Thirty-five festival activities are scheduled in 10 cities and 25 counties across Shanxi to attract visitors from home and abroad between August and October.

The activities include a tourism exhibition, photography exhibition, sports competition, literature and history research exchanges, food fair, temple fair, ecological tour and other activities. The largest activity is the 17th China Northern Tourism Trade Fair held in Taiyuan city, the capital of Shanxi province.

To date, more than 10 activities have been staged at the Drum Tower. The events circulated roughly ten-thousand pieces of publicity materials and drew thousands of people to watch the live performances.

Since July 25, the "Walk into the Community" activity has already been held in more than 10 cities, putting on eight performances and circulating thousands of entrance tickets for scenic spots and souvenirs to local people. The activity will continue its itinerary to Jinzhong, Yangquan and Datong city.

The Shanxi Tourism Administration has also set up a feature website named "Discover Beauty in Shanxi". The website has six major parts, including a top ten most beautiful scenic spots in Shanxi voting competition, photography collection, two video exhibitions on Shanxi’s proverbs and poems respectively, travel journals, and a mircoblog page discussing Shanxi's progress. As of July 31, the website has had nearly one million visitors and 65,000 registered members.

The authorities also interact with netizens using tieba.baidu.com, Tianya.cn, travel.sina.com, club.travel.sohu.com and other popular online tourism forums.

By Wang Suo