The beautiful water town of Guyan Huaxiang in Zhejiang province's Lishui city draws painters from around the country. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Lishui in East China's Zhejiang province has been developing integrated tourism and strengthening its tourism industry in recent years.

In 2019, Lishui rearranged the resources of "city, town, village and landscape", aiming to build a tourist town advocating "city is tourism, tourism is life". Accordingly, Guyan Huaxiang Scenic Spot was upgraded to a characteristic town integrating livability, business and travel.

The Lishui government planned and implemented 82 projects in Guyan Huaxiang characteristic town in 2019, and completed the comprehensive upgrading of the area, making it Lishui's "name card".

Lishui also developed new forms of tourism to boost rural revitalization and development in 2019.

Suichang county in Lishui is an ancient historic county as well as an ecologically important area. Its rural revitalization is inseparable from integrated tourism.

Last year, Suichang established a think tank of tourism experts and cooperated with Zhejiang's tourism vocational colleges and universities to train various tourism talents.

Statistics show that in the first three quarters of 2019, Suichang county achieved tourism revenue of 10.58 billion yuan ($1.53 billion), up by 15.46 percent year-on-year. People living in villages can earn more than 5,000 yuan a month by renting their farm houses and open spaces.

Rural revitalization stimulates the vitality of integrated tourism, and integrated tourism boosts development in rural areas.

According to officials in Suichang, in 2020 the county will continue to rely on its superior ecological environment and profound cultural heritage, and continue to deepen the integration of culture and tourism.