《1 Development of the cultural tourism industry in the Qinba Mountains region》

1 Development of the cultural tourism industry in the Qinba Mountains region

《1.1 An important vehicle for poverty reduction》

1.1 An important vehicle for poverty reduction

The Qinba Mountains region is one of China’s 14 povertystricken areas, and breakthrough ideas, innovative strategies, as well as development paths and models are required to reduce the number of people that are living in poverty while experiencing ecological protection pressure. The cultural tourism industry attempts to enhance employment and entrepreneurship in the poverty-stricken areas of the Qinba Mountains and solve the problem of poverty in the region.

《1.2 A breakthrough in green development》

1.2 A breakthrough in green development

After 30 years of reform and opening up in China, the national provision of food and clothing has been solved; therefore, spiritual and cultural needs, the living environment, and the pursuit of quality will be the core driving forces to promote development in China and the Qinba Mountains region going forward. Developing the cultural tourism industry is a national strategy, as is the initiative to solve contradictions between mountain protection and development in the Qinba Mountains region. Developing the Qinba cultural tourism industry will promote, integrate, and manage multiple industries and fields of development, including upgrading the dependent-mineral resources industrial area.

《2 Valuable cultural tourism resources in the Qinba Mountains region》

2 Valuable cultural tourism resources in the Qinba Mountains region

《2.1 Types of cultural tourism resources》

2.1 Types of cultural tourism resources

2.1.1 Historical culture resources

The Qinba Mountains region contains rich historical cultural resources spanning a long time and a wide range. These resources include the prehistoric human activity remains represented by Wushan Man and the Yunxian fossils, local cultural relics mainly including the legendary Kingdom of Huaxu in prehistorical times, Chinese culture relics dominated by the legend of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in ancient China, and various dynasties’ historical relics mainly involving several sites of ancient cities and battlefields [1].

After the Wushan Man period two million years ago, the Qinba Mountains region became the core area of ancestors’ activities in ancient times. The Xia dynasty marks the establishment of the national regime; since this time, the Qinba Mountains region has been controlled by ruling dynasties in Central Plains in different ways. Before the Sui and Tang dynasties, China’s political, economic, and cultural center was located in the Qinba Mountains region, making it a core economic region and a central area of ruling dynasties in the Central Plains, leading technology and culture—especially development in Chang’an, Luoyang, Nanyang, Jingzhou, Xiangyang, and other places, that became the best in the nation. However, because of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms chaos, the Qinba Mountains region gradually lost its status as a political center under the force of history, mainly bearing a military defense function and a partial regional economic development function. With the advent of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the Qinba Mountains region’s military defense function also gradually disappeared, and it became a regional economic center, declining from its role as the country’s national economic freight and food production center.

2.1.2 Geographical culture resources

The Qinba Mountains region is located at the intersection of five provinces and one city, and is affected by the regional cultures of various provinces and cities. The thousands of years of mutual influence resulted in a strongly inclusive and unique Qinba culture containing unique regional culture such as the Qin culture, the Ba-Shu culture, and the Chu culture. The surrounding culture in the Qinba Mountains region has a large radius and is influenced by six different regional and national culture types; namely, the Tibetan-Qiang-Yi culture, the Ba-Shu culture, the local Shaanxi culture, the local Longnan culture, the Jing-Chu culture, and the Central Plain culture [2].

2.1.3 Religious culture resources

The Qinba Mountains region, located at the intersection of the west, southwest, and Central Plain—that has been affected by a variety of cultures with regional mountain peaks, quiet scenery, and a land of peace—is an important area for Buddhism, Taoism and other religious activities. Therefore, all forms of religious sites have been discovered in the Qinba Mountains region, including those of Buddhism and Taoism; these sites have a large time span across various dynasties and various types, such as famous mountains (such as the Wudang Mountains, Mount Hua, and the Zhongnan Mountains), grottoes, figures of the Buddha, and temples (Table 1).

《Table 1》

Table 1. Important religious relics in Qinba Mountains region.

2.1.4 Traditional countryside culture resources

Due to the low level of economic development and relatively isolated geographic location of the Qinba Mountains region, modern industrial civilization has little influence on the development of its urbanization. Overall, relatively pristine traditional folk culture and traditional forms of physical spaces remain in most regions—mainly in large and small traditional villages, that include all kinds of historical and cultural towns, villages, and traditional ethnic villages. The traditional rural culture in the Qinba Mountains region includes three unique core aspects. The first is the unique rural layout and regional architectural form. The second is the non-material categories of regional folk culture that is only well preserved in rural areas and can be able to represent many festivals; marriage; and traditional opera, song, and dance in the local domain. This regional culture is embodied at the village level. The third is a traditional country representing the historical background (i.e., the specific performance of all kinds of legends, temples, monuments, and other material or non-material cultural resources).

2.1.5 Seclusion cultures resources

Due to the unique location of the Qinba Mountains region at the furthermost edge—away from the Central Plains’ chaos caused by war and secular interference, with a quiet environment and multiple mountain ranges—in ancient times, the people from the Central Plains fled from the mortal world to come to this place and escape chaos. In addition, numerous scholars attempted to cultivate themselves according to a religious doctrine and reach understanding of “Zen,” or to gather herbs for keeping in good health starting in the Xia and Shang dynasties and going through the Spring and Autumn period, Warring States period, Western Han and Eastern Han dynasties, and Sui and Tang dynasties. This phenomenon gradually formed a unique culture relying on the natural landscape and traditional health technology. The reclusive culture can be divided into four parts: Qinba Mountains reclusive culture circle centered on the Zhongnan Mountains; the Yangtze-Han River reclusive culture circle centered on the Wudang Mountains; Shushan reclusive culture circle centered on the Mount Qingcheng and Mount Emei; and Daba Mountains reclusive cultural circle centered on the Daba Mountains region (Table 2).

《Table 2》

Table 2. Reclusive cultures in different times in the Qinba Mountains region.

《2.2 Strategic role of the Qinba Mountains》

2.2 Strategic role of the Qinba Mountains

The Qinba Mountains, a world-class cultural mountain range, are one of the most important birthplaces of world culture and civilization—including Chinese civilization and the Chinese culture. The Qinba Mountains are the founding father of Chinese civilization; the cultural circle or cultural corridor of the Chinese geographic center; the communication channel for Chinese civilization; and the intersection of various cultures. This region preserves the typical and complete human ecological environment, cultural forms, and rich cultural resources; the Qinba Mountains are a world-famous cultural mountain range in natural and cultural ecology. Located at 37 ºN latitude line, the Qinba Mountains are famous for their splendid history and profound cultural accumulation, as well as the unique-axis status of human civilization. They are ideally situated to provide abundant resources and advantages for the development of the cultural tourism industry.

《2.3 Superior cultural tourism resources》

2.3 Superior cultural tourism resources

The Qinba Mountains region has a full range of rich and colorful cultural tourism resources, including minority and geographical cultures. It demonstrates the depth of the Qinba culture, which includes two world cultural heritage sites, three national historic and cultural cities, 13 national historic and cultural towns, 43 Chinese traditional villages, 65 national intangible cultural heritages, and 44 national key cultural relic protection units. The ecological resources in the Qinba Mountains region are of high grade and large amount, and they comprise a good combination of odd characteristics, diversity, and various types. In this district, there is one world natural heritage site, one world geological park, 40 national nature reserve areas, 61 national forest parks, 12 national geological parks, 11 national wetland parks, seven national scenic areas, and five national water conservancy scenic areas. These resources fully demonstrate the diversity of human resources in Qinba Mountains region, which promptly positions it to become a world ecological and cultural tourism destination.

The Qinba Mountains region is the birthplace of the East Asian prehistoric human and prehistoric civilization, representing the breeding ground of the development of Chinese civilization over a thousand years. The Qinba Mountains region covers various historical and cultural heritages (from the prehistoric era to the Ming and Qing dynasties) over a large time span. Qinba Mountains region is an important communication place for the mutual impact of numerous cultures, including the Central Plain culture, local Shaanxi culture, Jing-Chu culture, Ba-Shu culture, local Longnan culture, and Tibetan-Qiang-Yi culture, which are the six regional folk cultures that reflect the unique characteristics of the national and regional history and customs—and thus the spark of multicultural development—were born in the Qinba Mountains region.

On the one hand, it is the birthplace of Chinese culture, the intersection of the Chinese civilization’s communication channels, and an area with a variety of cultural fusion; it preserves a typical and exhaustive human ecological environment, various cultural forms, and rich cultural resources. On the other hand, the Qinba Mountains region is the Chinese climate boundary from South to North and the watershed of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, which has a good ecological environment and rich natural resources. This region contains the biological gene banks of various species, and it is a biodiversity conservation area and a water conservation area in the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China. The advantageous status of cultural and ecological resources positions in Qinba Mountains region make it become fertile soil to develop cultural tourism and promote Chinese culture.

《3 Strategy for developing cultural tourism in the Qinba Mountains region》

3 Strategy for developing cultural tourism in the Qinba Mountains region

《3.1 Strategic thought》

3.1 Strategic thought

The development of the cultural tourism industry in the Qinba Mountains region is guided by the development ideas —“one core concept, five major development supports.”

“One core concept” implies that the Qinba Mountains region should be made the source of China’s ecological development and the destination of recreation, based on a “national central park group.” “Five major development supports” refers to support for sustainable development of cultural tourism in the Qinba Mountains region by following five major support systems: culture industry development, ecology protection, spatial development, brand and product, and coordination and cooperation mechanism.

《3.2 Strategic goal》

3.2 Strategic goal

Based on the conditions and requirements of cultural tourism development, it is intended that the Qinba Mountains region should be made into an “international ecological tourist resort destination,” “international Chinese multi-culture tourism destination,” “the self-driving adventure tourism paradise,” and so on. This is according to the proposed brand of “Qinba,” which would be the basis of natural ecological tourism and cultural transmission, the core of leisure and folk customs, the supplement to expeditions and athletic sports, and the integration of financial ecology, personalization, and specialization. It attempts to reposition Qinba as the national central park group of China, based on its unique natural and cultural resources.

《3.3 Strategic focus》

3.3 Strategic focus

3.3.1 The national central park system

It is suggested that the Qinba national park standard is devised from four aspects, namely resource condition, ecology preservation, development condition, and management condition), based on the national and international construction standards of national park. The national park system will be established in the Qinba Mountains region with three types of national parks: the natural-oriented national park, the culturaloriented national park, and the cultural landscape-oriented national park. The natural-oriented national park includes the national forest parks, the national geological parks, the national wetland parks, the national nature reserves, and the natural heritage parks. The cultural-oriented national park consists of various ruins, memorial parks, cultural heritages, and cultural relics protection units. The cultural landscape-oriented national park contains co-creation resorts of human and nature, the water conservancy scenic areas and tourist attractions, world cultural and natural heritage sites, and world cultural landscape heritage sites [3]. By analyzing and evaluating existing resources in the Qinba Mountains region, 15 national parks are selected as pilot parks (Table 3).

《Table 3》

Table 3. National pilot parks.

3.3.2 Development of a culture industry

The development of a specialist culture industry will form the basis of this industry, through gathering industrial factors, optimizing industrial layout, perfecting industrial chains and industrial agglomeration, continuing construction of cultural industrial parks and facilities, and collecting the factors of cultural resources and culture industries[4]. According to the local culture resources and by means of collaboration to attract great creation talents, this development seeks to create cultural and artistic products as the content of culture industries in line with the modern demands of aesthetics and consumers.

3.3.3 Promotion of poverty alleviation

The main content of Qinba Mountains’ cultural corridor and cultural protection projects is cultural tourism for poverty alleviation. The fusion of modern agriculture, a beautiful countryside, relaxation, health maintenance, old-age care, development of intangible cultural heritages, arts and crafts, and peasant cooperation, will bring external and indigenous people together to build a new countryside and develop traditional life skills, thereby producing a rural cottage industry.

3.3.4 Development of tourism

To accommodate different groups and demands, a variety of commercial activities, functions, and cultural tourism models are being developed. It is necessary to establish a necklace-like morphological structure, and this structure is based on the traffic axis, cross-border and trans-regional characteristics, and self-driving form, and derived from the combined perspective of traffic, economics, and cultural corridors.

《3.4 Spatial arrangement of the culture industry in the Qinba Mountains region》

3.4 Spatial arrangement of the culture industry in the Qinba Mountains region

3.4.1 Development model

In the Qinba Mountains region, five kinds of cultural heritage resources, namely history, territory, religion, village, and seclusion can be grouped into tangible and intangible cultural resources according to their performance and means of expansion; each of these has a different use and path of industrial development. Regarding the Qinba Mountains industrial park, it is more suitable to rely on the local characteristics of culture and art industry, the long history, the museum, the rich intangible cultural resources, and the huge demands for leisure.

3.4.2 Spatial layout

The Qinba culture tourism spatial layout is intended to form a point, shaft, and plane for the tourism spatial structure. This implies a plate-type tourism spatial structure with “one core, three centers, four large boards, five regional tourism development axes, four Qinba high-quality tourist belts, and multiple supporttype cities.

(1) One core: This refers to the positioning of Xi’an as the core city to promote regional tourism, relying on the status of Xi’an as an international tourism city to attract tourists to Qinba and provide tourism service personnel, capital, and policy benefits.

(2) Three centers: This refers to the positioning of Hanzhoung, Shiyan, and Dazhou as tourism centers with respect to both tourism growth and regional services in the Qinba Mountains region, constructing a small town of high-quality international tourism.

(3) Four large boards: This refers to the removal of administrative barriers to form four tourism boards, involving the tourism board of the Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces; a Qinba ecological tourism board; a Chengdu– Chongqing tourism board; and a Henan–Hubei tourism board. Each of these consists of the integration of different regional resources and fosters cooperation within tourism, resulting in functional tourism boards with different characteristics.

(4) Five regional tourism development axes: These refer to religion and eco-cultural tourism zone (Shennongjia– Luoyang) in Hubei and Henan; three kingdoms cultural tourism zone in Shaanxi and Sichuan (Xi’an–Chengdu); historical cultural and ecological tourism zone in Gansu and Sichuan (Tianshui–Jiuzhaigou); ecological tourism zone in Hanjiang River basin in Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu (Nanyang–Longnan); and historical and eco-cultural tourism zone in Hubei and Shaanxi (Wuhan–Xi’an). These axes function as important nodes to provide contacts in tourism and foster the construction of a tourism channel and a tourism industry cluster in the Qinba Mountains region.

(5) Four high-quality Qinba tourism belt: These tourism belts include the natural tourism belt in Longnan and east Sichuan (Longnan–Wanzhou), the landscape tourism belt in Shaanxi, Chongqing, and Qinba (Dazhou–Ankang– Xi’an), ecological landscape tourism belt in the Danjiangkou (Shangluo–Nanyang), and historical and cultural city tourism belt along the Erenhot–Guangzhou Expressway (Luoyang–Nanyang–Xiangyang).

(6) Multiple support-type cities: The intention is to build a major national tourist destination by integrating the regional secondary tourist centers of Longnan, Guangyuan, Bazhong, Ankang, Shangluo, Xiangyang, and Nanyang. These currently serve as tourism-assisted sectors and are intended to become the growth pole of a section of the tourism industry, based on core tourist attractions and integration of tourism resources.

《3.5 Tourist routes in the Qinba Mountains region》

3.5 Tourist routes in the Qinba Mountains region

Tourist routes in the Qinba Mountains region could be divided into two types: Qinba quality-traveling routes and Qinba theme traveling routes.

3.5.1 Qinba quality-traveling routes

There are four Qinba quality-traveling routes: the Gansu– Sichuan ancient culture and landscape ecological tour, SichuanBashu Three Kingdoms ancient path historical and cultural tours, Shaanxi–Hubei Taoists, famous mountains, and history and culture eco-tour, and Hubei–Henan Shaolin Temple and Wudang Mountains eco-cultural tour.

3.5.2 Qinba theme traveling routes

Qinba theme traveling routes have five lines: the little Jiangnan natural ecological tour in Longnan and east Sichuan, Qinba landscape tour in Han River, Shaanxi–Chongqing Qinba landscape ecology tour, South-to-North Water Diversion science tour, and famous historical and cultural city experience tour.

《4 Suggestions for developing the cultural tourism industry in the Qinba Mountains region》

4 Suggestions for developing the cultural tourism industry in the Qinba Mountains region

《4.1 Realizing “five transformations” in tourism development》

4.1 Realizing “five transformations” in tourism development

Due to the problems experienced while developing tourism in the Qinba Mountains region and the trends of tourism development, the transformation of five aspects should be realized.

4.1.1 The tourism development model

The traditional administrative separation system, which has its own array of tourism development models, will be converted to a regional tourism cooperation system to create an integrated mechanism of regional tourism [5], realizing cooperation and integration of the development of regional tourism with regard to policy, ecological protection, tourism product development and marketing, and tourism infrastructure construction.

4.1.2 The core of tourism development

The Qinba Mountains region is located at the intersection of Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, and Henan provinces, which owns rich tourism resources; however, these resources are concentrated in small towns and rural areas. Tourism development should convert from single city to urban and rural tourism cooperation, enhancing the important role of tourism services in those places.

4.1.3 The tourism exploitation model

With the sustainable development strategy being proposed and the strengthened awareness of people in terms of the protection of ecological resources, a change from a single exploitation to a dual goal of protection and exploitation should be implemented. This will ensure that the Qinba Mountains region’s tourism development will be stable, healthy, and sustainable.

4.1.4 Tourism products

Tourism products will be transformed from traditional products to experience-type, vacation-type, culture-type, and green tourism products; a diversified tourism products system will be constructed to enhance the attractiveness of tourism products and to promote upstream and downstream industry chain development and activate the tourism economy by means of these products.

4.1.5 Methods of tourism marketing

Traditional marketing by travel agencies will be transformed into various co-existing marketing models, which involves the combination of domestic and international marketing, network and traditional marketing, dissemination and special marketing, and marketing and network order to establish the Qinba tourism marketing network and improve the effectiveness of marketing.

《4.2 Establishing the coordination and cooperation mechanism of regional tourism development》

4.2 Establishing the coordination and cooperation mechanism of regional tourism development

An integrated mechanism of regional tourism is required to coordinate various stakeholders; this mechanism should mainly be stated in terms of the following aspects.

4.2.1 Multiple subjects

A cooperative tourism mechanism of “governmental leading, enterprises’ collaboration, industrial promotion, and public participation” will be established to ensure the full functioning of various subjects of tourism development, and to ensure mutual coordination between separate subjects.

4.2.2 Organizational mechanisms

(1) A centralized Qinba office: In the Qinba Mountains region, a centralized Qinba office will be established to promote the sustainable, coordinated, and rapid development of its environment, economy, culture, and society. The purpose is to solve the two problems of funds shortages and transport barriers. The core function is to develop a Qinba tourism developmental strategic plan, establish Qinba tourism-related laws, policies, and regulations which can be used to specify and guide tourism-related behavior of the regional administrative organizations at all levels, tourism enterprises, and other non-governmental organizations, and be responsible for integrated cooperation in this area.

(2) The financing network: Through financial support, integration of capital, and social investment, a financing network for developing tourism in the Qinba Mountains region will be established. This will mainly comprise the construction of five investment platforms to develop the profit-oriented projects of Qinba tourism development: the Qinba tourism development funds, Qinba tourism development special funds, Qinba culture industry development special funds, Qinba ecological tourism construction special funds, and Qinba tourism industrial investment funds.

(3) The “cooperative development foundation”: The foundation model will be adopted to transform the rights of members in the “centralized Qinba office” to shares in the foundation. Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, and Henan should—according to the share allocation annual fund subscription amount and relevant rights and interests of agglomeration in the foundation—build a cooperative development fund for Qinba tourism to fund development and integration in the Qinba Mountains region and maintain the sustainability of cooperative development.

(4) A tourism industry associations: A nonprofit, transdepartment, and non-ownership industry association will be established to implement industrial services and self-discipline in different departments and the systems of ownership in the Qinba Mountains region. This association will comprise enterprises, public institutions, and related economic organizations engaged in tourism development, tourist attractions, travel agencies, restaurants, tourism education, tourist team reception, tourism information.

(5) “Qinba tourism forum”: A “Qinba tourism forum” will be established to discuss and release government-oriented policies and opinions, which are related to hot spots and difficult issues, such as resource utilization and protection, urban economic development, major infrastructure construction, industrial structure adjustment, enterprise development, environmental development, and the regional integration system construction in the Qinba Mountains region.