Tourism（旅游）
“Developing tourism actively, strengthening the protection and developmental project construction and management of Changbai Mountains. Work hard to organize the series activities of “2007 harmonious city and countryside tour well.”
——from Report on the Work of Jilin Province Government in 2007
In 1983, When Deng Xiaoping climbed up the Changbai Mountains, he extolled, “I would have deeply regretted in my life if I had missed the chance to visit here!”
During a 1991 inspection of Jilin, President Jiang Zemin composed the lines in praise of Jinlin: “Snow-clad, soft willows bring a wintry river to vivid life; jade-like, rimed trees resemble jade flowers descending from heaven.”
On July 1st, 2004, at 1:18 p.m., it was decided by the 28th conference of the World Heritage Committee that the ruins, tombs of the general and the king at Ji’an were listed in The World Famous Heritage List.
With the development of the economy and society, tourism of Jilin becomes magnificent for the glamorous mountains and beautiful rivers.
Most of the natural scenes of Jilin Province remains their primitive features, and were seldom under the helping of man-made carving. The east area features the scenic Changbai Mountains’ primitive forests, unique volcanic landforms, specific and solid upright scenery. The west area entails grasslands, wetlands, clay forests of Qian’an, crane-watching tours of Xiang hai. From the west to the east, these natural sceneries reveal the magical, straightforward, simple and sophisticated characteristics of Jilin tourism resources.
■ChangbaiMountains—First Mountain in Northeast of China
The Changbai Mountains Nature Reserve in east Jilin Province should be the first natural scenery of Jilin Province, which stretching over thousands of kilos. The Changbai Mountains is famous as “The Five High Mountains” with beautiful and specific sceneries, and is also called as mysterious “First Mountain in the east of the Pass”. Because there are a lot of white pumices and snow on the chief mountain-“Bai Tou Shan”, it got its name “Changbai Shan”. To the people of north China, Changbai Mountains is a “Mother Mountain”, because it is not only the origin of Manchu, but also the cradle of Songhua, Tumen and Yalu rivers. It is the supporting living environment of diverse northeast generations. Now, this “Holy Mountain” has been a protection screen for the eco- environment of some northeast areas.
Changbai Mountains is resourceful, it is a “Solid Resource Treasury”, also possesses the top-class natural sceneries in the world. As a dormant volcano, which has slept for more than 300 years, Changbai Mountains has its specific geographic structure, and these structures made those sceneries with uncanny craftsmanship. Because of the different elevations of the mountains, it forms four sight belts from temperate zone to frigid zone, from the foot to the top of the mountains. This is the most peculiar character of Changbai Mountains. If people want to see these sights on the flat lands, it’s necessary to cross thousands of kilos from south to north. But if in Changbai Mountains, people can enjoy “Four seasons in one mountain, different weathers in less than ten Li” within six kilos of upright distance.
The Tianchi Lake is the most famous spot of Changbai Mountains, and if people miss the chance to see the Tianchi, there should be no significance of coming to Changbai Mountains. Tianchi Lake, which was formed by the volcano, is the border lake of China and Korea, and the deepest and largest volcanic lake in China. Because of its high elevation (height above see level 2194 meters), people called it “Lake of Heaven”. There are 16 mountains surrounded the Tianchi Lake, this made it like a beautiful jade which is beset among the mountains. The weathers are changing quite fast. It is always foggy, and accompanying with sudden rainstorms and hails, making the Tianchi Lake looming through the clouds, like in a miracle. The Changbai waterfall tumbles down from a corner of the Tianchi Lake like a crystal ribbon descending from heaven to form the cradle of the Songhua, Tumen and Yalu rivers. The Great Changbai Canyon, brought to light only recently, is marked for its stupendous grandeur, unsurpassed wilderness and the fact that it is a huge repository of statuesque mountain peaks, exotic-shaped monoliths, quiet ravines, limpid rivers, ancient trees and rare grass and plants. With the time goes, the Tianchi Lake is rendered even more mysterious by rumors about some mysterious phenomenons--- the faint strange wild animals accompanying with the challenging “Dry Dining Basin”, the small Tianchi with entrance but without exit… These have added more fantastic colors to Changbai Mountains, and attracted millions of people who love nature, and like explorations throughout the world to come here.
■Tour of Cultural Relics and Historical Sites
The cultural interests of Jilin Province have their own characteristics in the northeast of Ｃhina. Those historic sites silently recorded the histories and the stories that had happened in this area. The most stirring one is the ruins of Konguryo, which can be seen as full of zone culture characters and blending of diverse cultures. It is a special testimony of Konguryo kingdom’s civilization, which had vanished in the history.
The remains of the ancient Konguryo Kingdom are located in Ji’an City, including the Internal Town, the Wandushan Town, the Tomb of Great King (14) and the Aristocrat Tomb (261). They are the remains of the slave Konguryo kingdom that existed from the 1st to the 7th century. Under the plains of Ji’an City, there are more than 100,000 tombs of Konguryo Kingdom, this is the famous “cavity and chimb tomb group”. Among these tombs, the Taiwang Tomb, the General Tomb, and the Qian Qiu Tomb are of great size. The General Tomb is extolled as the “Pyramid of the East”. The length of the foundation is 31.58 meters, and the height is 12.4 meters. The whole tomb looks like a pyramid, has seven ladders, and all of the ladders are constructed by giant granite that were carved delicately. Also the roof of the tomb is made by one big rock. The whole tomb constructed with majesty, looks bright and grandeur. The General Tomb is a masterpiece of stone-made architecture art of Konguryo Times. The colorful and exquisite paintings with abundant contents and legendary color were still well-preserved many tombs of the Tomb Group.
On the foot of a mountain on northeast of Ji’an City, there is a Hao Taiwang Stele. It is a precious treasure of China no matter in its constructed style, or in its epigraph style. Hao Taiwang Stele was constructed for the commemoration of the 19th King by the 20th King. The height of the stele is 6.39 meters, made by carving an entire giant gravel tuff. The shape of it is an anomalous square pole. The epigraphs were carved on the four sides of the stele. There are 1775 words in 44 lines. The epigraphs that were written in Chinese note down the achievements of the Hao Taiwang and the stories of the origins of the Konguryo Kingdom and how the people established their regime. It is the longest precious written data preserved by the Konguryo.
On July, 1st, 2004, at 1:18 p.m., it was decided by the 28th meeting of the World Heritage Committee that the Konguryo kingdom ruins, tombs of the general and the king of China were listed in The World Famous Heritage List. This is a big event in Chinese culture developing history; it verified that China, as a civilized ancient country, has its specific charm.
Moreover, the exquisite carvings and paintings in the buildings of the ancient Yehelana city in Siping are paragons of Manchu culture; today the city has been converted into a folklore attraction. The Palace of Puyi, the “emperor” of the puppet Manchoukou regime, is now a national centre for education in patriotism. All these historic sites or remains, including the ancient Liao Tower in Nong’an County, the stone-carvings of dragons and tigers at Hunchun, and the Wen Temple, embodied the hardworking and the brightness of our ancient ancestors. At 15: 2’’36’ on March 18, 1976, a meteorite shower hit the northwest suburbs of Jilin and Yongji County. The Jilin meteorite shower gave us a biggest stone aerolite in the world. And this made the following construction of Jilin Municipal Meteorite Museum become possible. It is the only one of its kind in China.
■Ice and Snow Tour
Ice and snow, bring cold to the northern people, but also bring many specific and charming interests to Jilin’s winter.
Jilin Province enjoys exceptional advantages in developing ice-snow tourist industry. The winter here is long, and the average temperature is under 15°C. The suitable temperature, long snowy period, good snow quantity and more snow field add the comfort of skiing, and reduce the time limit of the outdoor sport in winter.
Although the exploitation of the ice-snow tourist industry is a little late, it has its great potential. The Changbai Mountains areas have its special advantages. Now, the main spots of ice-snow tour include Changbai Mountains--- the Snow Kingdom, Rime Fog of Jilin--- one of the four wonders in China, the chief matching fields of Asian Winter Games in 2007. Some skiing fields located around the big cities of Jilin province, like Jilin’s North Big Lake skiing field, Jilin’s Lotus Hills skiing field, and Changchun’s Jingyue Pool skiing field.
Ice and snow tour is perfect colorful in Jilin province. Ice and snow travel festival has been successfully held ten times by the various cities. At the beginning of 2007, the sixth Asia winter games were held in Changchun. Changchun is one of the earliest cities to develop the ice and snow tour. Since 1998,Changchun city has held ice and snow travel festival 9 times. In the past few years, along with the success of the national ice and snow games, ice and snow has been the advantage of Changchu. In 2006 Changchun Vassar Ice and Snow Festival, the attendance figure has increased to nore than 10000 from 700 in 2003. During the festival, Jilin province received 1,560,000 tourists, increased 8.5%, the income of tourism reached 735,000,000 Yuan, two times the volume of the previous year. In addition, many ice and snow festivals are famous in Jilin province, such as Ice and Snow Studded Pines Festival in Jilin city, Changbai Mountains Ice and Snow Festival in Yanbian and so on. In Jilin province, you can enjoy ice and snow studded pines, hotspring, skee, skating, sledge, snow slide, motorcycle in snow field, rope way, winter fishing and the other colorful ice and snow games.
■Folk-custom Tour
There are 43 different folks living in Jilin Province, such as the Koreans, the Manchus, and the Mogolians. So the different folk-custom of various ethnic folks become another hot spot to attract tourists.
In the east part of Jilin Province, more than 110 million Korean peoples is living there. Because most of the people likes singing and dancing, and always warmly welcome the guests with zest, the Koreans are famous as “White Skirt Nationality”. When it is holiday, or when there are guests visiting, almost all the zest people will put on their beautiful particular clothes, singing and dancing gracefully with sound music, and performing their traditional program, such as playing on a swing, on a special springboard, or performing wrestling. The tourists also might be invited to the home of the people, and regale themselves on an authentic Korean meal with vinegar-pepper pickles, sticky-rice cakes, cool noodles, rice alcohols, etc. If you the tourists are lucky enough, maybe they can attend a birthday ceremony of a 60-year-old elder, or a wedding ceremony of young couples, and then the original traditions that are revealed by the etiquette nationality surely will make you feel surprise.
The Manchus ever establish their own dynasty and even unified China in history. Now, most of the Manchus are living in the northeastern part of China, especially in Changchun, Jilin, Tonghua, and Siping. And there is a Manchu Autonomous County, and 10 Manchu Autonomous towns. In these areas, people preserve their ancient precious flirtatious expressions, such as Hayima (traditional Manchu foods, also called water cake), sticky bean cake, thatched shed with clay walls, the full-course Manchu-Han banquet, along with authentic North-east Opera, “humors sayings”, and Saman “ waist rings” with clear rhythm, people will deeply feel they are surrounded by the ancient austerity. In Ula area, Han township, there is a Manchu folk village. A “Film base”, called Ula thatched shed, is located there. Tourists can view and admire the previous interesting “Three Odd phenomenon” of north-east China, that is papers adhering outside the windows, young girls smoking with a long- stemmed pipe, and infants being put in a hanging cradle.
On the border of Jilin and Mogolia Province, there are 16,000 mongols living in the autonomous counties, like Tongyu, Taonan, Zhenlai, and Qianguoerluosi. When the summer pasturage bumper period is coming, the herdsman will never fail to hold the Nadam Festival, which is a combination of sacrificing, sing, dancing, wrestling, shooting as well as other interesting matches, performances. They express their appreciation to the God in their own way, and fully deliver the gladness for their harvest.
During enjoying the different programs, tourists can eating hand-tearing meet, and drinking big-bowl alcohol and horse-milk tea with local people; During the night, living in the Mongolians camp, listening the remote music of horse’ head like musical instrument, experiencing the Mongols special sleeping camp, people surly will have another feeling of his life.
■Jilin Cuisine
Jilin cuisine is a new foods system that is cultivated in 90’s. It has been called an exotic flower in the garden of Chinese cuisine field. Jilin cuisine has its special folk customs, region culture, raw materials, and cooking ethnics. These characters, together with accepting other good points of other dishes, develop into its own features. Jilin dishes mainly have four series: folk dishes, folk-custom dishes, palace dishes, and mountain delicacies dishes. It has four characters: natural, green, nutritious, and healthy, and also implies meaning of luck, happiness, and fortune. In 1999, Jilin Dishes had been very famous when the president of Jilin Province Honghu proposed it to be “Jilin Dishes”. In 2001, the 2nd Chinese Delicious Food Festival, Jilin Dishes was determined to be one of the “New Eight Food System” by its brightly characteristics.
■Unique Tourism
After these years’ development and construction, there are more than 300 tourist spot in Jilin Province. And form a new travel system which including Changbai Mountains Nature Reserve, Jingyue Pool National Forest Park, Jilin Songhua Lake National Scenic Resort, Bei Da Lake Skiing Field. Moreover, The Xianghai Nature Reserve of Tongyu in the west area has been placed on the catalogue in the world most important wetlands. The tourist product has developed into multi-categories, multi-class, from simple visiting travel to a new pattern, which including visiting tour, holiday tour, ethnic folk tour and folk-custom tour, etc. And as representatives, the ecological tour, such as the Ice-snow tour, Forests Park tour, Wetland tour and Border tour have been a new attraction to the tourists.
In the new period, the tourism has been a significant growing point in Jilin’s economic development. Jilin province received 448,800 tourists from overseas, up 20.2% over the previous year. Of all tourists, 80500 were Chinese compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, up 21.2 percent; 368300 were foreigners, up 20.1 percent. Income of foreign exchange from tourism reached 144 million US dollars, up 20.7 percent. Jilin province received 31927500 Domestic tourists, up 12.0%, the income was 26.4 billion, up 20.4%.
In the new century, in order to establish an ecological tours model region, and foster a new increasing point of tour economy, achieve the improvement of the total tours economy amounts and integrated benefits, Jilin Province will give prominence to region advantages, and focus on the redevelopment of feature tour, ecological tour and special-type tour.
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