On January 9, the city’s Xixi Wetland Scenic Area was granted as a National 5A Scenic Spot, the top-grade title for tourist sites in China, along with the country’s five other scenic areas including Sichuan Huanglong Scenic Area and Hubei Shennongjia Scenic Area. Xixi Wetland Scenic Area administration announced the news on January 10. Following West Lake and Thousand Island Lake, Xixi Wetland, which features asparagus clumps defining crops as well as dense river network, becomes the third National 5A Scenic Spot in the city.

The 5A title represents the highest grade in scenic quality, service, and ecological environment for scenic areas in China, mainly assessing the sites’ traffic conditions, travel route design, tourism safety, hygienic conditions, post and telecom service, shopping, comprehensive management and resources and environment protection. A total of 216 items are scored.

For the past one thousand years, many ancient scholars chose to retreat to Xixi. Contemporary celebrities including Xu Zhimo, Yu Dafu and Kang Youwei have also been attracted by the unique temple culture and humanistic value accumulated generations of residents here. The scenic area was honored “Best Tourist Destination” by Zhejiang Province and “Most Satisfactory Service Enterprise” by the city in 2010.

Nevertheless, what Xixi brings to the city’s people are beyond the honorary titles. The Flower Fairy Festival, Plum Seeking Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Persimmon Festival as well as the dishes including smoked fish, seasoned duck and chicken pot served in Jiangcun Fair-Slow Life Street have perfectly transformed the pure sightseeing spot to a leisure spending destination. Statistics show that visitors to Xixi have amounted to over 7.4 million since it was opened two years ago, which helps achieve a total operating revenue of CNY 280 million.