Anhui promotes leisure agriculture and tourism in Shanghai

The agriculture and rural affairs authority of Anhui Province is promoting its provincial leisure agriculture industry and countryside tourism in Shanghai with a cooperation agreement signed between Anhui Province Leisure Agriculture Association and a local tourism website, city's agricultural commission said Monday.

The cooperation with ShanghaiTour.net can allow local residents to customize their own agricultural tours to neighboring Anhui Province and enjoy the Hui culture online. It also serves for the integrated growth of leisure agriculture in the Yangtze River Delta.

Leisure agricultural tour is a new idea flourishing these years in the Chinese market. Through this type of tourism, travelers can enjoy some countryside entertainments like fishing that they cannot experience in urban areas. They can have a taste of agricultural products picked by themselves at a farm house and get much closer to the mother nature.

Anhui Province has rich resources of both agriculture and tourism. Sandwiched between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, Anhui has fertile lands and diverse terrains, including rocky areas, flatlands and hills like its landmarks — Huangshan and Jiuhua mountains.

Huangshan City, Ningguo City and a village in Fengyang County showed their scenery and features of leisure agriculture products to 33 local tourism agencies and five demonstration areas during the event, along with several organizations.

"Besides a 'sea' of rape flowers, tourists can try a very special 'baked tea' developed by us, which is brewed with snow water," said an executive with Sangua Community, a leisure agriculture company from Hefei City. "They can also have a bowl of chicken soup at old village head's home, which has been cooked for 5 to 6 hours every morning."

Anhui now has more than 17,000 organizations running leisure agriculture business which receives 196 million travelers every year.