Part Three: Tourism

  Tourism is huge in China! it initially began to grow in the early 1950's and within four years the China International Travel Service was established along with 14 branches all over the country. Thanks to the political effort in opening its country to the world, tourism developed very rapidly in 1970's. Economically the tourist industry provides for 9% of total GDP, and provides roughly the same number of jobs as its mining sector. The government is continually relaxing laws in order to make travel to China easier, which will attract more tourists.

   Today China has become one of the most important destinations in Asia and is ranked 6th in the world for tourism. Annually the country attracts an average of 55 million visitors from all over the world and the volume of tourists continues to grow. Top tourist destinations are Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Hong Kong, and a few more around the country. Currently there are two specific tour routes, the first resembles a shape of an "S" because it leads tourist through inland China crossing Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Suzhou and Hanzhou. the second route resembles a crescent shaped because it leads tourists to the coastal regions such as Liaodong, Shandong peninsulas and the Yangtze river. The reason for the development of these two routes is to give tourist a deeper impression and historical knowledge of China. Other factors include a growing environmental effort across the country.

   Major tourist attractions include;

Great Wall of China, located in Beijing.

Forbidden kingdom, located in the heart of Beijing

Temple of Heaven, located in Beijing




West Lake, located in Hangzhou



Terracotta Army, located near Xi'an

   

    There are approximately 187 national parks as of 2007  through out China. Here are a few parks through out the country. Each one of these parks is beautiful, my personal favorite is the Yesanpo National Park.

    

                         Yesanpo National Park, located in Hebei
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

  Yalujiang National Park, located in Liaoning


   Zhangjiajie National Park, located in Hunan

    Aside from national parks the country has a number of nature preserves. Below are some examples across various locations.



 Songshan National Nature Reserve (Beijing)

  Zhalong National Nature Reserve (Heilongjian)

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• Jiuduansha Wetland National Nature Reserve (Shanghai)

   China is a vast land filled with historical sites and artifacts. There are many museums that are placed across cities in China, which makes it difficult to rank them according to importance. However there are notable museums that attracts more tourists than others. Here is a list of the top five museums according to popularity.

1. Shaanxi History Museum is located in Xi'an and is considered to be the first huge modern museum in China. Visitors can expect to see a range of over 300,000 items, which mainly consists of artifacts dated back to the Tang dynasty. 

2. Beijing Capital Museum was constructed and opened to the public in 1981. It is a art museum housing a variety of items from imperial China and other artifacts across Asia. It is considered to be one of the leading cultural institutions despite its lack of popularity compared to other museums.

3. Shanghai Museum is located in the Huangpu district of Shanghai. The museum has an emphasis of ancient Chinese art.

4. Henan Museum is located in Zhengzhou and is a history/art museum. It is home to more than 130,000 pieces of cultural relics collected through out the history of China.

5. Nangjing Museum is one of the largest museums in the country. The infrustructure is unique in the way that it combines ancient architectural design from the Liao-Dynasty and western styles.