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Great travel gets better
发布时间:2019年01月23日 22:24:21  来源: China Daily
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Ancient buildings in the Old Town of Lijiang. [PHOTO BY YANG ZHENG/XU JIAN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Yunnan province continues to upgrade its tourism options with apps, 'smart toilets' and improved farmhouse visits. Xu Lin and Li Yingqing report. 

Visitors to Yunnan can not only use a phone app to locate restrooms but also to know the stall and urinal availability, air quality and temperature of the province's "smart toilets".

The app Youyunnan, which literally means "traveling in Yunnan", is part of the province's push to advance smart tourism to upgrade the sector in ways that contribute to ecological-civilization construction and rural revitalization.

It was released on Oct 1, 2018, which is the first day of the annual, weeklong National Day holiday.

App users can check the number of tourists at each attraction in real time, watch livestreams in scenic spots and purchase discounted entrance tickets.

They can also be assured of the travel agencies and services found on the app, since they've passed quality assessments to be included on the platform.

Kunming's Stone Forest, a UNESCO Global Geopark. [PHOTO BY YANG ZHENG/XU JIAN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Posters of the app's QR code are ubiquitous in Yunnan's scenic areas.

Tourists can also use the app to make complaints to tourism authorities. The average resolution time is six hours and 45 minutes.

"Destinations across Yunnan are responding to the provincial government's call to strengthen tourism's transformation and upgrades in different ways," Yunnan's culture and tourism department head He Ligui says.

"Yunnan is also striving to eradicate low-cost group tours with hidden traps like forced shopping, with remarkable success. Such illegal phenomena are hardly seen in scenic spots now."

The provincial government adopted 22 measures to improve the tourism market in April 2017. About 780 complaints were made to authorities across the province in 2018, a decrease of 53 percent compared with 2017.

In 2018, Lijiang city investigated and handled 2,624 violations in the tourism market and issued fines totaling 19.4 million yuan ($2.86 million).

Drink prices in Lijiang's old town's bars dropped 40 percent during the period.

The government of Yunnan's Dali Bai autonomous prefecture undertook a campaign to curb pollution starting in 2017.

A visitor feeds sea gulls at Erhai Lake in the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture. [PHOTO BY YANG ZHENG/XU JIAN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

All restaurants and hotels around Erhai Lake's core area were closed. Some businesses that meet environmental-protection standards were reopened, starting in May 2018.

"I enjoy Dali's pleasant climate and Erhai Lake," says tourist Li Zixuan.

"I'm impressed the lake's water is cleaner than what I saw in my previous trips."

Kunming's Stone Forest was recognized as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2004.

It has built new scenic spots in recent years, such as a geology museum with fossils and other incredible formations, and the Xinglin Grand View Garden, where visitors can learn about traditional Chinese medicine.

Qiubei county's Puzhehei is known for its karsts, lakes and wetlands.

Puzhehei means "a pond teaming with fish and shrimp" in ethnic Yi people's language. It has become a popular destination after such Chinese TV series as Eternal Love were filmed there.

The Sani branch of the Yi ethnic group inhabits Xianrendong village.

Residents used to fish and work the land. Nearly all households today run guesthouses or restaurants, which has produced prosperity.

Average per capita net income among the 941 villagers reached 40,000 yuan in 2018, roughly seven times 2012's figure. They earned less than 300 yuan a year two decades ago.

Puzhehei has become a popular destination after such Chinese TV series as Eternal Love were filmed there. [PHOTO BY YANG ZHENG/XU JIAN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

Village head Fan Chengyuan recalls the village's guestroom prices ranged from 50 to 80 yuan in 2012.

It's now 400 to 1,000 yuan.

Villagers initially built guesthouses in different styles that clashed.

Fan realized in 2012 that visitors didn't like the cheap rooms and that the accommodation options should change.

Village officials visited rural destinations across China to learn from their successes. They soon devised an improvement plan.

They held a meeting to explain the plan to locals and showed blueprints designed to make it easy for them to understand.

The government offered compensation and preferential loans.

Villagers join the program of their own free will and rebuilt guesthouses in accordance with the blueprints, to ensure the architecture's style is in line with conventions of the Yi ethnic group.

Most old buildings were dismantled and reconstructed on the same sites.

Fan says he was the first to undergo the experiment.

He lost about 2 million yuan initially.

His mother cried when their three-floor guesthouse was pulled down, he says.

But he promised that it'd bring a better future.

A tourist scans the QR code for the phone app, Youyunnan, while traveling in the province. [PHOTO BY YANG ZHENG/XU JIAN/FOR CHINA DAILY]

With a bank loan, he spent 2.8 million yuan constructing a new guesthouse, which brings in an annual income of 2 million yuan.

Guests enjoy rooms decorated with wooden and ethnic elements, and music in a "speakeasy".

The final six households recently joined the project.

"They were the richest but made the least amount of money in recent years," Fan says.

"Tourists prefer to stay in the new guesthouses."

The village also improved infrastructure. It built a new sewage plant that processes 600 cubic meters of wastewater per day.

The ratio of external tourism investment is restricted to prevent over-commercialization, Fan says.

Locals run about 70 percent of guesthouses.

"We may not be well-educated," he says.

Fan never went beyond middle school.

"But we're working to learn online marketing and other skills."

Indeed, Yunnan is upgrading its appeals-in every sense.

Contact the writers at xulin@chinadaily.com.cn(By Xu Lin/Li Yingqing)

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