Source: Time Weekly Author: Li Hang
If you go to Xuchang for the first time and ask the driver in a taxi what interesting places there are, the answers are basically the ruins of the Three Kingdoms and Pangdonglai, which represent the past and present of Xuchang respectively.
Xuchang is a fourth tier city about 100 kilometers south of Zhengzhou, with an area of two-thirds of Zhengzhou and a population of one-third of Zhengzhou. In 196 AD, Cao Cao welcomed Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and moved his capital from Luoyang to Xuchang, where he reigned for 25 years, making Xuchang famous.
In 2024, Xuchang's local supermarket, Pangdonglai, will be well-known nationwide for its excellent service and humanistic management, attracting online celebrities, research teams and young people from all over the country.
As a result, someone said jokingly, "In ancient times, Cao Cao threatened the emperor to order the princes, but now there is a fat east to stabilize the supply of goods and rectify the supermarket".
According to official data, during the May Day holiday in 2024, the three stores of Pangdonglai Angel City, Times Square and Life Square received about 1.55 million tourists in total. Because you can walk around without paying for tickets, Pangdonglai is also called the most cost-effective "5A scenic spot" in China.
The popularity of Pangdong has also brought Xuchang's tepid tourism market to life.
Before Pang Dong came to fame, Xuchang's tourism industry was not strong. According to the data, in 2019, Xuchang, the main "three countries", received a total of 31.9662 million tourists, with a total tourism revenue of 21.355 billion yuan. In the same year, Luoyang received 142 million tourists, and its total tourism income reached 132102 million yuan, six times that of Xuchang.
Now, with the popularity of Pangdonglai on the Internet and the increase of tourists' attention to small town tourism, the popularity of Xuchang's cultural tourism market continues to rise.
During the May Day holiday in 2024, Xuchang received 4.8 million tourists in total, realizing a comprehensive tourism income of 3.744 billion yuan, up 115% and 118% year on year respectively with the May Day holiday in 2023, and 169% and 196% year on year respectively with the May Day holiday in 2019, hitting a record high.
Born in Xuchang, Pangdonglai has grown into a "god like existence of Chinese retail industry" on this fertile land, and after it came out of the circle, the traffic from the sky is also "exploding" the city.
"Multifaceted" Xu Chang
Many people didn't know Xuchang before Pangdong came here.
"Grasping one is a legend, and kicking one is a Han brick and Wei tile". Xuchang has a long history and splendid culture.
In 196 AD, Cao Cao moved his capital to Xudu County (today's Xuchangdong, Henan Province), "holding the emperor to order the princes"; In 220 AD, Cao Pi established Wei on behalf of the Han Dynasty. Because "Wei Jichang was in Xu", Xu County was changed to Xuchang. The name of Xuchang has been used for more than 1800 years.
Someone once calculated that 59 out of 120 chapters of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms took place in Xuchang. In Xuchang, the stories of the Three Kingdoms are widely spread. The historical sites of the Three Kingdoms are scattered everywhere, and the names related to the culture of the Three Kingdoms can be seen everywhere. Among the 300 cultural sites of the Three Kingdoms in China, Xuchang owns more than 80, including the Baling Bridge where Guan Yu said goodbye to Cao Tiaopao, and the Spring and Autumn Tower where Guan Yu read by candlelight at night.
Xuchang Spring and Autumn Tower Source: Graphic Insect Creativity
In today's Xuchang, the modern flavor slowly diffuses from the thick historical gap.
As a traditional old industrial city in the hinterland of central China, Xuchang has carried out large-scale industrial construction since the 1960s. Equipment manufacturing industry, food processing industry, textile industry, energy and power industry are all traditional competitive industries of Xuchang.
Moreover, Xuchang has a developed private economy, known as "Wenzhou in Henan", and the proportion of private economy in the total economy ranks first in the province.
If you have seen the popular TV play Chicken Hair Flying into the Sky, you will be particularly familiar with the history of Xuchang people's prosperity. The Xuchang wig entrepreneurs who have made their fortunes in the streets are just like the story of Chen Jianghe.
"A wisp of hair" has generated an annual cross-border e-commerce transaction volume of more than 1 billion dollars in Xuchang. In 2022, the cumulative import and export volume of Xuchang hair products will reach 17.9 billion yuan, making it the largest hair product distribution center and export base in China and even in the world.
Among them, Rebecca, the star enterprise of Xuchang wig industry, sells its products to more than 40 countries in Asia and Africa and more than 100 large and medium-sized cities in China. In 2023, Rebecca will achieve a total revenue of 1.226 billion yuan.
In addition to these, Xuchang is also a livable city.
In 2023, the short video "Xuchang Don't panic" shot by Fan Jinlin from Xuchang became popular on the Internet. In the video, he took "3000 yuan a month, taking you to experience the happiness of Xuchang people" as the main line, showing the angry side of Xu Changyan.
In Xuchang, a water bus tour around the city, 3 yuan; Outdoor barber shop, 5 yuan; For 300 yuan, you can ask the whole dormitory to open the card seat and listen to LIVE SHOW for one night. Even here, you can find many free pleasures, such as swimming in the Yinma River, or going to the Liyuan Pavilion to see a play for free.
Fat East Brings "Splendid Traffic"
Ozawa, a Henan native, fell in love with this place when he first went to Xuchang in 2018.
He thinks the city is clean and tidy, with free football fields and basketball courts everywhere, as well as many smart bookstores. In other cities, tall buildings stand on the central axis, while Xuchang is a central park for several kilometers, which is very similar to the layout of Manhattan, the core area of New York.
"What's special about Xuchang is that in today's fast-paced society, life here is very relaxed. Persimmons and pomegranates can be picked from trees, clams and crayfish can be found in the river, and a variety of aquatic plants are planted beside the river. Living here can experience the joy of nature. In addition, there are many enterprises like Pangdonglai who are blessed by the temperature. It can be said that life in Xuchang has quality assurance. " Ozawa said.
Source of Drinking Horse River in Summer: Creativity of Pictorial Insects
Ozawa said that at that time, Pangdonglai had not yet been out of the circle on the Internet, and there were few tourists, so it was very fast to get in and out of the railway station. "At that time, some people knew about Xuchang, but they didn't know about it. The city seemed transparent. When people mentioned the cities around Zhengzhou, their first reaction was Luoyang, Kaifeng, and even more college students visited Xinxiang than Xuchang."
Pang Dong's appearance gave the outside world a chance to learn about Xu Chang.
In 2020, Pangdonglai was called "conscience enterprise" by netizens because it sold all vegetables at purchase price during the epidemic. After that, Pangdonglai began to be known by the public.
In 2022, Fat Donglai Supermarket launched the "Internet Red Large Moon Cake", which was sold out immediately after it was put on the shelves. Customers' enthusiasm for buying was growing. Fat Donglai Large Moon Cake quickly became popular on the Internet and was snapped up by the market. Many customers queued up all night to buy mooncakes at high prices.
Pangdonglai has gradually changed from a local supermarket in Xuchang to an online supermarket.
By 2023, with the opening of Zhengzhou Xuzhou railway and the boost of network traffic, the passenger flow from fat east will increase significantly. According to the summary released by Xuchang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, during the Mid Autumn Festival National Day holiday in 2023, Pangdonglai received 2.7 million tourists in total, and only Pangdonglai Angel City received 1.4 million tourists, of which foreign tourists accounted for more than 95%.
Xuchang received 7.504 million tourists during the holiday. In other words, nearly one third of tourists went to Pangdonglai.
In recent years, with the change of young people's travel concept, it has become common to travel for a concert, a small barbecue, and a bowl of Malatang.
According to Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher of the Central Institute of Culture and Tourism Management, cultural and tourism consumption is shifting from traditional scenic spots to diversified cultural and entertainment consumption. In the context of the gradual diversification of the tourism market, tourists are no longer satisfied with the traditional "walking horses and watching fancy" tour, but pay more attention to the high-quality experience of the whole process of travel, looking forward to finding a tourism destination that can really make them feel happy and deeply feel the local lifestyle and customs.
For today's young people, they often don't like the traditional way of traveling with groups, such as getting on the bus to sleep and getting off to take photos. Clustering to big cities has become a thing of the past.
They prefer to jump out of the travel stereotype of aesthetic fatigue and find some small cities and personalized scenes full of beautiful life elements, such as those less popular fourth and fifth tier small cities or unpopular scenic spots. Pangdonglai and Xuchang just meet this demand.
The influx of tourists has brought great changes to Xuchang. "The number of cars during the holiday season is obviously much higher than that in previous years. I also specially looked at the license plates, which are available all over the country," Ozawa said.
Since this year, because of pet events such as "Pang Dong only earns 30 cents on a down jacket", "Pang Dong responds that after watching the movie, he can get a half price refund", "Pang Dong comes to 13 pages to report and investigate the food tasting incident of employees", Pang Dong has been on social media hot searches more frequently. At this time, people's tourism demand began to burst out in a concentrated way. Tourists from all over the country formed groups or drove their own cards to experience the service of fat people.
"Before Fat East came out of the circle, Xuchang was a fourth tier small city in Henan. Now, with the help of traffic, this treasure city has been discovered, its popularity has been greatly improved, and the city has begun to develop faster and more prosperous than before," said Ozawa.
In this regard, Sun Jiashan believes that "revitalizing the city through culture and tourism" can not only directly drive the development of related industries, but also enhance the popularity and reputation of the city, attract more tourists and even investment, thus promoting the high-quality development of the city economy.
Adhere to IP enabling
While Xuchang was seen, the city was also trying to catch up with the "torrential flow".
In March of this year, in order to facilitate tourists to go shopping in the shopping mall of Pangdong, the public transport department of Xuchang City optimized and adjusted the bus line of Xuchang No. 18, canceled nearly 40 stops, started from the East Xuchang Station, and directly reached many stores in Pangdong, creating a convenient and efficient bus line for tourists.
This is just a microcosm of Xuchang's "pet customers".
During the Spring Festival this year, Xuchang City released eight special tourism routes and 100 famous food, must buy good things, and online celebrity clocking places, including the Three Kingdoms Culture Experience Tour, Jun Porcelain Treasure Wonderful Tour, Intangible Cultural Heritage Heritage Heritage Experience Tour, Fat East to clocking and shopping tour. Public parking spaces such as the Municipal People's Congress, the CPPCC Courtyard, the Tourism Service Center, and the Museum will continue to be free of charge for tourists to park and visit.
Xuchang's government work report in 2024 mentions many aspects of culture and tourism. It clearly proposed to promote the development of flow supermarkets such as Fat Donglai, support the "China Supermarket Week" activity, and encourage all kinds of supermarkets to promote the "Fat Donglai" service standard. Accelerate the construction of two squares of modern commercial service industry in Weidu District and Hengda Xinduhui Commercial Complex in Jian'an District to create more new consumption scenes.
Xuchang is also working hard to create the IP of Three Kingdoms Culture.
Up to now, Xuchang has successfully held the 14th Three Kingdoms Cultural Tourism Week, which has successfully attracted a large number of tourists to visit the Three Kingdoms' hometown. At the same time, Xuchang also pays attention to the combination of the Three Kingdoms culture and modern tourism formats, and has launched a series of innovative products, such as the first city wide script entertainment Three Kingdoms World for the new consumer group of Generation Z; Relying on the Xuchang Museum, "Xuguo Chime Bell Home", "Three Kingdoms Culture IP Global Creator Competition" and other events will be held, so that visitors can deeply understand the history and culture of the Three Kingdoms in their experience.
Xuchang Caowei Ancient City Map Source: Graphic Creativity
It is reported that the overall strategic orientation of Xuchang's cultural tourism during the "14th Five Year Plan" is to build "three cities". That is, to build a famous historical and cultural city of the Three Kingdoms, an international cultural and creative city, and an ecological health city.
It can be seen that what Xuchang wants is not a temporary craze, but a long-term attraction to tourists.
To become an online celebrity can certainly quickly enhance the influence of a city, thus promoting the overall development of cultural tourism. However, in order to continue to attract tourists, it is also necessary to deeply explore and display the unique cultural characteristics of the local area. This deep cultural experience is essential to maintain tourists' interest and promote sustainable tourism.
In the era of online popularity, cities want to become popular. Keeping sincerity and adhering to IP empowerment is the only way for small cities like Xuchang to win in the competitive cultural and tourism market.
