Russia and China team up on 'red tourism'

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-07-01

Li Jinzao, left, and Du Jiahao, governor of Hunan province, lay flowers in front
of a statue of Mao Zedong during the signing ceremony, June 29. (Photo/CNS)

"Red tourism," tourism featuring visits to historical sites with a communist revolutionary legacy, is a natural area for cooperation between Russia and China.

According to an agreement signed by tourism chiefs from China and Russia on Monday in central China's Hunan province, from 2015 to 2017 the two countries will work together on popularizing red tourism, develop destinations and routes and cooperate on marketing.

The memorandum was signed by Li Jinzao, head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and Oleg Safonov, head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia, one of a series of promotional activities held between June 28 and July 1 in Shaoshan, the birthplace of PRC founder Mao Zedong in Hunan province.

Safonov said China and Russia have great potential to develop tourism resources together.

Li Jinzao said both China and Russia have rich red tourism resources. This year is the 70th anniversary of victory in China's War of Resistance against Japan and Russia's Great Patriotic War (as World War II is commonly referred to in the respective countries), and red tourism is all about remembering history and cherishing peace.

Also on Monday, China and Russia published ten red tourist routes and over 20 travel agencies from both countries signed a cooperation agreement.

CNTA data showed China's red tourism sites received more than 4 billion tourists in the past decade, with numbers growing by 16% annually.