Old revolutionary base now undergoing revitalization

A villager is walking through the street in Tucheng Town, west of Xishui County, Zunyi city of Guizhou province. [Photo/Song Jingyi]

Zunyi, a remote city in Southwest China's Guizhou province, has been undergoing revitalization in the last few years.

Zunyi City is a well-known tourist destination due its key role in China's revolutionary history.

During the Red Army's Long March, a pivotal meeting of the Communist Party of China was held in the city in 1935, which saved the army from being defeated by the Kuomintang.

Many historical sites are located in the city, as well as significant natural and cultural relics. Zunyi has so much to offer.

The city has these unique resources, but suffers from an unbalanced economy due to its inaccessibility.

In recent years, the city has been promoting itself to tourists to overcome poverty.

Chen Xiaohong, a local villager in a community in Tucheng town, Xishui county, a main battlefield during Long March, came back from a garment factory in Fujian where he and his wife worked for twenty years.

The whole family used to rely on some farmland to grow crops but their produce was only enough to feed themselves.

To struggle for living, Chen and his wife went to another city as workers.

But two decades later, they came back home.

"It's beautiful here and there are many business opportunities for me to earn some money. I'm not planning on working outside the city any more," said Chen, who is starting his own rural inn now.

According to the report, their rural inn can receive over 100 people on the weekend, with a profit of 6,000 yuan per month.

Like Chen's family, other villagers in the community have made great progress as well. The average net income of each villager in the community has increased from 5,060 yuan in 2013 to 12,300 yuan in 2015.

Based on the statistics from the tourism department of Zunyi, the city has welcomed 12.4 million visitors for local historical tourism for the first half of 2016.

The revenue has hit 7.93 billion yuan, increasing by 43.6 percent on a year-on-year basis.

At the end of 2015, Guizhou has connected all its counties by building roads to boost local economic development.

It used to take six hours to drive from the capital to Yuqing county, but now it takes a mere two hours.

During the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), annual GDP in Zunyi increased by 15 percent on average, reaching 21.68 million yuan in 2015.