Xinhua Silk Road: Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in S. China eyes traditional ethnic culture, tourism resources to build int'l tourist city

BEIJING, July 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, the only autonomous county for the Maonan ethnic group in China and located in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is striving to build an international tourist city by relying on its traditional ethnic culture and rich tourism resources.

The Maonan ethnic group is one of China's 28 ethnic groups with a small population. Around 70 percent of Maonan people, or 64,500, live in Huanjiang County.

The ethnic group boasts a long history and a unique culture. The weaving skills of Maonan flower bamboo hats, as well as "Feitao", a kind of ritual for blessing that integrates folk songs, drama, dance, and other artistic elements, have been listed as national intangible cultural heritages.

The Fenlong Festival, one of the top ten festival brands in Guangxi, is the oldest and grandest festival for Maonan people. It is held on a year basis and usually lasts for three to five days, meaning to pray for good harvests.

This year's Fenlong Festival kicked off on June 25, combining with the world natural heritage cultural tourism festival activities to provide visitors with the chance to experience the traditional sports competitions, chess competitions, and the intangible cultural heritage projects like flower bamboo hat weaving, mask carving, etc. of the Maonan ethnic group.

Huanjiang County also boasts unique tourism resources, with karst forest ecosystem well preserved. Its karst landscape was included in the World Natural Heritage List in 2014.

In recent years, the county has vigorously developed ecological agriculture and promoted ecological tourism and ethnic and folk culture tours, attracting more and more visitors to experience the natural landscapes as well as the cultural landscapes.

Huanjiang County is also well-known for its delicious and featured food, with locally-bred pigs, cows, ducks, rice and mushrooms the most famous.

In the future, the county will continue to integrate into its neighbouring economic circles, strive to build an international tourist city that is ecologically livable, recreational, and culturally splendid, and promote its world natural heritage culture and colorful Maonan culture to the whole country and the world.

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