Travel China Planner

At the rotating presidency conference on Hubei and Chongqing Three Gorges regional tourism cooperation held in Chongqing, the governments of the two regions issued the Three Gorges Regional Tourism Cooperation Declaration.

According to the Declaration, the two regions will together work out a general plan for the Yangtze River Three Gorges Scenic Spot, seek large corporations to conduct integration of tourism resources and create the tourism brand of Three Gorges. They will also work together improve their key travel transportation and other facilities covering inter-provincial and inter-city highways, main railway lines, regional airports and travel terminals.

Joint promotion details have also been determined between the parties. From 2010 Hubei and Chongqing will hold the China Yangtze River Three Gorges International Tourism Festival spearheaded by China’s National Tourism Administration. Promotional materials including video, a directory for Three Gorges cruises, and a tour commentary for the Gorges. In addition, the two regions will launch a joint marketing campaign including media publicity, participating in exhibitions, and Internet marketing.

Wuhan held its first tourism development conference recently to outline its vision for its tourism industry.

Under the new development plan, Wuhan will build three urban tourism blocks based on two rivers, lakes, and horse racing by 2015. Also it is expected to be central China’s tourism city focusing on business exhibitions and urban leisure.

In addition, Wuhan will integrate its tourism resources to form a tourism pattern of “one center with three blocks and one circle of 16 tourist areas”. The one center indicates an urban tourism center including three tourism agglomerations covering the Yangtze River and Han River, East Lake, and Orient Lucky City near Jinyin Lake. The 16 tourist areas will be around the downtown area including the Mulan eco-tourism area and Daoguan River tourist area.

From 2004 to 2009, Wuhan’s tourism industry has been growing at a rate of 20% a year. In 2008 the tourism revenue of Wuhan reached CNY37.3 billion. Tourism is expected to be another polar industry for Wuhan.

The Wuhan Tourism Administration has announced that from this September, travel agencies in Wuhan will be able to operate inbound tourism business, which means the city will welcome more tourists from abroad.

Agencies operating domestic and inbound tourism business will change their business licenses to new ones with a license number “L-HUB-XXXXX”. Agencies will have to pay a quality deposit of CNY200,000 to run inbound tourism business.

From September 1, 2009, Wuhan Tourism Administration will accept applications of agencies operating domestic and inbound tourism businesses.

According to local media, the travel agency branch of the Wuhan Tourism Association has issued a notice jointly with the People’s Insurance Company of China and the Ping An Insurance Company of China, to the effect that travel agencies in Wuhan city will adopt an online insurance system.

More than 200 travel agencies will install the online insurance system, enabling agencies to issue travel insurance online. Travel agencies, the policy holder and the insurance company can all inquire whether a transaction is successful or not.

Currently tourists can only buy travel accident insurance through travel agencies, travel agency fax the list of those insured to the insurance company and the insurance company would return it after it had been approved approved. In this case, tourists are not sure whether the transaction is successful or not. The new online insurance system is expected to end the issue of fake insurance policies.

Its hard to believe we have only been here 1 month. It’s feeling like home every day and we have done so much without even leaving Wuhan during that period.

In 2 weeks, we will be heading back to Xian for our summer traveling adventure. We leave here next week, stay overnight in Chengdu,and then fly on to Xian. We leave Chengdu at about 5:30 pm and arrive in Xian at 8:30 am the same day.

We plan to get to Yan’an by bus on Monday, May 26.

It is lights out at 10pm for the residences but they have told me many times that they work in the washrooms after that, where the lights stay on all night!!

Last night we returned to the a Sichuan restaurant for hotpot. The taxi driver had a good chuckle as we ended up taking a long way back home after missing one turn. However, we know the city well enough now that we were able to tell him how to get us back despite our mistake.

Tonight we are off to our weekly party…hmmm…what’s the excuse this week, let me think. Oh yeah, Wendy turns 25 this weekend.

Well, that’s it for now. Words and pictures will pick up again once we begin our summer trip, I’m sure.