Cittaslow, an Italian organization, has recently certified Fuli town, Fuchuan Yao Autonomous County, as the first "international slow city" in Guangxi and the fourth in China, the publicity department of Fuchuan announced.
China Daily reported that Cittaslow, an organization that promotes the improvement of the quality of life in towns by slowing down its overall pace, had sent a delegation to Fuchuan to conduct field inspection and evaluation in July last year.
According to the report, Fuli town's Agriculture Core Demonstration Plot was considered to meet the standard of an "international slow city."
Fuchuan had previously been promoting tourism by developing rural home inns and making the best of unique local resources. The county also developed eco-new villages to facilitate rural tourism and planned to construct a visitor center to hasten designation as an "international slow city."
Chen Hua, secretary of Fuchuan County Party committee, said that Fuchuan now has invested more than 6 million yuan ($0.91 million) in an inn and a mountainous resort with a total planned investment of over 12 million yuan. It has also used the 100 mu (6.67 hectares) land planned for tourism and has built a large-scale green parking lot.
In addition, the county embarked on an ecological agriculture sightseeing tourism project with the theme of valuable domestic and foreign plants and flowers, including a 1,000 mu Shenxian Lake Agricultural Sightseeing Park, a 2,100 mu Rose Lake Water Park, a 200 mu health maintenance park, and a 300 mu rare fruits picking garden.
The first phase of the project with an all-year-round sea of flowers opened to the public on the National Day last year, the report said. The whole project is expected to be completed this year.
At present, the area has received nearly 300,000 tourists, earning income of 123 million yuan, the report added.