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Tongxiang in East China's Zhejiang province has vigorously promoted the construction of scenic spots throughout the city in recent years.

Efforts have been made to create unique cultural tourism routes in rural areas, and promote all-region tourism — the concept of an entire region as a tourist destination — centering on "one river and four towns". They refer to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the towns of Wuzhen, Puyuan, Chongfu and Shimen, with each developing its own distinctive features.

Beside the Ruyi Bridge in Wuzhen, the scene of a family enjoying dinner with rattan chairs, cattail leaf fans, delicious dishes and a watermelon chilled for hours in cold water in a well offers tourists a unique experience during the hot summer days.

This year, Wuzhen has launched a series of activities with the theme of "staying cool at night in summer". They integrate diverse elements of local lifestyles, retro aesthetics and fashion trends, in a bid to meet the needs of different age groups and visitors from various regions.

Additionally, the Wuzhen Theatre Festival has become another reason the ancient town has been such an attraction for tourists.

Over the past decade, the festival has been held for nine sessions and become a significant cultural tourism brand in Tongxiang. It was also selected as an outstanding cultural industry innovation case of Zhejiang in 2021.

Through the "theater plus ancient town" model, Tongxiang continues to develop a new pattern to better integrate culture and tourism in Wuzhen.

The town of Puyuan, which has a history of producing some of the most valued silk in China, is striving to set a new bench mark for ancient town tourism by hosting fashion-related events.

On April 24, under the theme of "weaving wisdom for the future", Puyuan Fashion Week kicked of in the ancient town, exploring the mutual empowerment between leisure tourism and the fashion industry. The fashion week started with the Vera Wang Haute show held at Fushan Temple, which boasts a history of nearly 1,000 years. Models in Western-style wedding dresses gracefully emerged from the ancient Chinese building, blending Eastern and Western aesthetics in one space.

Fashion designer Masha Ma said during the event that Puyuan provided more possibilities to the fashion industry, including inspiration for designers and enhanced interactions between fashion and people on various levels.

The five-day event included multiple fashion shows, forums, original design exhibitions and trade fairs, attracting more than 50,000 visitors.

In recent years, Tongxiang has continuously amplified its local cultural advantages, leveraging resources such as Jiangnan (south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River) culture, poetry culture, celebrity culture and internet culture to promote the integration of culture and tourism in depth and breadth.

Yu Huiyou, Party secretary of Tongxiang, said: "The most touching and proudest achievement in 2023 was that the city successfully hosted three major events within just one month." They are the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, the World Internet Conference, and the awarding ceremony of the Mao Dun Literature Award, one of China's top literature awards.

These events have "significantly enhanced Tongxiang's reputation, prestige and influence", Yu noted.

Last year, the city hosted more than 400 meetings, exhibitions, competitions and shows, attracting participation from more than 500,000 people. The convention and exhibition economy has now become a distinctive feature of Tongxiang's industrial development.

According to the city government, Tongxiang will put more focus on project construction in the coming years, advancing projects like the Art Center of Feng Zikai (1898-1975), a pioneer of modern Chinese comic and cartoon art, and the National Grand Canal Cultural Park.

The city will also promote the innovative integration of culture tourism with commerce, agriculture, health care, sports, education and other industries, and cultivate consumption brands pertaining to food, cultural creative products, markets, performances and minsu (Chinese-style bed-and-breakfast).

Melding heritage and modernity

An increasing number of cultural venues have become indispensable spaces for community activities in Tongxiang city, demonstrating the unique charm of the local landscape that combines ancient legacies with modern life.

Tongxiang boasts rich historical heritage including the Liangzhu culture, a regional civilization that originated in the Yangtze River Delta region between 3300 and 2300 BC, the Majiabang culture, an important Neolithic culture that existed in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, the canal culture and ancient towns.

Yu said that in recent years, the city has been ramping up efforts to enhance its cultural soft power.

Tongxiang has six State-owned cultural and museum venues: Tongxiang Museum, Mao Dun Memorial Hall, Feng Zikai Memorial Hall, Juntao Art Institute, Zhong Xuzhou Coin Art Museum, and the Wu Peng Art Institute. Tongxiang Museum's collections include categories such as stoneware, pottery, jade, boneware, bronze ware, ironware, porcelain, gold and silverware, bamboo and wooden artifacts, calligraphy and painting, folk customs and photographs. Since its establishment, the museum has always focused on the research of local history and culture, possessing professional talents in history, archaeology, fine arts and photography.

In 2013, the Tongxiang Cultural Center, which integrates six venues including a cultural center, museum, intangible cultural heritage hall, and comic hall, opened to the public, providing residents with a public space to enjoy a cultural feast and a tourist destination to explore the arts. In 2018, Tongxiang launched the Bo Hong Urban Study Room project.

Today, the city has formed a three-tiered reading system in urban and rural areas, covering the city library, town branches, Bo Hong study rooms, campus study rooms and mobile libraries.

Cultural halls in Tongxiang standing in the rural fields not only bear the memories of local history, but also serve as "spiritual homes" for villagers, providing a place for rest and emotional solace through various cultural activities.

The city is home to 27 five-star and 28 four-star cultural halls and over 1,200 New Era Civilization Practice Centers. Currently, residents can reach a life circle within a 10-minute walk from their homes, enjoying diverse and convenient public services at cultural centers, community gyms and other venues.

Ancient towns are also the most distinctive cultural symbols of Tongxiang. The Puyuan Ancient Town, a golden tourism brand of the local region, focuses on inheriting historical cultures, preserving the original street layout, and creating a top destination that integrates sightseeing, folk experiences, cultural leisure and industrial innovation.

"Accelerating the micro-renovation and fine improvement projects requires meticulous skills, which are reflected not only in renovation, but also in the preservation and inheritance of cultural heritage and the integration of tradition and fashion," said Gu Shouju, deputy head of the Tong xiang bureau of culture, radio, television, tourism and sports.

"Our goal is to make tourism more exquisite in experience, more refined in facilities, more beautiful in scenery, more attentive in service and more meticulous in operation. In this process, we must focus on cultural heritage and improve the living environment, allowing the city to retain its memory and people to remember their hometown," Gu said.

Tongxiang's ICH, with a history spanning thousands of years, continues to thrive in the modern era. Every year during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, many people attend the lively Shuangmiao Silkworm Flower Water Festival in Qinghe village, Zhouquan town.

Historically, silkworm farmers in Zhouquan organized folk activities to worship the "silkworm goddess" during the Tomb Sweeping Day to pray for a good harvest, a tradition that has continued for more than 800 years. The event is usually held at a wide water surface.

As the highlight of the annual silkworm flower water festival, the national ICH — high-pole boat performance — attracts a great deal of attention. The unique feature of this show is the acrobatics performed on a pole standing on a boat navigating the river. Originating from the Jiangnan silkworm culture and performed to pray for favorable weather, this water-based form of acrobatics was listed in the third batch of national ICH items in May 2011.

To date, Tongxiang has one UNESCO ICH project, namely the Tongxiang silkworm culture; three national-level projects of mountain silkworm flower pressing, high-pole boat performance and blue calico dyeing; and 22 provincial-level, 82 Jiaxing city-level and 146 county-level projects, as well as two national-level inheritors, 21 provincial-level, 89 Jiaxing city-level and 168 county-level inheritors.