China's Rural Guizhou Province to Address Poverty with Culture Diversity and Tourism

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Sep 30, 2016, 06:52 ET

GUI'AN, China, Sept. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The second China (Guizhou) International Folk Culture and Tourism Products Expo got underway on September 28 in Gui'an New District, Guizhou, a province in southwest China.

The show welcomed more than 5,000 exhibitors and visitors from 15 provinces of China and 53 countries and regions all over the world on its first day, as Mr. Zhang Guangzhi, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Guizhou Branch addressed in the Opening Ceremony.

The opening ceremony of the 2016 China (Guizhou) International Folk Culture and Tourism Products Expo

As the media partner of the Expo, huanqiu.com helped invite international media from Vietnam, Russia, South Korea and other countries and regions to come and report it.

"Guizhou is known for its beautiful landscapes, joyful climate and extra abundant, diversified folk cultures," Governor of Guizhou Mr. Sun Zhigang told the audience. "We have 140 state-level Intangible Cultural Heritage items province wide."

However, the province has long been trapped in poverty and underdevelopment. Both the nominal GDP and GDP per capita of Guizhou are below average in China, even though it has undergone double-digit growth in the past five years.

Tourism is one of the main stimuli of Guizhou's recent rapid growth, as some ironically argue that the lagged-behind process of industrialization had left the environment of the province substantially intact. In addition, the province accommodates 49 minority groups from a total of 55 in China, making its culture spectrum the most colorful in China and attracting 84 million tourists in 2015, a great contributing element to the development of tourism.

"Sustainable tourism helps get rid of poverty," Francesco Frangialli, Honoary Secretary General UN World Tourism Organization said in the Expo press conference. "Both the UN and China realize that tourism, especially rural tourism, addresses the problem of poverty in a positive way."

The tourism sector was responsible for 7.1% of provincial GDP in 2012, and 8.7% in 2014, and in the past five years over half of the people living below the poverty line have seen a significant increase in their living standards.

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