“How great the changes are! It feels like a new scenic area.” On August 15, the Three Gorges Great Falls (referred to Baiguoshu Falls previously) reopened with its great changes aswell as the high-quality and immersive travel experience, gaining the praise from the tourists.

　　Located in the Xiaofeng Tourism Region of Yichang, the Great Falls is a 4A-class scenic spot honored as the fourth falls among the “ ten most beautiful falls in China”. Not only is it a natural geological museum where several geological ages like the Sinian Period, the Ordovician, and the Cambrian Period are exhibited, but also one of the few national geoparks integrating valleys, karst caves, landscape, and fossil culture in the world. On the first day of its reopening, 12,500 visitors with successful on-line reservations came here for free, witnessing the radical changes and gorgeous charm of one of “the ten most beautiful falls in China”.

　　To strive to be a 5A-class scenic area with all-out efforts, the region reinvested 300- million-yuan specialfunds from the fourth season last year to upgrade the closed area. In the tourist center with the new upgrade, multi-functional and all-round infrastructures are equipped, such as the video room, clinic, baby care room, post office, books, storage service, automatic tickets-selling machines, and information service. Meanwhile, intelligent and user-friendly services are provided through the high-speed WIFI, multimedia touch screen, and ultra-large LED display.

　　Furthermore, 10 million yuan was funded to step up the “ toilet revolution”. Improvement was made to all the toilets in accordance with the standard of 3A-class tourism area, four 3A-class toilets were renovated, three toilets were added as gender-neutral, and new systems were built including the intelligent display of left rooms, air quality monitoring, and unmanned SOS. Through the panoramic guiding labels and safety aid facilities, the tourist-centered, standard and friendly services are fully embodied.

　　At the same time, smart tourism is promoted in all respects as smart-scenery WIFI, audio tour, tourist flow statistics, and safety monitoring covering the whole region. Besides, nearly 20,000 ㎡disaster protection net was installed, and all-side promotion was conducted to the sign plates as well as the stores in the scenery region. After the 9-month-long reconstruction, the totally transformed Great Falls is shown with a more beautiful environment, more advanced facilities, more panoramic safety protections, higher-quality services, more satisfactory experiences, and stronger power to drive the poverty-alleviation in the nearby regions.

　　Despite a large number of tourists, the scene was orderly and the epidemic prevention and control were strict and efficient. At the new entrance of the visitor center, intelligent detection equipment such as intelligent voice prompter and inductive automatic imaging measurement and control machine was widely used, with which the tourists finished temperature check quickly through a series of operations, shorting the time for waiting to a large extent. The comprehensive disinfection of the scenic spot, ubiquitous safety tips as well as the polite and smiling staff, all put people into a safe atmosphere.

　　Among others, crossing the Great Falls despite getting wet was still the most popular activity. It is the common choice of countless tourists to walk into and cross the pouring waterfall to feel the wild passion of nature, and experience the unique fun of being integrated with the waterfall. The queue of visitors dressed in raincoats waiting to experience this activity was as long as more than 100 meters under the main waterfall. The screams, cheers were interwovenwith the roar of the waterfall, reverberating in the sky.

　　After the comprehensive upgrade, the characteristics of the Three Gorges Falls, such as high quality, experience tour, in-depth tour and cultural tour linkage, have been further highlighted. In addition to “the only hundred-meter-high waterfall in China’smainland” that can be appreciated in an all-round way and crossed, the region spent a large amount of money introducingthe precious “Sinoceras” and black awing boats for visitors to enjoy. The exhibition shows of intangible heritage like Haocao Gong and Drum, calligraphy and painting by fingers will be the eye-opener. What’s more, performing the art of tea-making and Zheng(a Chinese musical instrument), boating on the lake, catching crabs in the river, watching the rainbow before the waterfall is more intoxicating and enjoyable, experiencing the fun with the landscape. (Reporters: Zhang Yuangang and Zhou Hanfei; Correspondent: Mao Yuekang)