving force for high-quality development of the ancient town." Said Cheng Dejun, party secretary of Tengchong.

Launching "Surcharge" to Empower Traditional Ancient Town

 Heshun Ancient Town has unique tourism resources.The old town is surrounded by volcanoes.The highest altitude in Heshun is 2191 meters, while the lowest is 1490 meters. The climate is mild and the rainfall is abundant. The natural landscape and cultural landscape have their own characteristics.There are more than 100 well-preserved ancient buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties with profound cultural deposits.And both Chinese, European, South Asian and other architectural styles and elements.There are 116 ancient houses listed for protection here; Also built in the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China ancestral hall 8; There are 110 ancient and famous trees listed for protection.

 Since 2005, the Heshun Ancient Town awarded "China's first famous town charm", "national environmental beautiful town" "the state-level historical and cultural town" "Chinese top ten town" "the first beautiful livable demonstration town" "the third batch of Chinese traditional architectural culture tourism destination" "forest culture town" and other honorary title, is an ancient town of "alive".

 Tengchong Municipal Party Committee and Government firmly believe that it is not enough to rely only on innate ecological resources and cultural and historical resources, but must make efforts in the dimension and depth of tourism system if tengchong tourism wants to go further. In January 2019, the establishment of 5A scenic spot of Heshun Ancient Town was included in the "Tourism Revolution" nine projects of Yunnan Province. Tengchong Municipal Party Committee and Government constantly push forward, and all responsible departments, towns and villages and Bolian Company perform their respective duties, work together to overcome difficulties, closely centering on the main line of "protection and development of ancient towns, integrated development of culture and tourism", continue to explore and innovate on the road of creating national 5A tourist attractions.

 At the beginning of its establishment, Tengchong city set up a work leading group headed by the party secretary and the mayor, which clearly defined the goals, standards and steps of the establishment, as well as the corresponding work responsibilities of various functional departments, towns and scenic spots, and also set up the office and special work team of the work leading group. The team sets out the "Heshun Ancient Town to create national 5 A-class tourist scenic spot work plan", "Heshun Ancient Town to create national 5 A-class tourist scenic spot work implementation plan" and "Heshun Ancient Town to create national 5 A-class tourist scenic spot plan task, adhere to the principle of hardware and software services, and strive to improve the quality of service of scenic spots and service levels.

 At the same time, Tengchong city also issued the "Tengchong Healthy tourism Development Incentive Policy (trial)". For the newly created scenic spots rated as 5A level scenic spots, the government will give a one-time fund reward of 20 million yuan to stimulate the enthusiasm and initiative of scenic spot creation.

 Through the promotion of city and town levels, the linkage of departments and the participation of the whole people, the creation of 5A of Heshun Ancient Town became a hot word in a short time. From tourism companies to responsible departments and residents, they have devoted themselves to it with full enthusiasm. All levels and departments earnestly perform their duties and conscientiously carry out the task of establishing the company so that everyone participates and benefits.

Vigorously Renovate to Purify the Environment of Ancient Town

 In the creation of the work, Heshun town strengthen the market regulation, comprehensive management of the environment. At the same time, together with the relevant departments, according to the preliminary investigation, the town produced and issued more than 1000 copies of "Heshun Ancient Town Standardized market order Notice". All business owners are required to make corrections according to the contents in the notice within the specified time. During, owner of partial management undertook correction by oneself. Be in the light of occupy the road to manage and the merchant that did not rectify on time, relevant branch takes measure decisively, organize personnel to undertake concentration to rectify to its.

 According to the introduction of Dong Shixiang, the chairman of the National People's Congress of Heshun town, in order to further optimize the tourism environment of the ancient town, Heshun town has actively studied and developed six work programs: the construction of tourist trails, the division of human-vehicle mixed lines, environmental health management, tourism market renovation, the training of environmental awareness of residents of the ancient town, and the sampling survey; At the same time, the task book and timetable have been formulated to implement and advance item by item. In the process of work, the interior tourism trails have been upgraded, and 11 roads inside and outside the scenic area have been repaired and repaired.

 In terms of environmental health in the scenic area, sanitation facilities and equipment are fully equipped, garbage transfer stations have been established, and 14 garbage collection and transportation vehicles, 2 compression vehicles, 46 arm boxes, and 1 manure suction truck have also been purchased, while 70 trash cans with proper appearance have also been designed and made. In addition, 21 rural public welfare staff was recruited to take charge of environmental sanitation in the scenic spot, and the garbage in the scenic spot was cleaned every day.

 In order to provide tourists with more standardized and orderly scenic shopping places, Heshun town has made great efforts to regulate the order of tourism market. Heshun organized relevant departments to lay the exposed pipelines underground. Heshun also cleaned up mobile street vendors, rectification of road occupation more than 300 cases, and cleaned up all kinds of small advertising, disorderly pasting of more than 400 billboards (piece). There are also more than 400 illegal parking vehicles, battery cars (times), cleaning up Heshun Ancient Town gate parking lot near the "zombie car" 19. They also advised on soliciting 24 times.

 Protecting water ecological environment is one of the important contents of protecting ancient towns. The Water Resources Bureau of Heshun Town and Tengchong City strictly implemented the river and lake chief system, with a total of 4 river chiefs. Since 2021, 60 river patrols have been carried out, with 3 problems found and 3 problems solved with sales numbers. At the same time, ecological experts were organized to assess the health of the water environment of the Xian River wetland, and to improve the water environment of Xian River wetland, removing 900 cubic meters of silt, more than 100 tons of weeds and 1 ton of water waste from the Heshun River. According to the monitoring data of the ecological and environmental protection Bureau, the surface water quality of the scenic spot is above the national standard Ⅲ level.

 To improve the quality of tourism service lies in people's tourism awareness and concept. Heshun town insists on regular tourism training, inviting experts to Heshun, to give the town's station chief, members of the community and party branches, villagers group leaders the special training. Heshun has also carried out more than 1,000 trainings on relevant business knowledge for inn operators and some residents in the scenic area.

Jointly Create and Share to Improve the Quality of Infrastructure

 On August 1, the Teng Chong Airport expressway was completed and opened to traffic, reducing the drive from the airport to Heshun Ancient Town from 40 minutes to 20 minutes. At the same time, the opening of the tourist bus, the addition of airport to Heshun Ancient Town tourism line, making the traffic to Heshun Ancient Town more convenient, as well as tourists travels more convenient.

 Since the establishment of the national 5A tourist scenic spot, Heshun Ancient Town has built a new Heshun ecological parking lot on the basis of the original standard parking lot to increase the capacity of tourist vehicles. The "Heshun Ecological parking lot" project is under construction and is expected to be put into use soon. The parking lot covers a total area of 40.6 mu, with 466 ecological parking spaces, and the simultaneous implementation of site hardening, landscape greening, road lighting and other projects. The estimated total investment is 34.8 million yuan, and the investment has been 24 million yuan. The parking lot accommodates 62 bus spaces, 324 small spaces, 60 new energy parking spaces, 10 novice parking spaces and 10 barrier-free parking spaces, providing more convenient and refined parking services for all kinds of tourists. At present, on the sidewalk leading from the parking lot to the entrance of the scenic area of the ancient town, the trees are already lush and the farmland on the left side of the road is in full bloom, showing a pleasant ecological picture.

 In order to further improve the tourism service level of the scenic spot, the "Tourist Service Center" project has also been officially launched. The total land area of the tourist service center project is 10453 square meters. It has a new frame structure tourist service center, the main area of 1300 square meters, building area of 1695 square meters. It includes tourist reception, tourism consultation, cultural and tourism products display and sales, 3A tourism public toilets and other functional rooms, and simultaneous interior decoration, outdoor paving hardening, greening and lighting projects. The estimated total investment of the project is 23 million yuan, of which 18 million yuan has been completed. Its main project has been capped, the internal column decoration and internal function room decoration. The project will soon be built and put into use. After the completion of the tourist center, it will greatly improve the convenience, landscape and culture of the tourist area, and provide intelligent and convenient services for tourists. Inside the visitor center will be a VR viewing room, medical clinic, police room, visitors' rest area, Internet access area and smart exhibition hall. The hall of the visitor Center will also be equipped with 3D holographic projection sand table, intelligent garbage cans and welcoming robots to improve the intelligent service level of the visitor center.

 Co-creation and sharing is the core purpose of promoting digital construction of Heshun Ancient Town. Relying on characteristic towns and taking the opportunity of 5A establishment, 98 5G free WIFI digital points have been established, an environmental monitoring system has been built, and more than 10 sets of intelligent travel and face-scanning facilities have been purchased, which have been put into use now. In terms of monitoring, cameras have been installed to improve the security capability of the town's "safe Tengchong". At the same time, The town has focused on developing a mini program for tourists, "Enjoy Heshun Ancient Town". Currently, there are more than 50 businesses in the town, and tourists can buy e-tickets through the mini program. In the future, digital seats and broadcasting systems will be added in the scenic spot to improve the intelligent tour experience of tourists.

 Smart light poles are also one of the new smart services. For locals living in the old town, this makes the night sky in the countryside as bright as in the city. "Since we put up these light poles, it's always bright wherever we go at night. It is not only safe, but also makes the night scenery of the ancient town another scene." said Li Xiaolei, a resident of Heshun Ancient Town.

 In the creation of the work, Tengchong Heshun Ancient Town focuses on improving the comfort of tourism area. The new tourist service center and tourist service station have been built here, and nearly 300 tourist signs have been added to the tourist area. At the same time, the installation and use of the scenic spot's internal panorama, navigation map and signboard in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and French are also added here. The ancient town has optimized the tourist public rest facilities and viewing facilities in the scenic area, and improved the service for special groups, and greatly improved the comfort level of sightseeing. Replace nearly 200 garbage cans in the tourist area, upgrade and transform 16 tourist toilets in the tourist area, create a clean environment for tourists and improve the taste and image of the tourist area. At the same time, it has also improved the safety protection system, formulated the safety emergency rescue plan, and set up eye-catching safety warning marks. The medical service system in the tourist area has also been improved to make tourists' tour more safe and secure.

Cultural and Tourism Integration to Polish the Town Brand

  In recent years, Heshun has integrated the development of culture and tourism, combining tourism development with rich cultural elements, promoting tourism with culture and spreading culture with tourism.

 "As early as 100 or 200 years ago, Heshun people could already eat at the same table with 'outsiders'." A local resident said proudly. A small extroverted society was formed early in Heshun.

 Influenced by merchant culture, the Heshun people began to make a living along the ancient southwest Silk Road in the Ming and Qing dynasties. For more than 2000 years, tengchong became an important post station on the ancient Silk Road due to its early opening up and development. Today, there are 350,000 Chinese living in Tengchong in 23 countries and regions around the world. In this small town with more than 6000 people and more than 1300 households, there are more than the number of overseas Chinese living abroad, throughout Europe, America and Asia more than 10 countries and regions.

 In Heshun, Laundry Pavilion, Library, Yiqun Middle School and Ai Siqi's former residence all carry profound Chinese cultural genes. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Heshun produced more than 400 juren and scholars. It is also the hometown of ai Siqi, a famous philosopher, and Zhang Baoting, the "Jade King". The accumulation of time makes the ancient town culture more and more tension. Many tourists come here to immerse themselves in the tranquil beauty of Heshun Ancient Town and stay there for days at a time. Tourists wander ancient lanes, view ancient houses, read books, and listen to the frogs and birds...

 In recent years, Heshun adheres to the concept of regional tourism development, deeply promotes the construction of tourism standardization, speeds up the quality improvement of scenic spots, and implements the project of "One Mobile Phone Tour in Yunnan". It will continue to improve the tour, accommodation, catering and other tourism supporting services, and launched a river cruise, bamboo raft picture, water curtain light show and other new tourism products. Mabang Post Office is a cultural and creative product store developed in recent years. It has the style of ancient town, unique decoration style, and rich characteristics of postcards, hand books, stamps and various cultural and creative products.

 Innovation is always on the road. Since 2020, beside the Memorial Hall of Ai Siqi in Shuiyi Community, a unique "Nengxinghao courtyard" was built.The academy's name means "why the CPC can, why Marxism can and why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good".A "red book bar" is carefully built here, so that visitors can not only appreciate the artistic conception of Harmony, but also feel the philosophy of harmony.

 On the basis of protection and inheritance, and in line with the concept of innovative development, the cultural and tourism industry is used as a lever to promote rural revitalization, so as to make villagers' living environment better and life happier.Up to now, the town has 96 residential restaurants, 740 shops, 485 inns and hotels, more than 6,000 beds.In 2020, the number of tourists received exceeded 680,000, with a total tourism revenue of 95.88 million yuan.

 All the way running against the wind, all the way singing. On the way to pursue a dream, every frame of struggle is a moving memory. Taking the opportunity of creating 5A scenic spot, Heshun Ancient Town takes sonorous steps to integrate the trickle of Heshun culture into the historical torrent of innovation and development. It also aims to become a more desirable destination for healthy living, accommodating more people's "poetry and distance".

(Source: China Tourism News Du Jiacong/write Liu Zhengfan/Photo)