Baxianguan village of Wudang special zone evaluated as China's most charming village

( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2012-05-18

In the afternoon of April 19, a grand ceremony was held in the peach blossom quarter of Pinggu district of Beijing, a world class scenic spot. It extended honorary titles of one of China's most charming villages for recreation in 2011. The activity was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). Baxianguan village of Mount Wudang special zone was the only village in the Hubei province to edge onto the top 10 villages in the country.

So far, China has 1.5 million household-based hotels and restaurants offering recreational services in 600,000 villages. Among them, 18,000 hotels and restaurants have developed into larger scaled versions. They can receive 400 million tourists annually, with over 120 billion yuan operating revenues to benefit 15 million farmers.

MOA has appraised the most charming villages for recreational activities in the past two years. On July 29, 2011, it kicked off the activity in Beijing and until September 15, the general public voted for 20 candidates on the Renmin Online and mobile phone text message platform. In the end, it named the 10 most charming villages as a result of local government recommendation, public voting, and expert examinations.