2005—Urgently Prepare the Detailed Construction Plan for the Lishui Scenic Belt (Part 1)
Urgently prepare the detailed construction plan for the Lishui Scenic Belt and meticulously create Zhangjiajie's "Bund" and "Qinhuai River." As the focus of our city's work shifts, urban construction involves a myriad of tasks. The article "Planning the City with Cultural Concepts" (abbreviated hereafter) assesses the situation and suggests that the urban area's tourism destination development should take the Lishui Scenic Belt as its entry point and breakthrough...
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Promptly formulate the construction-level detailed plan for the Lishui Scenic Belt, and meticulously create Zhangjiajie's "Bund" and "Qinhuai River"
With the shift in our city's work priorities, urban construction involves a myriad of tasks. The article "Planning the City with a Cultural Concept" (abbreviated; the same below) assesses the situation and suggests that the construction of the urban area as a tourist destination should take the Lishui Scenic Belt as its entry point and breakthrough, meticulously creating our city's "Bund" and "Qinhuai River," and making it a highlight and point of excitement in the city's external image. In order to implement this highly practical suggestion brimming with genuine insight as quickly as possible, the Municipal CPPCC took "Planning the City with a Cultural Concept" as a key consultation topic for the year at the beginning of the year, specially established a research group, conducted nearly four months of in-depth investigation on the planning and construction of the Lishui Scenic Belt in the urban area, and carried out comparative inspections of Guilin's "Two Rivers and Four Lakes" Scenic Belt, Xing'an Water Street, Yangshuo West Street, and others. After forming the investigation report, the 23rd Chairman's Meeting of the Fourth Municipal CPPCC conducted a special consultation on this basis and formed a proposal to the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government; the Municipal Committee of the China Democratic League used this to participate in the 2005 annual city-wide party research results reporting meeting. The results of the in-depth investigation show that starting the construction of the urban area as a tourist destination with the Lishui Scenic Belt is of great strategic significance and truly enjoys widespread support. And formulating a good construction-level detailed plan for the Lishui Scenic Belt with a cultural concept is an urgent matter at present.
I. Fully recognize the major strategic significance of taking the lead in building the Lishui Scenic Belt well.
The so-called "Lishui Scenic Belt" specifically refers to the Lishui River waters and the riverside sections on both banks in the urban area, from Mulongtan Dam upstream to Hongbiyan Dam downstream.
It is precisely because the current situation of the urban area is seriously out of step with our status as a famous tourist destination that the city's nature has been repositioned as "a landscape tourism city with distinctive characteristics, a pleasant and livable tourist destination, and a transportation and commercial center for the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, and Chongqing." Admittedly, building the urban area into a "tourist destination" is a long-term and enormous systematic project. Amid such a myriad of tasks, starting with the Lishui Scenic Belt is both a tactical consideration of "better to cut off one finger than to injure ten" and an objective choice and accommodation of the locational and resource advantages possessed by this section, and it is of great strategic significance.
As stated in the article "Planning the City with a Cultural Concept": in shaping our city's external image, we must by no means neglect Tianmen Mountain, the soul of the mountains, and the Lishui River, the spirit of the waters. The Lishui River flowing through the city connects the new and old urban areas, reflects the majestic posture of Tianmen, is the necessary route for tourists entering and leaving the airport, railway station, and bus station, and is also a gathering place for residents' leisure. Therefore, taking the construction of the Lishui Scenic Belt as the entry point and breakthrough, and creating a highlight and point of excitement in the city's external image, is probably the last card the old urban area has left in our hands.
There are many successful examples at home and abroad of creating scenic belts along rivers and waterways, such as the Rhine Scenic Belt abroad, with its numerous castles and abundant charm, and domestically the Qinhuai River Scenic Belt with its antique charm and lantern-lit boat shadows, as well as Guilin's "Two Rivers and Four Lakes" Scenic Belt, the Xiangjiang River Scenic Belt, the Suzhou Creek Scenic Belt, and so on. Looking around at cities under heaven, it is hard to find anywhere near an urban area a mountain as majestic and magnificent as Tianmen Mountain; once the Hongbiyan Dam is completed and impounds water, this section of the Lishui River flowing through the city will become a shimmering flat lake, and the majestic posture of Tianmen, like a wide screen, will be reflected in the water. Then, if both banks have characteristic architecture in local style, plus carefully laid-out green belts and street vignettes on both banks, plus the careful adornment of the existing four bridges and lake recreation facilities, plus lighting for brightness and beauty, plus the world's longest sightseeing cableway and the yet-to-be-built world's longest covered wind-and-rain bridge, just imagine what a wonderful picture it would be! The visual impact it creates, especially the visual impact on tourists entering and leaving the airport, railway station, and bus station, would undoubtedly be enormous. In this way, local residents would have a good place for leisure, tourists would have a good place to linger in the urban area, and this place would naturally become Zhangjiajie's "Bund" and "Qinhuai River," and a tourist destination in the true sense!
As everyone knows, because of the Sydney Opera House, third-rate Sydney suddenly ranked among internationally famous cities; because of a performance directed by Zhang Yimou, "Impression Liu Sanjie," and an increasingly popular West Street, Yangshuo, which once served only as a stopover in Guilin tourism, suddenly saw hotels spring up everywhere, ending the history of tourists hurriedly staying two or three hours before returning to Guilin; because of the large-scale renovation of "Two Rivers and Four Lakes," Guilin, originally of mediocre urban quality, suddenly became bright and alive, not only greatly improving residents' living environment but also opening up a tourism project themed on night cruises of "Two Rivers and Four Lakes" (each ticket priced at 135–150 yuan). This shows that as long as the Lishui Scenic Belt is built well, our city will have something worth seeing, the city's quality will immediately rise, and as Zhangjiajie people, we will naturally speak with more confidence.