Jilin turns revolutionary legacies into cultural tourism destinations

Siping Battle Memorial Hall in Siping city, Jilin province, is one of the most famous revolutionary legacies in the province. During the just-concluded summer vacation, many parents took their children there to learn about the historic Siping Battle.

Now as a revolutionary education base, Siping Battle Memorial Hall has done a lot towards better public understanding of the revolutionary history of Siping city.

"We have improved our tour guide services, offering different introductions to different groups of tourists so they can all more easily learn about that period of history," said Li Xiufeng, director of the memorial hall.

The memorial hall has also selected 100 stories about the Siping Battle to tell tourists, according to Li.

Since August 2020, the site has received 360,000 tourists.

"In addition, we have launched books and comic strips about the battle as well as cultural products to enable tourists to better learn about the battle," Li added.

Siping Battle Memorial Hall is just one of the revolutionary sites that are vigorously developing red tourism in Jilin.

The Red Rock National Forest Park in Huadian city is located at what used to be the site of a secret barrack of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, and now has become a popular destination for leisure tourism.

"In recent years, by pursuing both red tourism and green development, our scenic area has seen booming development," said Zheng Xiaoran, general director of the forest park.

In Jingyu county, tour routes with local characteristics have been developed, based on such eco destinations as the Baishan Lake Renyi Scenic Area and the Bishuichuan Eco Park, and the quality of red tourism have been improved comprehensively.

"Jingyu county is rich in revolutionary legacies as well as eco resources, so we are turning this advantage into a tourism brand that promotes our county's image as a birthplace of hero and an area with strong mineral water and medical material industries and rich eco tour resources. By so doing, we aim to integrate the development of red and eco tourism," said Sun Lijun, a tourism official of Jingyu county.

Jingyu county is also actively building the National Youth Education Center for Revolutionary Traditions, Changbai Mountain, which is expected to integrate the utilization of red tourism resources nearby, according to Sun.

Ma'anshan village in Changchun city, a former site of activities for the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, is another example of Jilin's tourism industry developing red tourism and eco tourism in synergy.

Each holiday, a large number of tourists go there to learn about the local revolutionary history and experience the ecological charm and folk customs as well, the potential of which has been vigorously tapped in recent years.

As demonstrated by the above-mentioned sites, revolutionary legacies have now become featured cultural resources for Jilin, a province that is home to 269 old revolutionary sites, 541 memorial facilities for martyrs, 28 revolutionary memorial halls and museums, and 90 relics that serve as warnings against war atrocities. This year, 23 red destinations in Jilin were selected into the national list of 100 red tourism routes.

A distinctive well-structured plan for the protection and development of revolutionary cultural relics in Jilin has been initially formed, said Zhang Lijun, head of the unit of revolutionary cultural relics of the Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

Meanwhile, Jilin has revised its red tourism development plan to incorporate the content of its plan for the protection and development of revolutionary cultural relics, according to Zhang.

In 2019, Jilin held a red tourism-themed tour guide recitation contest to encourage tour guides to hone their skills for telling revolutionary stories.

In recent years, Jilin's red tourism market has been constantly on the rise. By the end of 2020, red tourism visitors to the province reached 24.65 million.