A beautiful view in Heshun Ancient Town [Photo/VCG]

With historical, cultural, and abundant natural resources, Heshun Ancient Town in Southwest China's Yunnan province was rated as a provincial characteristic town in 2019. Since then it has been gathering momentum to emerge as a world-class characteristic town that integrates eco-cultural tourism, trade in exotic commodities, organic agriculture, and a cultural creativity industry.  

To become a characteristic town, Heshun Ancient Town has leveraged its industrial and cultural strengths and resources, including more than 110 folk dwellings dating to the Ming and the Qing dynasties (1368-1911), a countryside library claiming to be the largest of its kind in China, the residence of the 20th-century philosopher Ai Siqi (1910-66), and various forms of folk art. The town is also the home of several jadeite business magnates.

It enjoys a reputation as a living fossil of traditional Chinese buildings, and also has elements of the charming Hui-style buildings and western architecture. To highlight all its cultural legacies, Heshun has established modern museums and galleries.

A typical Hui-style building in Heshun Ancient Town [Photo/VCG]

The Heshun Library combines western styled window frames and a traditional flying roof design. . [Photo/VCG]

The town has improved its ecological and living environment through comprehensive treatment and transformation. The traffic in the town is very smooth after the opening of more bus and tourism routes.

Moreover, its development of smart systems has achieved remarkable results. A specially tailored mobile app provides smart management services such as face recognition, AI landscape recognition, smart toilets, smart travel, facial recognition payment, smart security, and smart guided tours.

Shops line a lane in Heshun Ancient Town. [Photo/VCG]

As a famous hometown of overseas Chinese residents with a long history and rich culture, Heshun ranks first among the ten most charming towns in China and has been named a national 4A-level tourist attraction. 

Heshun is speeding up its cultural infrastructure construction in a bid to meet the national 5A-level tourist attraction requirements and become a characteristic town with international influence.