Cherry flowers inject vigor into rural tourism

Green mountains are gold mountains and silver mountains. A sound ecology and environment is not just a natural asset, but also an economic asset, and it affects the potential and momentum of economic and social development.

——Excerpt from Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the Leaders' Summit of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Winter cherry trees bloom in Nanjian Yi Autonomous County, west Yunnan's Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture. (Photo/Yunnan Daily)  

Blooming cherry flowers inject vitality into rural tourism

Since the mid-December of last year, the winter-flowering cherry trees enter their prime blooming season in Nanjian Yi Autonomous County, west Yunnan's Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture. The beautiful scenery has been drawing continuous flow of tourists, injecting vitality into the development of local catering, hospitality and retail sectors.

“The high tourism season stretches from the end of November to beginning of January in Nanjian. Last season, my restaurant received 70 to 80 tourists a day,” said Li Ruxian, the owner of Yinghua Restaurant where both catering and hospitality services are provided. The restaurant can provide rooms for 30 tourists and accommodate 200 persons dining at the same time, creating an annual income of 100,000 yuan.

 

Winter cherry trees bloom in Nanjian county, west Yunnan's Dali. (Photo/Yunnan Daily) 

In 2012, Nanjian started to develop cherry flower tourism. Since then, Li Xianru has been involved in the rural tourism development. After the prime tourism season, he sold local tea and other featured products, which bring him 500,000 to 600,000 yuan a year. In Nanjian, tea has been a local industry for generation. There are ancient tea trees growing in the county, with 1,000-plus of them being over 200 years old.

In 2016, Li set up an ancient tea processing cooperative which now has 28 members and creates an output of 1,000 tons of tea. “Our tea has been sold to many other Chinese provinces like Fujian and Guangdong, and even to Myanmar and South Korea.”As the cherry flower tourism booms, 50 homestay inns have been established in Nanjian, creating an annual income of 50,000 to 200,000 yuan. Besides, featured produce also bring income to locals.

 

Winter cherry trees bloom in Nanjian county, west Yunnan's Dali. (Photo/Yunnan Daily) 

Reporting by Qin Menglin (Yunnan Daily); Trans-editing by Zu Hongbing