The Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs recently announced a list of provincial demonstration locations for leisure agriculture and rural tourism in 2022. Gaozhou is the only county in western Guangdong to have been selected as a key provincial county for leisure agriculture and rural tourism.

Yuanba village in Gaozhou. [Photo/WeChat account: Nanfang Plus]

Among the listed locations, there are four key counties for provincial leisure agriculture and rural tourism, and 27 demonstration towns for provincial leisure agriculture and rural tourism.

Gaozhou is the hometown of lychees, the first fruit city in China, and known for its Chinese folk culture and art. This famous historical and cultural city in Guangdong is also the hometown of ten traditional Guangdong cuisines.

Shenyong village. [Photo/WeChat account: maofabu]

Gaozhou was the political, economic and cultural center of the ancient Lingnan region. It features many national intangible cultural heritage items, such as Gaozhou puppet performances, and nationally protected cultural relics, such as Baoguang Tower. It is also home to the national lychee modern agriculture industrial park, and provincial lychee, longan, banana modern agriculture industrial park.

Gaozhou has seven provincial leisure agriculture and rural tourism demonstration sites, three provincial leisure agriculture and rural tourism demonstration towns, one of China's beautiful leisure villages, one national rural tourism line, and one of China's beautiful rural tourism scenic spots.

Additionally, Gaozhou has built one national 4A-level tourist attraction and three 3A-level tourist attractions. Gaozhou is a famous rural tourism development county, and it is a provincial tourism demonstration creation area. In 2021, Gaozhou received more than five million tourists.