{"id":2113,"date":"2015-10-02T17:17:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T17:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2015\/10\/02\/china-transform-xinjiang-tourism-hub-silk-road-economic-belt\/"},"modified":"2015-10-02T17:17:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T17:17:50","slug":"china-transform-xinjiang-tourism-hub-silk-road-economic-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/china-transform-xinjiang-tourism-hub-silk-road-economic-belt\/","title":{"rendered":"China to transform Xinjiang into tourism hub for Silk Road Economic Belt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>China is set to spend millions of dollars to boost tourism development in Xinjiang before 2020, as it aims to turn the restive region into a tourism hub for the Silk Road Economic Belt.<\/p>\n<p>By Jeremy Koh, Channel NewsAsia<br \/>\nPOSTED: 02 Oct 2015 12:27<br \/>\nUPDATED: 02 Oct 2015 12:48<\/p>\n<p>TURPAN, China: Hajjah Han and her family used to grow grapes for a living until about a year ago, when she converted her house in Turpan, east of Xinjiang, into a &quot;nongjiale&quot;. It is a Chinese version of tourism farmhouse, where food and lodging is offered to visitors.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;After we started the farm tours, our income has increased by another 10,000 yuan (US$1,570) a year. We&rsquo;ve used the money to renovate our kitchen and rooms. Our lives have gotten better,&rdquo; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The move came after local officials earmarked the area around her home to be developed for tourism. It is located only a short drive away from Turpan&#39;s popular tourist destinations such as the ancient ruined city of Jiaohe and the Flaming Mountains.<\/p>\n<p>Although Turpan is one of the hottest places in China, with temperatures in summer reaching almost 50&deg;C, the city serves as an important stop along the ancient Silk Road. According to local officials, nearly five million visitors visit the ancient city every year.<\/p>\n<p><video width=\"620\" controls=\"\"><br \/><source src=\"http:\/\/docs.uyghuramerican.org\/videos\/China-to-transform-Xinjiang-into-tourism-hub.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\"><br \/><\/source><\/video><\/p>\n<p>Still, Turpan has been affected by the unrest in parts of Xinjiang, an autonomous region northwest of China and home to various ethnic mirnorities such as the Uighurs.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, a terrorist attack in a township here resulted in 35 deaths. Last year, bomb and knife attacks were reported last year in nearby Urumqi, Xinjiang&#39;s capital.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, local tourism operators are working hard to keep the tourists coming.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;These two years, especially under conditions which are not favourable to the growth of the tourism industry, we&rsquo;ve managed to turn it around through our own efforts such as coming up with something special, be it cultural or traditional,&rdquo; said Zhang Hujing, General Manager of Turpan Unified Tourism Company.<\/p>\n<p>Local officials in Kuqa in southern Xinjiang, the Uighur heartland, are also working hard to boost tourism figures, following a string of bomb attacks in 2008 which has badly affected China&#39;s tourism industry.<\/p>\n<p>This year, however, tourist numbers are set to rise by another 10 per cent as compared to last year, despite the unrest plaguing parts of the region.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Even though there are some human factors, but through our concerted efforts, the growth of the tourism industry here is rather good this year,&rdquo; said Tan Guanguo, Director of the Kuqa County Tourism Bureau.<\/p>\n<p>For China, economic development is the key to stability in restive Xinjiang, with the labour-intensive tourism industry promising a large number of jobs for the locals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; CNA\/pp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China is set to spend millions of dollars to boost tourism development in Xinjiang before 2020, as it aims to turn the restive region into a tourism hub for the Silk Road Economic Belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2113"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}