Xi calls on ethnic regions to preserve unique culture, boost tourism
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged areas with large ethnic minority populations to preserve their distinctive culture and pursue high-quality development through the integrated development of culture and tourism.
On March 17, 2025, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, a region renowned for its rich ethnic diversity.
In Zhaoxing Dong Village, one of the country’s best-preserved Dong ethnic settlements, Xi and villagers sat around a firepit to discuss all-around rural revitalization at a drum tower, a unique architecture for the Dong ethnic group that serves as a communal gathering spot.
“Tourism has become a major industry and rural tourism is thriving. Areas with large ethnic minority populations should preserve their distinctive culture and let it shine through the integrated development of culture and tourism,” said Xi.
Two days later, he traveled to the picturesque Lijiang City in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.
A gentle spring snowfall had turned the Old Town of Lijiang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with over 800 years of history, into a living ink-wash painting.
At one point, a local coffee vendor warmly invited Xi to try a cup of Yunnan-grown coffee, to which Xi responded, “Yunnan coffee truly represents China.”
Yunnan, known for its ideal high-altitude climate and distinctive farming methods, produces coffee beans prized for their plumpness, rich aroma, and smooth, full-bodied flavor. The province has emerged as a rising star in China’s burgeoning domestic coffee industry, increasingly recognized both nationally and internationally.
