Cultural Tourism Boosting a City: Guiyang's Dual-Core Development for Both "New" and "Old" Districts

GUIYANG, China, Nov. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On October 13th, 2025, The Report ofUrban Comprehensive Development Index (2025) was officially released. Guiyang ranked the first in the list of "Beautiful Cities" with a score of 96.39 and also ranked among the top ten most "Livable Cities" in China. Behind this impressive performance, it lies the continuous empowerment of Guiyang's IP "Cool Guiyang," as well as the strong driving force of cultural and tourism integration for the high-quality urban development.

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Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism noted that in recent years, Guiyang has leveraged culture and tourism as a connecting link to promote coordinated growth across multiple districts. The old areas have strengthened their foundation with their historical context, while the new ones have expanded their dimensions with modern vitality. As the "dual-core" of cultural and tourism development, the old and new urban districts are collaborating to envision a new outline for innovative industries, enhanced experiences, and elevated brand quality.

Yunyan District: Revitalizing the Old Town and Rejuvenating the Historical Heritage

As Guiyang's central district and the "core pole" of cultural tourism, Yunyan District closely focuses on the functional positioning of "city center, old town soul, cultural highland and spiritual homeland", continuously promotes the overall protection and dynamic inheritance of historical and cultural heritage, and gradually designing a new landscape for building a more livable, tourist friendly and business friendly city.

Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism introduced that during the past few years, Yunyan District has connected 68 cultural relics protection units within its jurisdiction and renovated historical and cultural blocks such as Chaohui Block of Taiping Road, Wenchangge Block, and Xinyin 1950, preserving the old city culture while introducing new commercial activities. Among them, the Chaohui Block of Taiping Road has revitalized and upgraded merchants, and introduced numerous first stores of multiple brands. Xinyin 1950 has successfully attracted many high-quality brands to settle in and created specialty gastronomic streets such as Liyu Street and Minsheng Road, exploring vividly how to shape tourism through culture and how to showcase culture through tourism.

In addition, the flourishing emergence of new business model in the street economy such as "Daytime Coffee and Nighttime Beer" (serving specialty coffee during the daytime and specialty craft beer at night) has blessed Yunyan District with the warmth and vitality of people's hustle and bustle life. From the phenomenal spread of "a screen igniting the prosperity of a city" in Cross Cinema during the Spring Festival to the check-in craze in areas such as Qianlingshan Park, Taiping Road, and Wenchangge Street, Yunyan District has confirmed its new strength in cultural tourism with real consumption data and tourist reputation. Statistics shows that during the Mid Autumn Festival and National Day Holiday in 2025, the number of tourists received in the entire region increased by 14.2% year-on-year, achieving a total tourism revenue of 1.356 billion yuan, and continuously consolidating Guiyang's position as a "ballast stone" and "growth pole" for high-quality development of culture and tourism.

Guanshanhu District: Improving and Upgrading, Making a "Trendy" Modern City

If Yunyan District is the "Historical Business Card" of Guiyang's cultural and tourism, Guanshanhu District must be the "Window of the Era". Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism introduced that in recent years, Guanshanhu District has closely adhered to the aim of building "A City of Four Goals", focusing on the systematic construction of brands, actively exploring new paths for cultural and tourism integration to enhance tourist experiences with diversified cultures.

In order to make Guiyang a more charming city, Guanshanhu District concentrates on building a "City of Music" and a "City of Reading". Since 2024, there have been 26 large-scale music events held, attracting over 500,000 fans and driving peripheral consumption of over 300 million yuan. At the same time, with the brand "Reading and Experiencing Guanshanhu" as the core, the entire district has held more than 200 various reading activities, effectively improving the cultural taste of the city.

In terms of stimulating urban vitality, Guanshanhu District aims at building a "City of Sports Events" and a "City of Trendy Entertainment". It adheres to the concept of "following the sports events to travel" and creates a dynamic sport event brand at international and domestic level, provincial and municipal level, and district level. From Guiyang Marathon to "Shanhu Cup" Football Open Championship, nearly 70 sports events were held throughout the year with over 800,000 participants. Commercial complexes such as CCPARK and Mixc have shown strong consumer appeal by introducing emerging business models, generating continuous increase in customer flow and nighttime consumption during the National Day holiday in recent years.

As a new district in Guiyang, Guanshanhu District enjoys unique cultural and tourism resources. Over 5,500 mu (around 3.67 km 2) of Guanshanhu Park defines the city's ecological green heart, Karst Park showcases unique geological wonders, Baihua Lake Scenic Area provides high-quality ecological products, Guizhou Geological Museum displays Guizhou's geological evolution history, and modern facilities such as Olympic Sports Center and Financial City endow Guanshanhu District with complete cultural and tourism service function. The organic combination of these natural and cultural resources provides a rich carrier for the integrated development of culture and tourism.

In addition to the leading "Dual Core" of Yunyan and Guanshanhu Districts, supported by the development pattern of "Dual Core with Multiple Clusters", and through the scientific layout of ecological isolation zones, Guiyang is achieving differentiated and clustered development of each district. For instance, the urban leisure in Nanming District, the ecological health and wellness in Huaxi District, the hot spring resort in Wudang District, and the lake city experience in Qingzhen City all rely on their own resources thanks to their clear functional positioning, avoiding homogeneous competition and achieving functional complementarity. From resource integration to route connectivity, from customer source exchange to brand building, each district breaks down administrative barriers and works together in cultural and tourism planning, infrastructure, marketing and promotion, making the cultural and tourism business card of "Cool Guiyang" more dimensional and attractive, forming a strong synergy for the coordinated development of Guiyang's entire cultural and tourism industry.

Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism stated that in the future, Guiyang will continue cultivating the urban IP of "Cool Guiyang", intensifying the development model of "Dual Core with Multiple Clusters", optimizing the deep integration of multiple sectors such as culture, tourism, ecology, and sports, and making Guiyang a city not only blessed with time-honored history and green ecology but also full of vitality and fashion. The aspirations of citizens and tourists for a better life will continuously be satisfied and the cultural and tourism economy will always be the driving force for high-quality urban development.

Source: Guiyang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism