【中国财经英文版】中美非洲投资较劲；丝绸之路经济带之大美甘肃

Selected News: Q&A: Chinese and American Investment in Africa China and Africa have close economic cooperation, which aims to achieve a win-win outcome. China has been the largest trade partner to the African continent since 2009. Meanwhile, the United States is looking at Africa. For more, Nathan Wakelin-King speaks with Prof. He Wenping, Director of African Studies at the Institute of West Asian & African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ----------------------- Report: Development Path of Cultural Tourism in Gansu Gansu province in northwestern China is one of the most important parts of the ancient Silk Road and the modern Silk Road Economic Belt. Its rich historical and cultural resources have made local tourism special. Lian Ji, Head of Publicity of Gansu, explains the first steps they take to develop tourism. "We have macro design, that is to combine the cultural industry and tourism and to build big scenery zones or projects, which have good reputation and strong brands." The projects include one in Dunhuang, where the Mogao Grottoes are located, and one in Jiayuguan, where the Jiayuguan Great Wall pass is located. Lian Ji adds that the next step is to make these projects full of commercial potential. "Natural scenery and cultural resources are the basis. We attract investment to make these projects valuable, with multiple functions and popular products." For example, the city of Jiayuguan and China Cultural Media Group have agreed to establish a theme town, where tourists can learn the Silk Road culture and enjoy art communication and exchange, performance and recreational vehicle camp. And Dunhuang has been planning and building a cultural industrial zone, with sections for tourism service, cultural heritage demonstration, creative industry and human resources training. So far this year, 30 projects have operated in the zone, with a total investment of 35 billion yuan. He Yanhong, deputy director of investment at the industrial zone, says they are ready for better development. "After the concept of Silk Road Economic Belt was raised, we made new positioning and planning. Dunhuang has rich resources. We are very confident on its cultural tourism." In the process of developing cultural tourism, a necessary step is heritage and resources protection. Gansu does not forget this. It has spent over a million yuan to clarify the category of historical and cultural heritages, making a new system of assessment and management. The province also disproves or stops the projects that focus on commercial returns and may badly affect tourism resources. In Jiayuguan, modern technologies are widely used to protect the site of the Great Wall pass. Zhang Bin with the protection project explains their work. "The protection of Jiayuguan site includes 10 parts, including wooden architecture repair, ancient painting polishing, lightning protection, security and so on." In Dunhuang, tourists need to make reservations if they want to visit the Mogao Grottoes, so that the site could have less pressure and smaller risk of being affected. That is another measure of protection. Lian Ji, Head of Publicity of Gansu, says policies such as these are essential for modern tourism, which requires a balance between protection and economic interests. "We believe we can well protect the rich historical and natural heritages, not developing the projects that may harm them." Tourism with a cultural flavor is Gansu&`&s advantage and one of the pillar industries. Upgrading tourism there means making it reasonably profitable, while protecting the resources that ancestors left. -------------------------- Q&A: Chinese Overseas Tourism After talking about the cultural tourism in Gansu, let&`&s turn to the Chinese overseas tourism. As Chinese people are getting rich, overseas travels are getting popular for them. According to the China Tourism Academy, last year, some 98 million Chinese people went abroad, contributing some 128.6 billion US dollars to the global tourism market. This year&`&s figure is expected to surpass that of last year. For more, Zheng Chenguang talks to John Kester, Director of Market Trends at the UN World Tourism Organization, based in Spain.