The central Chinese city of Luoyang, once the capital of thirteen dynasties across the span of Chinese history, has been ramping up its culture and tourism industries by promoting local heritage sites and revamping museums to boost its economy.

The efforts have begun to bear fruit with increased visitor numbers. During the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday this year, Luoyang received 1.96 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 86.7 percent, with a tourism revenue of 1.48 billion yuan (about 204.954 million U.S. dollars), showing an increase of 63.53 percent year on year.
Located in central China's Henan Province, Luoyang has a huge number of cultural artifacts. Authorities in the city have pushed its rich culture, building several uniquely designed streets, and introducing new shops and activities to promote the local heritage.
Among the areas to undergo transformation is "Tianjie Street", referring to the central street of ancient Luoyang city in Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD) and Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). It is the widest ancient capital street discovered so far. Since last year, the local government in Luoyang invited experts and designers to restore the street and build up lanes like that of ancient times.
"After building up the twelve lanes on the ancient central street, Luoyang will be the only city in China to restore the ancient central street to this level," said Li Zhenkan, head of Luoyang Cultural Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau.
The project of the ancient central street with twelve lanes is expected to become an important platform to push forward Luoyang's cultural and tourism transformation.
"There are earthshaking innovations, subversive experience, young consumption groups and promotions on mobile terminals in Luoyang. The scenes tourists experience here are authentic ones in ancient times," said Sima Yuxi, director of Dingdingmen subdistrict office in Luoyang.
Luoyang City has been accelerating the construction of a series of projects such as the ancient city site museum of Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) and Wei Dynasty (220-265 AD), 3.0 edition of national heritage park of Sui and Tang dynasties, and the "twelve lanes on central street", aiming to build up a tourism system combining museums, world heritages and national cultural parks.
"When I stepped out of the railway station, I immediately felt the traditional style of Luoyang City," said one tourist.
The number of tourists Luoyang received during this year's Labor Day holiday was almost the same as the city's permanent population.
In the five-day holiday, Luoyang, with a permanent population of 7.07 million, received a total of 6.36 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 171.76 percent.
According to travel platforms, over the past three months, the booking volume of scenic spots in Luoyang increased by 47 percent year on year compared with that of 2019, and tourists under the age of 45 accounted for 80 percent.