Updated: 2014-06-24
Traveling to rural areas on weekends is an extremely popular option for most city-dwellers, making rural tourism a promising business. For that reason, Zhangjiagang has strived to develop its rural tourism to create more jobs and raise income for local peasants. Various rural tourism products have attracted many visitors from local and neighboring cities.
During recent years, Zhangjiagang has established 25 agricultural tourist resorts covering a total area of 32,000 mu (2,133.33 hectares). In 2013, agricultural tourist resorts received 1.6 million visitors, generating tourism income of 480 million yuan ($77.86 million).
Zhangjiagang's rural tourism features sightseeing, fruit picking, fishing, entertainment, catering and farming culture. It encourages urban residents to return to nature, increases farmer income and boosts the rural economy.
In 2014, the city will focus on transforming and upgrading its rural tourism to further push forward the promotion of high-quality rural tourism.