A 2,000-year-old Chinese City gets Promoted

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SHIJIAZHUANG, China, Sept. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Organized by Shijiazhuang Tourism Development Committee, a three-day travel promotion conference wrapped up on Sept. 4 in Zhengding, an ancient city of Hebei province in northern China.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/553092/Zhaozhou_Bridge.jpg

It came as the local authorities doubled its efforts to transform its smoke-stack economy into an eco-friendly one.

Zhengding, a 2,000-year-old city under the provincial capital city of Shijiazhuang, is to be built into China's cultural center and a famous travel destination, as well as a pastoral city of historical significance.

Three mascots have been publicized in the conference, namely "Youyou", "Zhenzhen","Dingding".

Zhengding is a national famous historical and cultural city with many famous cultural relics such as three mountains which you cannot see, nine bridges under where water does not flow, nine gateways (four gatehouses, four turrets and Yanghe building), four towers, eight temples and twenty-four gold arches. There are nine cultural relics under national-level protection, five cultural relics under provincial protection, 24 cultural relics under county-level protection and 7,000 pieces of cultural relics collection in this city. History reserves many beautiful symbols in this ancient and magical land, Longcangsi Temple inscription in Sui Dynasty, clock tower in Tang Dynasty, complete Song Dynasty buildings, four old pagodas built in Tang Dynasty and a large number of buildings built in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty demonstrating continuous development of nine dynasties, which are praised by Mr. Liang Sicheng as "the treasure-house of ancient art".

The ancient city's transformation started over 30 years ago when Chinese President Xi Jinping, then Zhengding's chief, presided over building a traditional Chinese-style mansion which can be used as a base for TV series production.

Investors from over 20 provinces in China, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, Morocco and Canada were invited to participate the conference.

A travel fair was launched, large live performances and Chinese ancient theatrical performances were put on the stage during the conference. The country's top travel industry experts gathered to offer suggestions for the city's development.

In addition, the provincial authorities boost Zhengding's travel industry by increasing train services. From May 15, the trains that stop at Zhengding station increased to 30, and will reach 34 in peak time. Since July, the prime time of travel, an average of 15,000 tourists have visited Zhengding per day, three times the same period of last year.

Many other tourist destinations around Shijiazhuang city are also promoted in the conference. Shijiazhuang is only one hour and twenty minutes' ride by high-speed train from Beijing, making it convenient to travel between the two cities.

One of these famous scenery is Zhaozhou Bridge, which is also known as Anji Bridge, an engineering wonder constructed in the 7th century. It is regarded as the oldest stone-arched bridge in the world.

The bridge is about 50 meters long, 7.3 meters high with a width of 9 meters. The span of its large stone arch in the middle measures 37.37 meters - the world's largest arch at that time.

Another have-to-go place is Xibaipo, one of the most famous revolutionary places in China. From May 1948 to March 1949, the Communist Party of China set up its headquarters in this village.

The travel promotion conference is the first of its kind in Shijiazhuang.

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