Hailongtun Castle to be Upgraded as China's Top Tourist Destination

ZUNYI, China, July 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The government of Huichuan district, Zunyi, plans to invest 2 billion RMB to upgrade Guizhou's first World Heritage site, Hailongtun Castle, to a 5A tourist destination, the highest rating by China National Tourism Administration.

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The 39th session of the World Heritage Committee closed in Bonn, Germany on July 4th. During the conference, three Chinese Tusi cities - Hailongtun castle in Zunyin of Guizhou, Yongshun in Hunan and Tangya in Xianfeng County of Hubei - were added to the World Heritage List. To date, the list includes 48 sites in China, which ranks 2^nd in the number of sites on the list.

At the opening ceremony, China's Vice Minister of Education, Hao Ping, gave a presentation on future preservation solutions and proper management of heritage sites. Mr. Ping suggested that Hailongtun Castle was full of potential and would hold a promising future. An international management team will work on the development of Hailongtun. The team will draw lessons from castle heritage sites in other countries.

Hailongtun castle served as a military citadel, administrative offices and temporary imperial palace of the Yang family in Zunyi, a town formerly named Bozhou. It witnessed patrimonialism by the Yang family till the death of Yang Yinglong, the last local Tusi ruler. The castle has extremely high research value and offers insights in how central governments in ancient China developed, how it manipulated and managed minority ethnic groups in the frontiers, and how the minorities had integrated with the Han majority over time.

In the second stage of preservation efforts, archeological excavations led to significant discoveries: the compilation and documentation of folk legends about Hailongtun and Yang Yinglong; the functions of the ancient buildings.

The Hailongtun showroom, the cultural heritage exhibition area, and the Qianbei rural traditional life center, are now open to the public. Future development includes establishment of online museums and a 3D holographic projection display of the entire site. High speed Internet and other modern technologies will make Hailonglun Castle and Tusi culture available to a global audience.