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The second phase of the 2024 Chinese National Excellent Cultural Experience Project at the Former Site of the Mongolian and Tibetan School allows visitors to enjoy the regional customs of Fujian and Ningxia thousands of miles away without leaving Beijing. The picture shows a folk dance performed on site. Photo by our reporter Wu Yibin

"Who is in Beijing?" In the summer of 2024, a line from the hit TV series "The Story of Rose" became popular on the Internet. In short videos, it "unexpectedly" led to major attractions in Beijing, and the comment section was turned into a cultural and tourism "grass planting" manual by netizens who left enthusiastic messages.

"We have to go to Beijing." Everyone says so. What can we see and feel in Beijing? Walking in this city where the ancient and modern times blend together and the atmosphere is varied, we can talk about the ubiquitous history at any time, and also experience the lively fireworks of the world.

Along with the reform and opening up, especially since the 18th CPC National Congress, the development of my country's tourism industry has entered the fast lane. The long river of time has accumulated unique and rich resources for Beijing, the capital with a history of "more than 3,000 years of city construction and more than 800 years of capital construction". The eight world cultural heritage sites such as the Central Axis, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and the Grand Canal are scattered all over Beijing, making Beijing the city with the most world cultural heritage sites. The footprints of the Communist Party of China and the new China have also left Beijing with a large number of rich red heritages such as the Red Building of Peking University, the former site of the Mongolian and Tibetan School, and the Xiangshan Revolutionary Memorial Hall. At present, there are 213 graded tourist attractions in the city, including 9 5A-level attractions, ranking second among cities in the country.

"I can't finish it, I can't finish it at all!" Ms. Meng, who recently traveled to Beijing, shared eagerly in her circle of friends that her daily "special forces"-like schedule was tight and the photos she took formed one nine-square grid after another, but what made her "distressed" was that there were still a lot of attractions she wanted to see and could see. Such rich cultural and tourism resources allow tourists from all over the world to enjoy the beauty of nature, appreciate the beauty of culture, and cultivate the beauty of the soul. In the first half of 2024, Beijing received 172 million tourists, an increase of 7.7% over 2019. At present, following market trends, most tourist attractions and museums in the city have completely canceled reservation requirements. Municipal parks and the China Garden Museum have canceled the regulations on closing cultural relics and ancient buildings, gardens in gardens, and museums on Mondays. Many popular museums have adopted measures such as delayed opening and staggered closing to meet the visiting needs of more visitors, allowing service capabilities to reach a new level.

The charm of Beijing lies in its integration of culture and tourism and its diversity.

Nowadays, the relaxed and casual "city walk" is popular all over the country, but long before this term became popular, Beijing had pioneered the "Walking in Beijing" plan. By last year, more than 300 routes that penetrated the urban fabric had been developed, allowing the "three cultural belts" to bloom. At the same time, Beijing was the first in the country to transform the concept of "micro-vacation" proposed by the tourism academic community into practical work, launching 12 "Beijing Micro-vacation" destinations, and for the first time in the country, the government-led "Internet celebrity check-in place" selection activity was carried out. 300 "Internet celebrity check-in places" are spread across the city and are constantly updated. The vitality of cultural and tourism consumption has been continuously stimulated. Beijing has 14 national-level nighttime cultural and tourism consumption clusters, 5 districts have been selected as national cultural and tourism consumption pilot cities, and 5 blocks have been selected as national-level tourism and leisure blocks, ranking among the top in the country.

New consumption and cultural trends are emerging one after another, and the trend of “going to the performing arts capital to watch Beijing opera” is in full swing.

Which popular performances have opened tickets, and which famous artists will be on stage in Beijing? Now, similar topics are increasingly appearing in everyone's hot discussions after dinner. In 2023, "striving to build a 'performing arts capital'" was written into the Beijing Municipal Government Work Report for the first time. This year, the city held more than 49,000 commercial performances, setting a record high. In the first half of 2024, the city held as many as 27,000 commercial performances, an increase of 22.8% compared with the same period in 2023. Anne-Sophie Mutter, Rudolf Buchbinder, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Svetlana Zakharova, Zubin Mehta and other international masters and famous groups visited intensively. Domestic word-of-mouth masterpieces such as "Dream of Red Mansions" and "The Eternal Wave" have come one after another. Beijing-produced masterpieces such as "Deng Shichang", "Yongdingmenli" and "Nine Songs" have premiered one after another, making the cultural business card of "Watching Beijing for Big Dramas" brilliant and worthy of its name.

In May 2024, Phoenix Legend will perform at the National Stadium "Bird's Nest", and tickets are hard to come by. "I sang until my voice was hoarse, it was so enjoyable!" Speaking of the whole night's enjoyable chorus and the sea of ​​lights formed by glow sticks, Xiaoru, a fan, is still excited. For this concert, she mobilized her "fast-handed" friends around her to grab tickets together at the right time, and rushed from Qingdao to Beijing two days before the performance. The enthusiasm of "going to a city for a concert" has greatly driven the cultural and tourism consumption of the entire chain of cross-city performances. According to the "Analysis of Trends and Characteristics of Large-scale Commercial Performance Market" report released by the 2024 China (Tianjin) Performance Fair, the farthest area radiated by the Beijing concert can reach Guangdong.

The "capital of performing arts" is full of flowers, which can be magnificent or elegant. Small and flexible performing arts spaces are like capillaries, extending artistic resources to every corner of the city. Driven by relevant policies, last year, the Beijing Performing Arts Service Platform launched 15 performing arts space cultivation projects, and 29 district-level new performing arts spaces were recognized or awarded. The reborn guild hall has a unique Beijing style. With the in-depth promotion of the characteristic brand of "guild halls with drama", performing arts resources such as opera, folk art, and dance have completely revitalized the once silent century-old buildings. When you step into them, tourists can listen to the echoes of history in the sound of opera, or they can become "actors in the play" and immerse themselves in the local customs and customs of old Beijing. Huguang Guild Hall, Pigment Guild Hall, Zhengyi Temple Theater... The old guild halls that witnessed the changes of the times in the past are leaving new marks on the changes and development of the capital. In the first half of this year, such new performing arts spaces are still emerging, attracting more and more tourists to watch performances and check in.

Cultural tourism is like a gentle breeze that warms people's hearts and makes life better. Standing at the intersection of history and today, China and the world, the high-quality development of Beijing's cultural tourism industry takes meeting the people's growing needs for a better life as its starting point and foothold, but there is no end to the journey of serving and benefiting the people. How to make the profound resources accumulated by the national cultural center serve more people more widely and deeply, Beijing is still leading, exploring and taking action, and will surely bloom more brilliantly in the future.

Source: Beijing Daily

Process Editor: u028