Editor’s Note

On 29 May, the 2022 International Mountain Tourism Day theme event was held online and themed on “Mountain Tourism Promotes Healthy Life and Cultural Exchange”. The event motivated the New Media network, connected IMTA members, destination agencies, enterprises, and experts from all over the world, and carried out “cloud communication, dialogue, and presentation” around three chapters — “Focus · Mountain”, “Health · Life”, and “Civilization · Communication”. Against the background that the global tourism industry is still facing epidemic crisis and other complex situations, the event helps create a healthier and more positive atmosphere and market for mountain tourism, promote cultural exchange, friendly communication, and mutual integration among countries, to jointly prepare, build, and share a bright future of mountain tourism. At the event, the International Mountain Tourism Alliance cooperated with its members and industry organizations from 5 continents, more than 30 countries to carry out a variety of activities to show the difference mountain tourism features and jointly celebrated the arrival of the International Mountain Tourism Day.

Chinese National Geography · Camp：Celebration of 2022 International Mountain Tourism Day

Guo Yingqian, general manager of Chinese National Geography · Camp, was invited to participate in the event and exchange ideas with many experts and practitioners in the field of mountain tourism, in the bid to build a brighter and shared future of mountain tourism.

Guo Yingqian shared his view that after the pandemic, people will have greater longing for nature, and cherish the real experience of opening and stretching in nature more, and relaxed in nature, thus ushering in a broader future for the development of mountain tourism.

For the mountain tourism industry, tourism is the behavior, which is carried by and relied on mountains. China is rich in mountain resources. Southwest of Guizhou, for example, is one of the regions with the largest distribution of karst mountains in the world. Therefore, when exploring mountain tourism, the practitioners of the mountain tourism industry should pay more attention to understanding the great variety of landforms and landscapes of the Chinese geology.

Secondly, mountain tourism is a great test of people's physical strength, endurance and other physical conditions. Therefore, it is suggested that the general public do not hastily pursue for becoming professional mountain sport players whether when they are going mountain hiking, cycling, camping or climbing. Instead, it is recommended that they set up easy goals with a main purpose of getting close to nature.

This year’s theme is “Mountain Tourism Promotes Healthy Life and Cultural Exchange”. I am a diehard fan of mountain tourism and mountains also represent a geographical pattern—vertical zonation. So, today, I would like to share with you a brief piece of "healthy life" brought by “vertical zonation”

At the HQ of Chinese National Geography · Camp in Beijing . It’s an “urban natural garden” built by us. It is an outdoor vertical zonation that lives through winter in northern China, it’s also the first beauty we see in spring.

Here, we also have a 3D building extended from the red frame of Chinese National Geography, an art device Hercules beetle that’s 5 meters long and 4 meters high and many themed scenarios in natural gallery, natural garden, and natural school. These are all examples of how we apply natural elements to our living space. Unlike the outdoor plant wall we just saw it’s an indoor vertical garden in the natural school. We’ve got common vegetations in Beijing like begonia, and many kinds of ferns. We can use mobile to control the light and water for both indoor and outdoor plant walls and make them low-carbon and energy-saving.

In cities, we can’t see mountains or rivers everyday. So we put natural elements like mountains and phenology into difference scenarios and our daily work and life. In this way, we can move nature from the mountains to our living space. That is the “healthy life” that we can create in our daily life.

It is recommended that during the pandemic, people can create a natural environment with easy access in their daily lives, where they can do exercise and build strength. Just like what is advocated by the Chinese National Geography · Camp, "between square inches there is a vast world". Nature is everywhere.

Guizhou is a place where I love deeply and have special ties with. I participated in several mountain tourism conferences before, and planned the Scenic Trip to Guizhou and some other programs which aim to spread the beauty of the mountains by inviting experts and net influencers to share their experiences.

In the past few years, Guizhou has witnessed the rapid development of mountain tourism. Further upgrades of mountain tourism can focus on increasing the depth of tourist experiences, and helping tourists discover a mysterious Guizhou again. The ability to "upgrade" or "discover" is precisely the responsibility and mission of the Chinese National Geography · Camp.

In the camp, we systematically explore and excavate the beauty of China's native land, and deepen the two concepts of "discovery": Guizhou in geology, and Guizhou in anthropology. The integration of geography and humanities pushes the tourism to the level of natural science, and turns it from the appearance back to the invisible essence, so that tourists can dig deep into the details of Guizhou. In this way, not only do we attract the attention of the tourists, but also elevate the quality of cultural tourism experience.

We should innovate the content of mountain tourism to usher in new travel perspectives and experiences featured by being scientific, natural and in-depth.

At the same time, Guo Yingqian believes that the participation of young people in mountain tourism and exploration will bring great social significance. Allowing young people to communicate with their peers nationwide or global wide in terms of natural science, outdoor sports, travel and social interaction, etc., will greatly broaden their knowledge scope and horizons, which will be of great benefit to their overall development.

Mountain is featured by its versatile environment and rich variety of vegetation. Mountain tourism provides people with more diverse ways to contact and get close to nature. The value and market space of mountain tourism are also irreplaceable in terms of its resource endowment and industrial environment.

The continuous holding of the International Mountain Tourism Day is a continuous encouragement and spreading of the spirit of human exploration of nature. Through the Mountain Tourism Day, this scientific and rational exploration to nature can be continued, the spirit of showing more respect for nature can be retained, and more people can be allowed to enter and experience the richness and charm of mountains.

Please allow me to express my gratitude to the organizers of the activity for their continuous protection and promotion of mountain tourism. The Chinese National Geography · Camp is willing to boost the development of mountain tourism in Guizhou!