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Borneo Post
4 days ago
- Business
- Borneo Post
Long-stay tourism boom ignites ‘cool economy' in China highlands
An aerial photo taken on July 18, 2025 shows a local Yizu Dage team performing during a parade show on the ancient street of Nanzhao in Weishan Yi and Hui Autonomous County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. – Xinhua photo KUNMING (July 26): At his guesthouse in southwest China's Kunming, Zhang Cheng wiped down the counter in preparation for the next wave of arrivals, as the country's highland summer migration unfolded, a seasonal drift measured not in days but in months. 'Since summer began, we've had almost no vacancies,' he said. A steady stream of guests from the sweltering nearby regions of Sichuan and Chongqing is replacing the usual ebb and flow of tourists in this capital city of Yunnan Province. As scorching heat blankets much of China, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, with average summer temperatures of 15 to 21 degrees Celsius, are experiencing the explosive growth of 'cool summer residencies'. Yunnan alone hosted 2.8 million long-stay visitors in the first half of 2025, a surge of 45.4 per cent year on year. These visitors stayed an average of 91 days, 11 days longer than the previous year. In the province's Qujing City, famed for its cooler summers, companies like Licheng Residential Leasing are transforming idle homes into managed residences. This summer, Licheng has provided over 100 beds and three meals daily through contracted residential homes in the city's Niujie community, hosting over 200 guests so far. Industry experts believe that traditional tourism often funnels spending into transportation and tickets, limiting local economic benefits, whereas tourism engaging local residents retains more spending within the community. In Qujing, for example, dining accounts for 40 per cent of long-stay visitors' spending, vastly exceeding the 10 per cent typical of short-stay tourists. The city welcomed 2 million long-stay visitors last summer, peaking at 270,000 daily, generating 23.6 billion yuan (around US$3.3 billion) in revenue. Leveraging its national forest park, Xishui County in Guizhou has developed 28 summer residence projects across six townships, now housing 36,000 households, mostly from other provinces. Since June, hotels and homestays have reported peak seasons. Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy, highlighted the shift of the tourism model 'from simply leveraging cool climates to integrating culture, wellness and learning'. He cited the example of children joining forest rangers for plant identification in a nature science camp while parents learn local crafts, as well as one in Yunnan's Dali that combines cool air with holistic healing through yoga in the forest. Recognising the potential, China's National Development and Reform Commission issued guidelines in 2023 to boost summer tourism, urging better products and infrastructure. According to Rao Xiangbi, deputy director of Yunnan's culture and tourism department, long-stay visitors now flock not just from nearby Sichuan and Chongqing, but increasingly from Guangdong, Zhejiang, and even the northernmost Heilongjiang Province, with over 80 per cent being young and middle-aged people. Experts from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation have noted that such climate-adaptive tourism is a growing necessity globally and is poised to become a defining future trend as climate change intensifies. – Xinhua China highland Kunming Summer tourism Xinhua
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Guinea's vast Simandou mine on track to start delivering for Chinese investors
After almost three decades of false starts, the massive Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea is on track to deliver a significant breakthrough this year to its Chinese investors and British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. US-based rail manufacturer Wabtec has secured deals worth US$525 million to supply the locomotives that will deliver the first shipments from the Simandou mountain range in the remote forests of southeastern Guinea to the ports. Simandou, the world's largest known undeveloped reserve of high-grade iron ore, is strategically important to China, which aims to diversify its suppliers from Australia and Brazil, that together account for about 80 per cent of seaborne exports. Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team. Wabtec said it had won a US$248 million deal to supply locomotives to Winning Consortium Simandou (WCS), which is developing blocks 1 and 2 of the concession, covering an estimated 1.8 billion tonnes of reserves with an iron content of more than 65.5 per cent. WCS shareholders include Winning International Group of Singapore, China Shandong Weiqiao Group and the state-owned China Baowu Steel Group. Baowu, China's largest steelmaker, has interests in the southern and northern parts of Simandou. In June last year, Baowu Resources completed the acquisition of a 49 per cent share of WCS mine and infrastructure projects. Simandou's remaining blocks 3 and 4 are owned by Rio Tinto as part of its Simfer joint venture with the Chinese firm Chalco Iron Ore Holdings and the Guinean government. First production from the Simfer mine is expected in 2025, ramping up over 30 months to an annualised capacity of 60 million tonnes per year, according to Rio Tinto. Wabtec agreed a few months ago to supply Simfer with a US$277 million locomotive fleet. After almost three decades of false starts, Guinea's massive Simandou iron ore mine is on track to deliver its first shipment this year. Photo: Rio Tinto Simfer alt=After almost three decades of false starts, Guinea's massive Simandou iron ore mine is on track to deliver its first shipment this year. Photo: Rio Tinto Simfer> Announcing the latest agreement in January, Mpilo Dlamini, Wabtec's regional vice-president of sub-Saharan Africa, said that Simandou "represents a transformational economic opportunity for Guinea". "We are also committed to the development of Guinea by fostering local employment, developing indigenous talent, and empowering local businesses to support the operation and maintenance of this vital rail network," he said. Zhang Cheng, chief executive of WCS, said the locomotive order was "another important milestone for the Simandou project". "As work continues to build the TransGuineen railway, we will have the equipment resources in place that support the high international standards that we've committed to deliver," he said. Wabtec said deliveries of its locomotives will begin later this year. The railway connecting the Simandou mine and the port of Morebaya 600km (373 miles) away is expected to be completed and running by the end of 2025. At an estimated US$20 billion, the development of the mine and its associated infrastructure is the largest greenfield investment of its kind in Africa. "Simandou will bring about 120 million tonnes of iron ore to the market, positioning Guinea as the third largest iron ore exporters around the globe," said Liz Gao, senior analyst in iron ore at commodities consultancy CRU Group, in an interview with the Post. According to Gao, when Simandou becomes operational, it will probably replace some Brazilian and Australian iron ore shipments to China, although they will still maintain a dominant position. Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa specialist and associate professor at the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre, said the investments in Africa point to China's determination to de-risk its iron ore supplies. In particular, China wants to de-risk away from Australia, which for some time has been the country's dominant supplier of iron ore, according to Johnston. With Chinese companies holding higher combined stakes from the two mining concessions at Simandou, most of the iron ore it produces could be exported to China - the world's largest consumer of the resource and biggest steel producer. Simfer is developing blocks 3 and 4 of the Simandou project into a 60 million tonne per year operation, with WCS planning to ship a similar quantity of iron ore from its facility, according to Rio Tinto. Simfer is building a 70km (43.5-mile) spur rail line and a 60 million tonne per year transshipment vessel port. WCS will construct the dual track main rail line, a 16km (10-mile) spur rail line and a 60 million tonne per year barge port. Once complete, all co-developed infrastructure and rolling stock will be transferred to and operated by the Compagnie du Transguineen (CTG) joint venture, in which Simfer and WCS each hold a 42.5 per cent equity stake. Ownership of the rail and port infrastructure will transfer from CTG to the Guinean state after 35 years of operation. This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. 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