The burgeoning growth of ecological tourism around the world in recent years has encouraged more and more cities in China to jump in to go with the flow, one of which is Jixi, a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
"Jixi's traditional economy was based on coal, but now we are determined to develop
Jixi into a comprehensive ecological tourism city,'' Wu Wei, mayor of
Jixi municipal government, said recently.
Adjacent to Russia on its eastern side,
Jixi is located in the hinterland of the Three Rivers Plain and boasts forest coverage rate of more than 40 percent.
With an area of 22,531 square kilometers, the city itself boasts considerable coverage of cultivated land, lakes and wetlands.
Its 11 nature preserves and forest parks cover 26.1 percent of the city's total area.
Xingkai Lake, on the border between China and Russia, is only 110 kilometers from Jixi.
It is one of the few lakes in the world of its size that features an undisturbed ecological system, unpolluted and with a great diversity of species.
The Xingkai Lake National Nature Preserve is also included in the chain of Northeast Asia natural habitats for cranes. And the 220,000-hectare Xingkai Lake swamp is listed among the world's key wetlands.
The area's natural beauty, together with the local folklore, has inspired
Jixi municipal government to develop its tourism potential.
A string of tourism products have been developed, such as a scenic tour of Xingkai Lake and Wusuli River along the border with Russia, a wetland tour of Wandashan Forest and Zhenbao Island and an ice and snow sports tour.
With a population of 1.97 million,
Jixi includes 700,000 hectares of cultivated land, 66,000 hectares of grassland and 200,000 hectares natural lakes and rivers.
Following the central government's recent strategy for revitalizing Northeast China, the local government has laid out a series of favorable policies to create a sound environment for attracting overseas investment, Wu stressed.
