At the recent 2013 China Travel Market, in Guizhou province, April 19 - 21, the Shanxi booth, all colored in Chinese red, was particularly striking, with a high wall, big lanterns, traditional wall sculptures and paper-cuts for window decoration.

The Shanxi booth, which represented the central part of China, gave visitors the impression of visiting a courtyard and its slogan gave the impression that Shanxi is a wonderful place, with beautiful scenery and kind-hearted people.

Shanxi is, in fact, the birthplace of Chinese civilization and has a rich culture and Chen Jianfei, the head of promotion for the provincial tourism department, explained that the reason they chose the slogan was to increase its popularity and competitiveness in the tourism business. In recent years, it has done a lot of advertising to spread its image nationwide and even worldwide. For example, it has film clips showing on CCTV and has even appeared on the large screen that overlooks New York City’s Times Square.

Edited by Zhou Yuanyuan and Roger Bradshaw