China Focus: Industrial tourism ignites consumer market in global manufacturing powerhouse

BEIJING, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- As the world's manufacturing powerhouse, China is turning its vast industrial landscape into tourism destinations that give visitors immersive, behind-the-scenes experiences, bringing them closer to the charm hidden inside factory doors and injecting fresh momentum into its consumer market.

In the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, bookings for visits to the Xiaomi auto factory have been on the rise among tech enthusiasts eager to witness the sci-fi-like scenes where popular electric vehicle models are produced.

With the goal of integrating professional knowledge with physical displays and delivering a popular science experience to visitors, the factory has recorded more than 150,000 bookings from last April to this June, receiving over 10,000 visitors each month on average, according to Shi Xiaomin, who is in charge of the project.

Factory tours have emerged as a trend in China's tourism market, as localities across the country innovate the "industry + tourism" integration model to offer more diverse experiences for visitors, while advancing the upgrading of their industrial sectors.

China has established a comprehensive, independent, and integrated modern industrial system and left behind abundant historical and cultural heritage, according to Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology.

"In recent years, remarkable achievements have been made nationwide by taking the development of industrial culture as a key driver to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of cultural resources such as industrial heritage," Xin added.

Official data shows that China has 264 national-level industrial heritage projects and nearly 500 provincial-level industrial heritage projects. Under the industrial tourism trend, more and more industrial heritage sites in the country have been transformed into cultural and creative parks, commercial hubs and technology parks, drawing visitors to these internet-famous destinations.

At the Liuzhou Luosifen Industrial Park in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, visitors can not only witness the production of pre-packaged luosifen, or river snail rice noodle, on-site but also observe the national intangible cultural heritage Liuzhou Luosifen production techniques and try their hand at making a bowl of the noodle soup themselves.

At the Tsingtao Beer Museum in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, an immersive time-travel drama experience has been a frenzy among young people. Taking on the role of Tsingtao Beer brewers, visitors step into a live-action game that integrates scripted murder mystery and escape room challenges. Through these diverse experiences, they can vividly feel the vicissitudes of the century-old factory.

Industry observers believe the innovative model integrating visits, research and study, and consumption not only caters to the interests of visitors, who can get up close to industrial scenes that are usually hard to access, but also delivers brand value and revenue growth to relevant enterprises.

The market potential of the country's industrial tourism industry is expected to maintain an average annual growth rate of 18 percent over the next five years, with the market size expected to exceed 300 billion yuan (about 42.4 billion U.S. dollars) by 2029, according to the ministry.

China recently outlined plans to accelerate the development of a strong manufacturing sector and to promote deeper integration of culture and tourism in its recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for economic and social development.

In the future, the ministry will promote the protection and inheritance of industrial culture, explore effective mechanisms for the integrated development of culture, technology and industry, as well as create a number of new cultural consumption scenarios and cultural industry clusters, according to Xin. ■