We have all heard that in the cold winter, the old migratory birds in the north go to Sanya, Hainan to avoid the cold for the winter. Nowadays, the "barbecue mode" in the midsummer in the south has spawned new migratory birds and moved to cool areas to escape the heat in summer. In August this year, I went to Liupanshui, the "cool capital of China", and tried a summer vacation. This makes me deeply realize that in the era of great health, the development of migratory bird-type health tourism in summer and winter is just the right time and promising.
1. Liupanshui City has achieved "cool industry" with "cool climate" and built the brand of "China Liangdu".
Liupanshui City, located in wumeng mountain, is a young and energetic city born due to the "third line" construction. It is rich in mineral resources, the largest main coking coal base south of the Yangtze River, and is known as the "Southern Coal Capital". The average temperature of Liupanshui City is 18-24℃ (the average temperature this summer is 19.7℃), which is the first city named after the characteristics of climate resources in China and enjoys the reputation of "the cool capital of China". Among the commercial houses sold in Liupanshui every year, the purchase of houses outside the city accounts for more than 30%, and it is the first "living city" in China for the aged with migratory birds in summer. Liupanshui City can run marathons in dog days, and the "Six Horses" event is one of the well-known marathon events at home and abroad, which starts in the midsummer every year. Liupanshui’s "cool climate" has become one of the important factors to attract marathon runners and tourists. On August 4th this year, the Liupanshui Marathon started with guns fired, and 32,000 runners gathered in Liangdu, including 15,000 runners from outside the province.
People in the tourism industry in Liupanshui have an attractive slogan: "Avoid the cold to Sanya, and come to the cool capital in summer." I think this slogan captures the essence of the problem, because the main factor that attracts everyone to Liupanshui Kangyang tourism is climate resources. Liupanshui City insists on sports traction, cultural empowerment and tourism-driven, and implements "traveling with the competition" to promote the integration of high-quality sports travel, recreation and business, and promote the development of "cool industry" led by pension and tourism, such as "migrant bird pension+agricultural travel", "nursing pension+medical care" and "holiday pension+cultural travel", which has attracted a large number of tourists. Since May this year, the passenger flow of Shuicheng Ancient Town in Liupanshui has reached 4.11 million, including 330,000 on August 1-4 (during the Six Horses). Whether enjoying beautiful scenery, tasting delicious food, experiencing folk customs and learning history and culture, Liupanshui can make people feel the butterfly change from "the coal capital of the south of the Yangtze River" to "the cool capital of China".
Second, climate resources have become an important resource for the development of holiday tourism, and relying on climate to heal the body and mind has become a new fashion of migratory birds’ health tourism.
China has rich and unique climate resources. Relying on the climate to heal the body and mind, there was chengde mountain resort in ancient times, and now there are a large number of tourist destinations to escape the cold and recuperate. Mainly middle-aged and elderly people who are laid-back or have the right to take a vacation, they choose to spend the summer or avoid the cold in different places, just like migratory birds coming from south to north, so it is called migratory bird-style health tourism. Migratory bird-type recreational tourism is a kind of travel and sightseeing activity that people go to a place more suitable for their own survival in order to avoid the bad climate environment of their permanent residence for the sake of natural health.
Twenty years ago, Chinese people began to realize that they should avoid the cold. In winter, everyone wants to run to Hainan and enjoy the warm sunshine in winter. In particular, friends in the Northeast are more active. When you go to Sanya, almost all Northeast aunts are dancing square dance. Sanya people joked that Sanya will become the capital of the Northeast in winter. Since 2010, in order to solve the problem of overcrowding and overcrowding of tourists who avoid the cold in Sanya, Hainan Province has proposed to build an international tourist island and scientifically plan the problem of migratory birds who avoid the cold to live in Qionglai, which has promoted the rapid development of Hainan’s real estate. Although Hainan later set up a free trade port to suspend the purchase of houses by foreigners, these cold-sheltered guests immediately moved to Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, which not only brought the living property of Xishuangbanna alive, but also became new cold-sheltered destinations along the coast of Guangdong and Guangxi, near the south.
Twenty years later, global warming gave birth to summer migratory birds to open a new way of summer life. In July this year, the Blue Book of Climate Change in China (2024) issued by China Meteorological Bureau showed that the global warming trend is obvious, which is affecting and changing our lives. Climate change leads to the increase of temperature and extreme weather events, which not only affects the comfort of people’s travel, but also challenges people’s daily life and health. For a long time, there were three "stoves" in the Yangtze River basin, namely Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing. Later, with the warming of the climate, important cities along the Yangtze River also joined the ranks of "stoves". There are many "stoves", and the problem of being too hot in summer is coming. Recently, the southern region, especially the inland areas along the Yangtze River, has entered the "barbecue mode", and high temperature warning has become a common occurrence. All the outdoor air is blown, and the air conditioner is turned on all the time at home. For people who live in a "stove" city and continue to suffer from high temperature, it is not just "enjoying life" but "healthy choice" to go to a cool place to escape the heat.
Bao Jigang, Dean of the School of Tourism, Sun Yat-sen University, published "Research on China’s Summer Resort and Cold Resort", which shows that climate resources are a major feature of tourism development, among which summer resort and cold shelter resources are particularly important. The summer climate refers to June, July and August every year, and the cold climate refers to December every year and January and February of the following year. There are three areas of summer climate in China: the first area is the northwest frontier and northeast area north of 40 degrees north latitude, mainly including northern Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin; The second area is the central part of northwest China, mainly including parts of Qinghai, northwestern Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. The third area mainly includes southern Xizang, southwestern Sichuan, central and western Guizhou and northern Yunnan. In addition, summer vacation products can also be developed in the southeast, especially in the mountainous areas over 1,000 meters around economically developed cities. The cold-avoiding climate in China is concentrated in the area south of the Tropic of Cancer, including Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and Hainan. Cold-shelter climate is a scarce resource in China and has monopolistic characteristics. Therefore, winter tourism in Sanya and Xishuangbanna is hot. Yunnan has both summer and cold climate, and the dry-hot valley is more suitable for the elderly to spend the winter.
Third, actively rely on the superior natural ecological climate to promote the high-quality development of migratory bird-type health tourism.
At present, people’s demand for health preservation and great health is not only treatment, but also the "four combinations" of prevention, treatment, repair and rehabilitation. In the era of great health, migratory bird-style recreational tourism is gradually becoming one of the normal modes of mass tourism. On January 13th, 2023, the group standard "Construction and Evaluation of International Mountain Hot Springs Recreational Tourism Destination" (T/IMT 0001-2023), which was organized by the International Mountain Tourism Alliance and drafted by the Asia-Pacific Institute of Hot Springs and Climate Health Tourism, was officially released. The standard focuses on the integrated development of hot spring health care, climate health care and forest health care, and puts forward standardized measures for product development, facilities and services related to mountain climate health care.
China’s health industry has been identified as an "infinitely vast trillion-dollar industry" by economists at home and abroad. With the development of the aging society, the increase of the middle class, the in-depth implementation of the healthy China strategy and other factors, migratory bird-style health tourism, as an important part of the big health industry and people’s pursuit of a better life, is now a huge blue ocean with broad development prospects. According to the National Summer Tourism Development Report issued by china tourism academy, the scale of summer tourism and related markets in China alone has reached 1.2-1.5 trillion yuan. Where there are conditions in China, we should seize the development opportunity, actively rely on the superior natural ecological climate, vigorously develop and launch migratory bird-type health tourism products, and let tourists feel the warm and cool climate value through summer vacation or shelter from the cold, so as to realize health care, heart care, old-age care, beauty care and treatment, and make important contributions to promoting the construction of a healthy China. (Chen Xianchun, the writer is deputy secretary-general of Hunan Provincial Government, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Political Consultative Conference, and deputy director of the Culture, Education, Health, Sports, Literature and History Committee)