NANNING, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- In Huangyao, a 1,000-year-old river town in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, stone bridges arch over winding waterways, banyan trees shade narrow lanes, and high brick walls enclose the courtyards of historic merchant homes.
Built to shield wealthy residents from outlaws, the town's features now draw a growing number of tourists.
Huangyao lies in Zhaoping County, Hezhou, a city in northeastern Guangxi that borders Guangdong and Hunan provinces. Hezhou became a prefecture-level city in 2002, and with a population of just about 2 million, it is modest in size by Chinese standards.
For decades, tourism in Guangxi was synonymous with Guilin, whose karst peaks and world-famous waterways made it one of China's classic sightseeing destinations, said Yu Haixia, deputy general manager of a local tourism company. "But Hezhou is charting its own path."
That push took center stage last week, when the city hosted the 2026 Guangxi Culture and Tourism Development Conference, a regional industry gathering during which Hezhou signed 21 project deals at a related investment promotion event spanning hot-spring resorts, boutique lodging, and micro-drama production.
Local authorities used the gathering to pitch travel executives itineraries that pair tours of the old town and traditional tea-picking opera with hot springs and trail races through the rugged Gupo Mountain Tourist Resort. Tea-picking opera is a popular form of Chinese folk musical theater that originated from rural folk songs sung by tea pickers.
The goal, Yu said, is to package heritage, outdoor sports, and wellness into multi-day stays.
Earlier figures suggest the strategy has gained traction. Overall tourist arrivals and spending in Hezhou recorded double-digit growth during the first nine months of 2026, while registered check-ins at local hotels and inns more than doubled from a year earlier. Huangyao remains a main draw, recording about 1.59 million visits in 2025, up nearly 27 percent from the previous year.
The increased foot traffic has been luring migrant workers home. Li Fayuan, who returned from neighboring Guangdong Province to run a guesthouse there, said his property's annual occupancy rate had consistently topped 65 percent.
"Facilities were sparse when I first got here, but since Huangyao became a nationally rated 5A scenic spot in 2022, the environment has improved a lot, visitor experiences have grown more diverse, and more tourists are coming," Li said.
To keep visitors "busy" past sunset, local businesses are turning regional staples into hands-on activities. Workshops teach guests to ferment Huangyao's signature black beans, even blending them into specialty coffee, while nearby villages offer farming classes, herbal-craft sessions, and lodging for visiting art students.
To extend stays beyond Huangyao, Hezhou is linking villages along its Xiaohe Ancient Path, an ancient trade and migration corridor that connected central China via Hunan to today's Guangxi.
Along the trail, 1,300-year-old Xiushui Village, known for its imperial civil-service scholar heritage and Yao ethnic traditions, drew 73,000 visits during this year's National Day holiday, up nearly 175 percent year over year. Neighboring Chashan, historically the first Guangxi village travelers reached on the trail from Hunan, attracts about 600,000 tourists annually.
Mao Xingjian, a Xiushui native who left a career as a clothing designer in Guangdong, returned in 2021 to become a village official, hoping to turn the street where he grew up into a scenic attraction.
"Today, our sketching bases draw about 60,000 art students a year from across the country, some staying up to a week at a time," Mao said. "And villagers pair seasonal produce with straw-weaving workshops to spread the income from those visits."
The initiative reflects a broader shift toward county-level and rural travel across the country. In the first half of 2026, spending by out-of-town customers in counties rose 14.1 percent on Meituan, a major lifestyle and booking platform in China. Travel site Qunar reported a roughly 20 percent jump in county hotel bookings of three nights or longer during the 2026 summer break.
Ma Yiliang, a deputy head of the China Tourism Academy, pointed out that travelers are increasingly turning away from repetitive, generic tourism experiences in favor of an authentic taste of local life. This is creating opportunities for destinations with a distinct identity, even if the place names are not immediately recognizable. ■
