In early summer, the 100,000 mu of wine grapes in Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in the Yanqi Basin at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains flourish, and the grape corridor on the vast Gobi Desert at the foot of the Hora Mountains is lush with greenery.
Located in the "golden latitude" of wine grape cultivation, the Yanqi Basin is intertwined with factors such as snow watering in the Tianshan Mountains, large temperature difference between day and night, and large plots, making it a source of high-quality wine grapes. It includes four wine grape producing areas in Yanqi East-West Gobi Producing Area, Heshuo Producing Area, Bohu Nanshan Producing Area and Hejing Producing Area, giving birth to many winemaking enterprises and is one of the four major wine producing areas in Xinjiang.
Based on the wine industry, all counties in the Yanqi Basin promote the organic combination and diversified development of tourism and vacation, leisure sports, health and wellness with the wine industry, deeply create a new industry integrating agriculture and tourism, and develop winery-style leisure tourism through "tourism + green industry" and "tourism + tourism agriculture".
Grape planting base of Xinjiang Tiansai Winery Co., Ltd. Provided by Xinjiang Tiansai Winery Co., Ltd
Barren beaches turned into vineyards
Thirteen years ago, when Chen Lizhong, general manager of Xinjiang Tiansai Winery Co., Ltd., decided to build the winery in Yanqi, he had been inspecting nearby counties and cities for three years.
"The wine industry development plan formulated by Yanqi provides a strong guarantee for wine enterprises to enter and develop, and the county has built infrastructure first, roads, shelter forests, electricity, water conservancy, etc., and enterprises can directly enter and develop." Chen Lizhong and his team saw the promise of winemaking here.
In the end, Chen Lizhong devoted herself to this place, in addition to the local government's support for the wine industry, it also stemmed from her judgment that Yanqi was suitable for the development of the wine industry.
The unique climate of the Yanqi Basin makes it rich in products, and the large plots provide space for modern viticulture and management.
2800 acres, is the grape planting area of Tiansai Winery. In this originally deserted land, the winery cooperated with agricultural colleges to promote scientific planting and management, and introduced high-quality grape varieties, so that high-quality wine grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Marseland, Syrah and Chardonnay took root here.
"There has been a tradition of growing grapes here since ancient times, and in recent years wine is becoming one of the pillar industries of the region. In addition, viticulture also plays a certain role in improving the local ecology. Chen Lizhong said.
"Grape wine luminous cup, want to drink pipa immediately urge." Wang Han, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, described the life of the guarding soldier Jinge Iron Horse and became a household name. At that time, wine could be said to be a kind of poetry and solace for the hard life of the guards. Wine has become a catalyst for a happy life. In 2022, the Yanqi Basin wine producing area will produce 82,000 tons of raw wine, achieve a total industrial production value of 690 million yuan, employ more than 100,000 seasonal industrial workers, and drive more than 4,000 surrounding farmers to achieve a per capita income increase of about 600 yuan.
Wine to the heart, beautiful scenery and bones
In the summer heat, in the grape industrial park of Xinjiang Xiangdu Wine Industry Co., Ltd. in Qixing Town, Yanqi, the Xiangdu Wine Culture Center and wine cellar are cool and refreshing, and tourists can relax here and taste melons and fruits.
Relying on tens of thousands of acres of vineyards, Xiangdu Winery has created a winery tourist destination integrating fruit picking, labor experience, fishing and barbecue. "Here you can see tens of thousands of acres of vineyards, and you can also enjoy cool wine tasting, which is suitable for escaping the summer and is very comfortable." Li Le, a tourist from Hebei, said.
Extend the industrial chain and integrate wine culture into tourism. All rooms in the Xiangdu Wine Castle are built in accordance with the standards of boutique hotels, highlighting the wine culture in the decoration style and furnishings, avoiding the cookie-cutter impression of traditional hotels. "The wine is in the heart, and the scenery is bone-shaping. Allowing visitors to experience wine is not only a product, but also a way of vacation and leisure. Zou Jiyun, general manager of Xinjiang Xiangdu Wine Industry Co., Ltd., said that they invested more than 20 million yuan to build a health technology experience hall, which showed the scientific and technological concept of health care in the grape industry chain through copywriting, exhibition panels and high-tech means of sound and optoelectronics, so that visitors could fully understand the principle of health preservation in the grape industry chain.
"Wine+" makes grapes "move" and wine culture "live". At present, there are 40 wineries in Yanqi Basin Real Estate Zone, including 15 winery wineries in Yanqi Grape Industrial Park. The cluster of boutique wineries represented by Xiangdu, Xiangxiang, Tiansai, Zhongfei, etc. has been initially formed. Yanqi and the surrounding Bohu County and Heshuo County have beaded wineries into a chain and actively created boutique wine tourism routes. In summer, the resort and leisure routes formed around the township wine castle, Hairuisheng Science and Technology Museum, Yier vineyard, base promenade, fishing area and grape promenade are very popular with tourists.
Ai Fuli, manager of the membership department of Xinjiang Tiansai Winery Co., Ltd., told reporters that they are actively exploring the organic integration of wine culture with vacation, starry sky and Silk Road culture, promoting the winery to become a window for promoting wine and wine culture, so that more tourists can learn about Yanqi wine in immersive tourism, and realize the effect of "1+1>2" wine industry tourism, and tourism revenue accounts for 20% of the total income of the winery. "At present, we have reached preliminary cooperation intentions with a number of travel agencies inside and outside Xinjiang to attract more tourists to participate in winery tours. Through the winery tour, let more people understand the wine culture of Yanqi. ”
Exterior view of Xinjiang Tiansai Winery Co., Ltd. Winery. Provided by Xinjiang Tiansai Winery Co., Ltd
Concentrate on the development of "wine + cultural tourism"
In recent years, major wineries inside and outside Xinjiang have deeply explored the characteristics of wineries and actively integrated into the development of culture and tourism. The development of the cultural tourism industry has brought traffic and exposure to the winery, and the wine industry has been revitalized.
Zhai Congcong, director of the general manager's office of Xinjiang Xuanyu Winery Co., Ltd., introduced that the company deeply integrates wine culture with Bohu County culture and tourism, and launches wine-themed tourism routes such as study tours, business tasting, wedding travel photography, boutique group building, and parent-child aesthetic education to promote consumption upgrading. "The company is accelerating the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, making full use of product reputation and the popularity of production areas, vigorously developing the wine industry and wine culture tourism, and realizing the coordinated development of industrial linkage."
Li Demei, a professor at Beijing Agricultural College, has been to the county many times in the past ten years, as a consultant of Yanqi wine industry. He believes that winery tourism should not only meet tourists' understanding of the wine tasting process, grape planting and winemaking, but also meet the needs of tourists in terms of "eating, staying, traveling, traveling, shopping, and entertainment", and better configure the scenic spots where the winery is located. "Winery tours start with wine tasting, with historical, geographical, architectural, cultural, gastronomic and social dimensions, and visitors can get rich wine knowledge, interesting field experiences, unique and beautiful environments, which is also a beautiful enjoyment."
At the end of 2022, six departments, including the Department of Industry and Information Technology of the autonomous region, the Department of Finance of the autonomous region, and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the autonomous region, jointly issued the notice of "Several Measures to Promote the High-quality Development of the Wine Industry in the Autonomous Region", proposing to promote the integrated development of the industry and create leisure tourism boutiques in wineries. Support wineries to create A-level tourist scenic spots, continue to launch boutique wineries with leisure tourism characteristics in the autonomous region and wine cultural tourism boutique routes in the autonomous region, support wine tourism products included in the main routes promoted by travel agencies, and give certain subsidies to the series of wine cultural tourism and leisure activities organized and planned by Dizhou City.
Wang Zhonghua, secretary general of the winery branch of the autonomous region tourism association, said that in combination with the "Several Measures of the Autonomous Region on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Wine Industry", the winery branch organized member units to study the new trends in the development of wine tourism inside and outside Xinjiang, at home and abroad, and are working hard to explore a wine tourism road with Xinjiang characteristics.
Pomegranate Yun/Xinjiang Daily reporter Yao Gang
Source: Pomegranate Cloud/Xinjiang Daily