Hong'an is building a red tourism circle. One by one, the roads through the mountains and villages have opened a way to the world for the people of the old revolutionary base area. Nowadays, Qiliping Town has changed from its past "dirty, messy, and poor" situation, adding 50,000 square meters of urban green space. The cement road from the town area to Mount Taitai's tourist highway can directly reach each administrative village. Smooth main roads and charming characteristic tourism projects not only attract tourists from all over to come into the mountains but also promote the development of mountainous area services.
Currently, Hong'an's rural tourism has developed a series of rustic and natural rural tourism projects filled with rich local flavors, including "farmhouse" accommodation and food, handicraft production and sales, natural landscape sightseeing, summer resorts, and pastoral life experiences, which are favored by a wide range of tourists, significantly increasing villagers' incomes.
Rural tourism has also driven the adjustment and optimization of Hong'an County’s agricultural industrial structure, promoting the development of distinctive agriculture. Many towns have vigorously developed characteristic agriculture, forming a series of agricultural sightseeing tourism products featuring "flower-covered mountains and fruit-filled seas," becoming highlights and features of rural tourism. In 2008, Hong'an realized an average income increase of nearly 500 yuan per person through the development of red tourism.
"Revolutionary old base areas are extremely rich in red tourism resources, and developing red tourism can effectively accelerate the pace of poverty alleviation and wealth creation for the people of the old revolutionary base areas." Lei Dian told reporters that the next step is to promote market-oriented operations in scenic areas, advance the intensive operation and development of the tourism industry, extend the product chain, service chain, and operation chain of tourism products, and make Dabie Mountain a top-class red tourism base nationwide.
In the Taitai Mountain scenic area of Hong'an County, vehicles loaded with tourists move continuously along winding mountain roads, and elegant and novel farmhouse inns in the hills are very attractive.
"In 2005, when the scenic area management office was established, households did not have multi-story buildings, but now, one-third of the households have built them." Speaking about the tremendous changes in the lives of the people in the old revolutionary base area, Hong'an County Party Secretary Xiong Liangxiao expressed deep emotion. For many years, due to relatively poor transportation conditions within the scenic area, with sharp bends and steep slopes on the roads, this affected the development of tourism in the old revolutionary base area. Today, the tourism industry brings nearly 200 million yuan in tourism revenue annually to Hong'an County and drives the rapid development of the county's tourism service industry.
"Based on the actual situation of Taitai Mountain, we rely on the mountains for sustenance and utilize water resources wisely. Relying on abundant mountain and water resources, we vigorously develop distinctive tourism, allowing the tourism industry to boost the economic development of the scenic area, thus generating significant economic benefits." Xiong Liangxiao introduced that the Hong'an County government has invested more than 80 million yuan in scenic area planning and construction and continues to improve infrastructure construction within the scenic area. Currently, the scenic area has formed a "one vertical and one horizontal" loop tourism route covering a total length of 52 kilometers and has developed tourism sites such as Tonghe River rafting, Taitai Mountain main peak attractions, Ai River scenic valley, and Xiangshan Lake.
"On weekends, there are particularly many tourists, so we need to prepare for reception early. Running a restaurant in the mountains yields an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan, which is no worse than working in coastal areas." Early in the morning, Pan Tao, a villager from Caoxiedian Village, Qiliping Town, Hong'an County, started his day's work. Holidays today have become days that local villagers look forward to. Boating on Xiangshan Lake and rafting on Tonghe River attract tourists from surrounding areas like Wuhan and Xin County in Henan Province, bringing substantial income to the villagers.
"In the first half of this year, the entire town received 460,000 tourists, achieving a comprehensive tourism income of 800 million yuan." Li Changyu, the party secretary of Qiliping Town, Hong'an County, excitedly said, "Currently, we are accelerating the construction of both software and hardware facilities in the town area, striving for integration between the city and the scenic area, where red and green complement each other."
Qiliping Town preserves 37 national key cultural relics under protection, with abundant red tourism resources and unparalleled green ecological resources. Fully utilizing this advantage, Qiliping Town has established the development concept of constructing a famous red tourism town.
"While brightening up tourist attractions, we must coordinate the infrastructure construction of the scenic area and the town area." Huanggang City Tourism Bureau Director Lei Dian introduced that to create a red tourism economic circle in the Dabie Mountains, Huanggang City has continuously increased its investment in infrastructure construction, investing 3 billion yuan to renovate and construct more than 200 kilometers of red tourism highways in the Dabie Mountains, connecting more than ten red tourism attractions, and establishing cross-regional red tourism channels with Xin County in Henan, Jinzhai in Anhui, and Yuxi, among others.