On July 26th, the press conference and launching ceremony of the 9th China Yangtze Gorges International Tourism Festival was held in Chongqing. From now on to the end of November, the 9th China Yangtze Gorges International Tourism Festival will be held in Wanzhou District of Chongqing and various places including Yichang alongside the Yangtze River Three Gorges in Chongqing and Hubei. In the meantime, various cultural tourism activities and discount measures for scenic spot ticket will be launched.

　　China Yangtze Gorges International Tourism Festival is a large-scale tourism festival jointly hosted by the Chongqing Municipal Government and the Hubei Provincial Government. It has been held in Chongqing City and Hubei Province for eight times by turns, and it has become a well-known cultural tourism festival brand in China. Among them, Yichang, as one of Hubei members in the Rotating Chairman Meeting of Chongqing and Hubei, has hosted the tourism festival for four times and made active explorations for promoting mutual benefit and win-win cooperation of tourism development in Hubei and Chongqing.

　　According to reports, the 9th China Yangtze Gorges International Tourism Festival will last until the end of November. During the period, 8 major activities, including the Song Festivals of World Big River, Light Show of Tourist Culture, Free Revisit of the Three Gorges for 100 International Tourists, Large-Scale Real Scenery Performance and Three Gorges Tourism Forum, and etc., will be held.

　　Last year, at the opening ceremony of the 8th China Yangtze Gorges International Tourism Festival which was held in the People Scenic Three Gorges, the performance form of large-scale real scenery was firstly adopted and it was highly praised by netizens across the country. In October this year, the large-scale real scenery performance of Return the Three Gorges directed by the famous director Zhang Yimou will be premiered in Kuimen, Fengjie County. The performance will be based on the poetry culture that the poets of the past dynasties chanted Three Gorges, and it highlights the elements such as science and technology, environmental protection, humanities, poetry and etc.

　　At the launching ceremony, Chongqing and Hubei jointly promoted and released the 16 major high-quality lines for Three Gorges tourism involving land way and waterway tourism. Among them, there are 14 land way high-quality lines and 2 waterway high-quality lines, involving Fengjie, Wanzhou and Wushan in Chongqing, Zigui and Xingshan in Yichang, Badong in Enshi, Shennongjia and other places. There are short-distance tourism lines for 2 to 3 days as well as long-distance tourism lines for 4 to 7 days.

　　During the event, the Rotating Chairmanship Meeting about the Regional Tourism Cooperation of Yangtze Gorges, the signing ceremony of the investment cooperation project along the Three Gorges Scenic Area and the Three Gorges Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition will be held to promote the world’s high-quality tourism resources and create the historical and cultural card for Three Gorges tourism. (Reporter: Wang Ying)