Red tourism


Red tourism is a subset of tourism in the People's Republic of China in which Chinese people visit locations with historical significance to Chinese Communism "to rekindle their long-lost sense of class struggle and proletarian principles." The Government began actively supporting red tourism in 2005 to promote the "national ethos" and socioeconomic development in those areas, which are typically rural and poorer than East China. In July 2010, officials representing 13 Chinese cities signed a "China Red Tourism Cities Strategic Cooperation Yan'an Declaration" to develop red tourism; the cities are: Guang'an, Yan'an, Xiangtan, Jinggangshan, Ruijin, Zunyi, Baise, Shijiazhuang, Linyi, Anyang, Yulin, Qingyang, and Huining. A Chinese official said "This is a major project that benefits both the Party, the nation and the people, either in the economic, cultural and the political sense."

Locations

Other former Communist countries can have red tourism, such as the Czech Republic, previously part of Czechoslovakia and ruled by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Recently Russian researchers started to focus on the studying of the trend of Russian-Chinese tourism’ development.

Events

The China Red Tourism and Cultural Festival is held annually in Hunan. The 2010 Festival took place in July and took advantage of high-speed rail in China.

Criticism

Aging original members of the Red Army criticise the "Disneyfication" of what should be solemn war memorials.