Lesser known Shanxi province is home to world-renowned sites [Photo by Thanin Yous/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Improving the tourism infrastructure

Li Jing is a teacher at Taiyuan Tourism College who has been training future tour guides for about nine years. Li also accompanies foreign visitors who come to the province. She said the number of tourists has increased over the years.

“Mostly we have foreign tourists from Europe and less from the United States. In Shanxi, tour guides are provided in English, German and French,” she said.

Li said the tourism infrastructure in Shanxi has improved. Previously, she said, there were no expressways to travel on to the remote but interesting places in Shanxi province; service at hotels was poor and there were very few English-speaking tour guides. That situation has now changed.

“The tourism industry in Shanxi has seen a dramatic change in recent years. The traveling connections now are better. Before it took eight hours to travel from Taiyuan to Wutai Mountain, but now the time has been reduced dramatically”, she said.

Asked about further changes needed to improve the tourism industry in Shanxi, Li said foreign visitors shouldn't concentrate their tours only on the main sites, but instead explore more deeply everyday life in the province. She suggested activities including paper cutting, calligraphy, cooking noodles and visiting small villages.

"Also an important part for improving the tourism industry is adding Shanxi to the Beijing-Xi'an-Shanghai route, since the province is in the middle of that. For that, better coordination between the tourist boards is necessary," she said.

Sun Zhuoyang is from Taiyuan, the capital city of Shanxi province. He is studying finance in Toronto, Canada, but, during the summer holidays, Sun returns to his hometown and volunteers in the tourism industry.

"Shanxi has a lot to offer to foreign tourists — Pingyao ancient city, Wutai Mountain, Hengshan Mountain, the Yungang Grottoes and so on," he said. "They are all interesting places to visit."

Sun added that the biggest change he has seen is in Pingyao ancient city, where hotels and the area have been made more suitable for tourists.

"Shanxi’s history, cuisine and green spaces are great features to attract foreign visitors to this province," Sun said.