The news conference of the 7th Fenlong Festival and the first karst culture tourism festival [Photo by Qin Riquan/Xinhua]

The Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county in Hechi, Guangxi, will hold the 7th Fenlong Festival as the first karst tourism festival from June 19 to 21.

The festival aims to show the karst landscape of Huanjiang and the ethnic culture of the Maonan people. Activities such as a blessing ceremony, dragon boat races, a folk song competition and stunt motorboat performance will be held at Huanjiang county town, Guangxi Mulun Nature Reserve and Niujiaozhai Scenic Spot.

Huanjiang is the only Maonan autonomous county nationwide. Its karst landscape was included in the World Natural Heritage list in June 2014.

In recent years, Huanjiang has been striving to develop tourism relying on its advantaged resources. The county received 613,000 tourists in 2014, an increase of 25.42 percent over 2013, and gained 557 million yuan ($89.73 million), a growth of 28 percent compared to the number of 2013.

According to Tan Mian, the chairman of the county's Political Consultative Conference, Huanjiang will emphasize on the construction of traffic networks, scenic spots and rural tourism areas. Its aim in 2015 is to receive over 760,000 tourists in total and tourism income of 690 million yuan.

Edited by Andrew Ancheta