2. increasing pressure of city life, the urbanites like to get close to nature, ramble in the roads like field
parks, experience simple rural life, and appreciate ancient ruins, taste characteristic delicacies and
experience farming and health, feeling very comfortable. Such slow life has become a fashion and
healthy lifestyle of urbanites and promoted more and more people to go to villages to experience
“rural tourism”.
Currently, an upsurge of rural tourism of Hubei Dabie Mountains has begun to be explored and
tried in the cities and counties to fully tap the cultural elements and resource characteristics and to
open up the leisure holiday lines with local characteristics. For example, the “romantic rural
tourism” in Luotian displays the fresh air and charming scenery, folk customs and local conditions
of Luotian; the “farmhouse enjoyment” in Caodian Village, Qiliping Town, Hong’an County forms
the agricultural tourism products featured by “flower mountains and fruit seas”; Linjia Dawan
Village in Tuanfeng with the human concept of “red land, hometown of celebrities” attracts
numerous visitors at home and abroad; Henanfan Village in Yingshan Yangliuwan Town drives the
rural tourism as a new ecological and civilized village; the natural azalea scattered over hill and dale
in Macheng indulges the tourists in pleasures without any thought of leaving… The “rural tourism”
in Hubei Dabie Mountains has been gradually formed a network, covering and linking the various
villages and driving and promoting the development of local rural tourism industry.
2.2 It has great potential of development to consider the leisure sports as the rural tourism
products in experience economy era.
In leisure era, the economic form is transited from service economy to experience economy and the
consumer demand of “experience” will soar to an unprecedented height. The concept of rural
tourism development has also considered the results of high-level cultural experience activities as
an important cultural tourism resource. The aesthetic experience, escapist experience, entertainment
experience and educational experience can be fully embodied in the sports tourism products. As the
manifestation of the high-level cultural experience activities, the development of “leisure sports and
rural tourism” can not only help to acquire knowledge, enrich experience, improve oneself and
enhance regional culture and a sense of national pride, but also can help to experience unrepeatable
civilization enjoyment and the resulting sense of accomplishment, all of which can not be
experienced in other tourism products. Therefore, it has great potential of development to consider
the leisure sports as the rural tourism products.
3 Advantages for Hubei Dabie Mountains to Implement “Leisure Sports and Rural Tourism”
3.1 Rich types of tourism resources
Hubei Dabie Mountains have beautiful natural scenery, green ecology, red remains, Zen culture and
other tourism resources. Firstly, there are many tourist attractions of green ecology, such as famous
Tian Tang Zhai National Forest Park in the main peak of Dabie Mountains, Bodaofeng, Paradise
Lake surrounded by mountains, Xishui Triangle Mountain, Hilly Peach National Forest Park in
Yingshan County and other 20 famous scenery spots such as Black Dragon Pool, Maoping River,
Waxiepai, Trunk Pulling Water, Miaolian Peak. Secondly, the red tourism attractions in Hong’an
County, Macheng City and other places, especially the forces led by Liu Bocheng and Deng
Xiaoping moving rapidly into Dabie Mountains across thousand miles, breaking out from central
plains and other historical events have left a large number of revolutionary ruins, relics and
monuments, thus making fame spread far and wide. Thirdly, there are Huangmei Buddhism Zen the
Fourth Ancestral Temple and Fifth Ancestral Temple and other famous ancestor courts of
Buddhism, among which the Miaole Temple is known as the “First Temple in the South Land” and
the Hall of Heavenly Kings is one of the largest King Halls in China. In addition, there are also
ancient tourism resources such as Jiu Ci Battle, Li Cheng Chaos, Lu Xun chasing Cao Cao, Xu
Shouhui uprising and becoming the emperor, Ma Chaozhu calling together and uprising in Tian
Tang Zhai, Taiping Army fighting bloody wars in Songzi Pass. Here produces a lot of celebrity men,
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3. such as Su Dongpo, Li Shizhen and Li Siguang with scientific spirit. These scenery spots are
basically distributed in the counties (cities) in Huanggang City and in the vast rural areas.
3.2 Advancement of regional tourism cooperation, convenient tourist communications
Hubei Dabie Mountains have the location advantages of “linking the east to the west, connecting
the south to the north, abound in gifts of centre and linking rivers and oceans”. The tourist roads
stretch long with Wuhan-Yingshan Expressway, Wuhan-Macheng Expressway, Daqing-Guangzhou
Expressway and high-speed railways through the territory. The provincial and municipal
committees attach great importance to the advancement of regional tourism cooperation, plan to
integrate Huanggang tourism into Wuhan city tourism circle with the platform of Wuhan city
tourism circle, strengthen the tourism cooperation with Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Huangshi and the
surrounding provinces and cities and actively build Dabie Mountains barrier-free tourism
cooperation zone with the carrier of Dabie Mountains tourism circle, open up three tour terminals of
Huangmei, Wuxue and Huangzhou and integrate Huanggang tourism into Yangtze River cruise lines
and Three Kingdoms tourism lines with the carrier of Yangtze River waterway, join the main tourist
attractions along the Beijing-Kowloon Railway with the carrier of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway to
form Beijing-Kowloon sightseeing route, join the Jiuhua Mountain, Tianzhu Mountain in Anhui and
the Shaolin Temple in Henan with the platform of the Fourth Ancestral Temple and Fifth Ancestral
Temple to form the fine tourist line of Chinese Buddhism and join Henan Xin County, Anhui
Jinzhai County with the main parts of Hong’an Martyrs Cemetery and group of monuments at
Qiliping to form red fine tourist lines of Dabie Mountains. When the tourist communications in the
hinterland of Dabie Mountains is being improved, the scenic connection roads, the lounging roads
in the scenic areas and other infrastructure construction are promoted vigorously to progressively
realize the traffic patterns of the major circle of “one center with three zones”, the middle cycle of
“red, ecology and culture” and the small cycle in the scenery areas.
3.3 Large tourist market space
The tourist markets in Dabie Mountain areas can be subdivided into two submarkets of domestic
tourist markets and inbound tourist markets. The domestic tourist markets can be divided into the
short-distance leisure tourism market segments, domestic red cultural tourism market segments and
eco-tourism market segments. Since Dabie Mountain is situated on the borders between three
provinces, it can be radiated to the tourist market in the densely populated central region. If as the
core, Dabie Mountains will be very attractive to the short-distance leisure tourism market segments
in the Dabie Mountain areas and the surrounding areas and will be the tourists' ideal place for
leisure in weekends and on short holidays. The red characteristics can also attract domestic red
cultural tourism market segments to become the organized patriotism education base. With good
original ecology, Dabie Mountains is the ideal place for the urbanites who are tired of modern city
life to go. The compound substances of Dabie Mountain tourism provide a realistic basis for the
differential management of the regional tourism and ensure the size of the markets. With the further
improvement of domestic economic development level, the scale of corresponding market segments
will be further expanded and the inbound tourism markets such as Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan,
Japan and the United States will be gradually attracted and expanded. For example, in the 90th
anniversary of founding of China, there were more than 800,000 tourists participating in the red
tourism in Hong’an for the activity of re-crossing Dabie Mountains, receiving the tourist income of
nearly 100 million yuan. In 2010, Huanggang City has received 8.19 million tourists from home
and abroad and the comprehensive tourism income of 4.4 billion yuan. With large tourist flow to
Huanggang Dabie Mountains, the tourist industry trends to be booming.
4 Golden Policies and Strategic Opportunities for Hubei Dabie Mountains
In 2009, the Standing Committee of the State Council passed the Planning to Promote the Rise of
Midland. Located in the heartland of the midland, the Dabie Mountain area is an important cultural
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4. and tourism base in the middle. The development and implementation of the “Rise of Midland”
planning will inevitably bring about the rise of tourism in the central regions. The Promotion
Program of Tourism Industry in Economic and Social Development Experimental Sites in Dabie
Mountains, the Old Revolutionary Base Areas developed and issued by the Tourism Administration
of Hubei Province in May 2010 proposes to cultivate the tourist industry as an important local pillar
industry according to the requirements of “significant changes in three years, major changes in five
years and leap-type great development in ten years”, so that the economic and social development
experimental sites in Dabie Mountains, the old revolutionary base areas become the major red
tourism base in China and the nationally known comprehensive tourism destination with distinctive
features. Huanggang Municipal Committee and Municipal Government implement the decision and
deployment of Special Plan for Tourism Development in Huanggang Dabie Mountains – the
Comprehensive Reform Experimental Area of Two-Oriented Society in Wuhan City Circle
developed by the provincial committee and provincial government, make the strategic vision of
constructing the red ecological and cultural tourism economic belt in Huanggang Dabie Mountains
and promoting the rapid economic development of the old revolutionary areas and are committed to
build the tourist industrial pattern of “one center with three zones”, that is, centered on the urban
area of Huanggang City, to speed up the construction of Dabie Mountain red tourism areas with the
main parts of Hong’an and Macheng, the construction of Dabie Mountain eco-tourism areas with
the main parts of Luotian, Yingshan, Xishui and Wuxue and the construction of cultural and
religious tourism areas with the main parts of Huangzhou, Tuanfeng, Qichun and Huangmei. The
transformation of red tourism lines, the development of scenery spots, the construction of travel
agencies and tourist hotels, the expansion of tourism commodities and tourism culture as well as the
policy supports and safeguard measures of red tourism have been defined clearly in the Outline of
Development Program for the 11th Five-Year Tourism in Huanggang City, which will be bound to
create a tourism brand for the “leisure sports and rural tourism” and provide a firm guarantee for
realizing the great-leap-forward development in tourism.
5 Measures for Hubei Dabie Mountains to Implement the Operational Project Development
of “Leisure Sports and Rural Tourism”
5.1 Develop the leisure sports pilot projects of tourist counties, towns and villages in Hubei
Dabie Mountain Area with the opportunity of farmhouse tourism
The major tourist towns such as Qiliping in Hong’an, Jiuzi River in Luotian, Guishan Mountain in
Macheng, the Fifth Ancestral Temple in Huangmei, Qichun Qizhou, the tourist villages such as
Dark Clouds Village in Yingshan, Saint Hall Village in Luotian, Duitianhe Village in Hong’an and a
number of “farmhouse enjoyment” in Hubei Dabie Mountain areas have become the main source of
tourism economic benefits in the old revolutionary base areas of Dabie Mountains. In order to
realize the sustainable development of farmhouse enjoyment, it is necessary to strengthen and tap
the development of leisure sports products and to reconstruct the farmhouse tourism products. With
the basis of resources, the guidance of market and the means of innovation, the ultimate goal are to
meet the tourists’ “tourism demand”. Yingshan has proposed to build the “water park” in recent
years. In addition to the developed Bisheng drifting, it is committed to developing the water sports
(swimming, diving, rowing, surfing), water tourism and leisure (spa resort, drifting, waterfall
watching), water recreation (water park, night scene tour) and water god worship (Longtan Temple)
to develop the leisure industry by combining water loving, water amusement, water entertainment
and water worship. The folk villages in Dabie Mountains carry out the folk leisure and fitness
activities, such as kite flying, diabolo, gyro spinning, sandbag hitting, darts, hoop rolling, dragon
dance, waist drum, yangko, pedestrianism, cockfighting. In red tourism forests, hike, climbing,
outdoor bound and other activities can be carried out and the modern novel, popular, stylish and
interesting experience activities can also be introduced, such as live CS, quality development and
other products.
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5. In addition, the mining and development of leisure and sports projects under different seasons and
different weather conditions, the organic combination of natural and human sports by using rural
agro-ecological culture and farming culture elements meet the tourist demand to participate in the
farmhouse enjoyment throughout the year and make tourists have growing interest in the farmhouse
knowledge and in the demand to experience tourism consumption, such as to participate in fishing
and sports games when outing in spring, to carry out boating, parent-child fishing and other water
entertainment items when enjoying flowers in summer, to carry out forest hiking and cycling when
picking fruit in autumn and to carry out horseback riding, mountain climbing, indoor recreational
games and activities and folk dance performances watching in winter. The goal is to achieve mental
and physical pleasure, to steadily expand the tourism of farmhouse enjoyment, to form
diversification pattern, to create the classic sports tourism of Dabie Mountains' “farmhouse
enjoyment” and to gradually form the brand through the farming experience rich in the features of
Hubei Dabie Mountains and the participation in leisure and sports activities.
5.2 Establish the featured sports tourism products integrating red tourism, folk tourism and
leisure tourism as a whole with the representative of red tourism in Hong’an County and
Macheng City
Integrate the patriotism education and sports culture into the activities loved and actively
participated in by the masses with the contents and forms of red tourism activities in Hong'an
County, Macheng City and other places. Specifically plan the scenes of the revolutionary
predecessors to work, fight, live and labor through the innovation of means and methods, so that the
tourists can experience in person the sports tourism activities with rich content and a variety of
forms such as “long-march fitness walking”, “crossing the Chuishui River for four times”,
“guerrilla fighting” and “martyrs jumping”, containing education in tourism and containing
education in amusement, in order to really achieve the imperceptible effect of “learning in touring
and touring in learning”. The elaborate experience and participatory tourism “crossing the snow
mountains and the marshy grasslands” (mountain climbing and walking), “speedily crossing the
Dadu River” (swimming) and other activities, for example, are the success stories of integration and
development of two kinds of tourism resources.
5.3 Bring forth new Chinese Wushu, longevity and health care and Qigong projects from the
old with the Buddhist thought of the Fourth Ancestral Temple and Fifth Ancestral Temple in
Huangmei and increase exhibition games
As the famous tourist attractions, the Fourth Ancestral Temple and Fifth Ancestral Temple in
Huangmei are the holy land of Zen Buddhism with beautiful scenery and many places of interest,
not only occupying a very important position in the history of Buddhism in China, but also having a
wide impact in Japan, India and the countries in Southeast Asia. In the field of sports, the
representative Chinese Wushu, longevity and health care and Qigong are all derived from Buddhism.
The meditation method in the Buddhist thought promotes the health care in China, emphasizes the
external static and internal moving exercise of the body and promotes health and longevity of the
human body through long-term meditation practice and by using some fitness methods of breathing
regulating, aligning and body regulating. Based on Chinese boxing and aimed at training of qi and
training of force, the Buddhist Wushu is the method to build the body and the basis to win the
victory over the enemy. The Buddhist meditation or yoga is called the “Buddhist Qigong” in the
Qigong world and considered as the maximum strain energy method of “Qigong”. These sports
projects shall be renewed to carry out Wushu performances and many participatory Wushu activities
and create new operational and innovative competition running methods loved by the masses. The
Qigong health care is combined with the creation of set patterns easy to learn, from which the
tourists can experience perception and virtue to improve the perception in cultivating virtues and
deeply understand the opportunities for practice.
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6. 6. Summary
Hubei Dabie Mountains implement the unique folk customs “leisure sports and rural tourism”
which is very attractive to tourists. However, there are still some problems in Hubei Dabie
Mountains, such as poor infrastructure, remote location, block transportation and information,
backward concept, weak economic foundation and shortage of talent. The traditional project
management mode is not only slow, but also difficult to produce great-leap-forward development.
Only to break the thinking set and break the old paths with advanced concepts can promote the new
rural economic construction in Hubei Dabie Mountains and be conductive to the rapid and healthy
development of the tourism industry in the economic and social development experimental sites in
Dabie Mountains – the old revolutionary base areas.
References
[1] Wan Qing. Research on Developing Red Tour Resources of Dabieshan Mountains [J] .Chinese
Agricultural Science Bulletin, 2006 (6)
[2] Chen Yu. Experience Economy and the New Development of Sports Tourism [J]. Journal of
Liaoning Normal University, 2004 27 (4)
[3] Wu Xiaoming. Analysis of Future Sports and Leisure Development Trends in China [J]. Sports
Culture Guide. 2004 (4)
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