The 2024 China Culture and Tourism Industries Exposition started in north China's Tianjin Municipality on Friday, featuring the participation of over 2,000 culture and tourism enterprises.
The four-day event, hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, aims to display the vitality of China's culture and tourism industries and promote the high-quality development of such industries.
The expo comprises nine main exhibition halls, covering a total exhibition area of 150,000 square meters.
Popular tourist destinations and cultural tourism products from all parts of China have been represented.
A hundred of popular travelers from the United States, Italy, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and other countries were also drawn by the rich cultural experiences and tourism projects presented at the event.
"I was most impressed by those dance performances, because we can share the experience of the cultural aspect," said a Vietnamese tourist.
The expo also establishes a new platform for trading and one-to-one matchmaking, which has attracted foreign companies to seek cooperation opportunities in China.
"We can see a lot of increasing requests from French tourists to come to China. Also, the 15-day visa-free policy implemented last year is really helping also to attract more people, both for business, but also for tourism," said Guillaume Hubert de Fraisse, CEO of Falux Group.
"Nowadays, 'tourism-plus' has become a new direction for our tourism industry. Through the integration and combination of tourism and other fields, the tourism industry can be extended and achieve greater development," said Zhu Yihai, representative of Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.
Over 2,000 enterprises participate in expo on China's culture, tourism industries
Flower breeding and cultivation bases across China are actively promoting new and healthier varieties of flowering trees and plants, helping create a brighter future for the country's famous springtime scenery.
In a peach blossom scenic area in Changde City of central China's Hunan Province, more than 50 varieties of peach blossoms are in full bloom, attracting flocks of visitors.
The varieties in the area come from the national peach germplasm resource bank in the city. Through artificial cultivation, not only are the varieties of flowers increasing, but the flowering period is also being extended.
According to researchers, one of the star varieties, noted for its rich color, took nearly 16 years to cultivate and promote in the scenic area.
"Its biggest feature is its strong resistance to gummosis. We can see that although a branch like this is damaged, there is no gummosis, so it has a long lifespan and can be used in gardens for a longer time," said Wang Yan, professor of the province's Changde Vocational and Technical College.
Gummosis is the formation of gummy substances on the surface of the trees, which often result from dead tissue.
At Phalaenopsis World, the country's largest phalaenopsis tissue culture center in Suqian City in east China's Jiangsu Province, technicians are cutting phalaenopsis seedlings into thin slices and planting them one by one in transparent bottles, allowing them to multiply exponentially.
"The breeding cycle is short, and the light, temperature and humidity can be freely adjusted artificially. The phalaenopsis bred using this technology have high uniformity and fast growth rate," said Wang Yanting, a plant inoculation specialist at the cultivation center.
Researchers said that the planting center uses more than 200 smart sensors and 5G technology to accurately control growth factors such as temperature, humidity, light, and ventilation to achieve "timed flowering."
"In fact, the natural flowering period of phalaenopsis should be from the beginning of the Chinese New Year to early May, and this is its natural state. Now we can intervene with technology and make it bloom any day we want. Phalaenopsis blooms through temperature regulation. At this time, we need to use air conditioning equipment, constant temperature equipment and dehumidification equipment," said Cao Guofeng, director of the cultivation base.
Breeding bases across China promote new spring flower varieties
