Senior Chinese official Li Changchun has called for the scientific development of the cultural industry when he visited an opera troupe and inspected cultural facilities in northwestern Shaanxi Province.

Li inspected development of "red tourism" featuring revolutionary heritage in Yan'an, a well-known revolutionary base for the Communist Party of China (CPC) before the founding of the New China in 1949.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, said the development of red tourism was "a political project strengthening people's conviction of sticking to the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and consolidating people's common ideological base."

It also brought wealth to the people of the region and satisfied the public's cultural demand, he said.

He added that efforts were needed to improve the content of tourism, carry out the spirit of veteran CPC members and attract more young people to participate.

Li also visited local cultural companies to examine the progress of the reform of the cultural industry.

Under a reform plan, most cultural companies in China will no longer get government funding. Instead, they will have to support themselves through revenues from performances.

At the Xi'an Qinqiang Opera Company, Li affirmed the company's practice of transforming the state-owned organization into a market-oriented one.

The company, promoting Qinqiang, an opera in local dialect, combines performance with tourism. The company's income and the staff's enthusiasm have increased since the reform.

Li said stronger cultural companies and groups should be encouraged across regions, fields and types of ownership, to build more key enterprises and strategic investors.

The cultural system should be conducive to "combining culture and technology," and emerging cultural industries should get strong support, while private capital should be encouraged to enter the industry, Li said.

"Cultural innovation should be actively promoted so as to produce more cultural products and fine work with proprietary intellectual property rights," he said, adding that a sound environment should be created for excellent cultural workers who should be encouraged to contribute more to cultural reform.

While inspecting local cultural facilities such as a project ensuring TV signals to each village and construction of rural facilities for cultural activities, Li said a public cultural service system should be built across rural and urban areas "to meet the basic public cultural demands of listening to the radio, watching TV, reading books and newspapers and participating in public cultural activities."