Space-themed tourism is getting increasingly popular in China's northern regions including Gansu and Inner Mongolia, where local landscapes resembling Mars provide a unique opportunity for space enthusiasts to fulfill their dream of space exploration.
Known for its vast Gobi Desert, Gansu's Jinchang City has built a Mars Simulation Survival Experience Center to resonate with its Mars-like outdoors scenery.
The center includes nine modules such as the main control cabin, biological cabin, and medical cabin, simulating the living and research conditions for astronauts on Mars. Visitors can walk through airlocks and the main control cabin to reach the biological cabin, where they can observe how vegetables are grown on Mars and taste various space foods.
The center also allows tourists to participate in different trainings that simulate that of astronauts, such as high-g training and rotating training.
"That centrifugal training simulation was hard to handle, now I get to know how hard the trainings were for astronauts," said a visitor. The center also offers science camps for children, allowing them to learn about space through hands-on activities such as environmental surveys, Mars farming, and rocket design.
In Inner Mongolia's Ulanqab, the Wulanhada volcano group scenic area creates an otherworldly atmosphere, attracting numerous tourists dressed in spacesuits to take photos.
The space enthusiasts rent astronaut costumes from stores like the one managed by Tu Muse, booming her daily revenue,
"The [rental fee for astronaut costume] is 80 yuan (about 11 U.S. dollars) per hour. The daily income can be around 7,000-8,000 yuan (about 977-1,117 U.S. dollars)," said costume renter Tu Muse.
The space-themed tourism has not only boosted the spacesuit rental market but also the booking of local hotels and sales of specialty foods.
"We can receive nearly 300 tourists every day, and the daily revenue can reach around 27,000-28,000 yuan (about 3,771-3,911 U.S. dollars)," said Yin Fengxian, general manager of a local guest house company.
Data from Ctrip showed a 59 percent year-on-year increase in ticket orders for space-related attractions in China, and a 48 percent increase in holiday travel product orders related to space and rockets.
Space-themed tourism gets popular in China's Gansu, Inner Mongolia
The 2024 Understanding China Conference opened in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, on Tuesday, with the focus on Chinese modernization and new opportunities for the world.
This year's conference, themed "Carry through the Reform to the End -- Chinese Modernization and New Opportunities for World Development," has brought together over 600 participants including politicians, officials, scholars, foreign envoys and media representatives.
Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony, reading out President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter to the conference and delivering a keynote speech.
Xi said in the letter that to understand China, one needs to understand China's efforts to further deepen reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization.
Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, also addressed the opening ceremony.
Participants in the event agreed that Xi's congratulatory letter, elucidating the great significance of China's further comprehensive deepening of reform to advance Chinese modernization and demonstrating China's firm resolve to work with other countries around the world to embark on the path to modernization and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, provides an important guidance for successful convening of the conference.
Since the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013, China's comprehensive deepening of reform in the new era has achieved significant results, injecting strong impetus into the promotion of Chinese modernization, said the participants.
Facts have proved that reform and opening up have not only fostered China's development, but also benefited the world at large, they added.
The third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee in 2024, featuring new arrangements for deepening reform comprehensively and measures for expanding high-level opening-up, will surely promote steady and long-term development of Chinese modernization, create more opportunities for the development of all countries, and inject more stability and positive energy into the world, according to the participants.
Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, also attended the opening ceremony.
The event, running until Wednesday, will feature six parallel seminars, 14 thematic forums, two closed-door panel discussions, and exhibitions showcasing achievements of China's modernization efforts, according to the event's organizers.
The conference will also focus on the economic vitality and potential of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area city cluster in south China as a key driver of Chinese modernization and explore development opportunities across various industries in the context of the digital intelligence era, the low-altitude economy, and new quality productive forces.
Other topics will include the protection and inheritance of historical and cultural heritage in the context of modernization, as well as South-South cooperation.
This year's event is co-hosted by the China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs and the Guangdong provincial government.
2024 Understanding China Conference highlights reform, shared development
