21st Century Business Herald reporter Li Guo reported from Changsha
The popular city of Changsha continued the popularity of the tourism market during the just past National Day holiday.
According to the National Day tourism data released by multiple platforms, Changsha ranks among the top ten in terms of the number of tourists and the list of food consumption. 21st Century Business Herald reporters went to Changsha from October 2 to 5 and experienced the charm of Changsha's Internet celebrities at close range.
<h4>Not in line just on the way to the queue</h4>
During the National Day holidays, Changsha's weather is as hot as the local tourist market – the maximum temperature during the day reaches more than 39 degrees Celsius, but the high temperature cannot stop tourists from exploring the city.
On the way from Changsha Huanghua Airport to the city, the taxi driver turned the air conditioner to the maximum, he told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, although due to the impact of the epidemic prevention policy, some tourists can not travel across provinces, but from October 1, the city's travel demand is still hot. "A lot of tourists come from other cities in Hunan Province, and I keep taking orders from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m." He also seemed to be a little puzzled, "In such a hot weather, what do you really like about Changsha"?
People who have lived in Changsha for a long time may not know what makes the city unique among all the cities in China. However, all kinds of consumption formats and scenes unique to Changsha make the local tourism market look "full of personality" in many tourist cities across the country, just like the weather.
These consumption scenes are concentrated near Wuyi Square in the center of Changsha City. Starting from Wuyi Square, there is the famous red tourist attraction Orange Island nearby, and tourists flock to the island to experience the majestic atmosphere depicted in "Qinyuan Spring and Changsha".
Before the National Day, Changsha also released the "Red Cultural Tourism Electronic Map", which integrates the introduction of scenic spots, story materials, image data and cultural tourism element label data to systematically introduce the rich local red tourism resources to tourists. According to the holiday tourism big data released by Fliggy Travel, Changsha ranks first in the top ten popular destinations for red tourism in the country.
Returning from Orange Island, Hisense Plaza, not far from the pier, seems to have been lined up. Here is Changsha's most famous internet celebrity restaurant brand - Super Wenheyou.
At 8 p.m. on October 2, a staff member of Wen Heyou told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, "At present, the number of queues has exceeded 14,000, and according to the conservative estimate of an average of 3 customers per table, the passenger flow has been about 42,000 people." ”
(On the evening of October 2, the number of queue numbers of Wen Heyou has exceeded 15,000)
This means that the 20,000-square-meter, seven-storey complex restaurant has surpassed Universal Beijing Resort in terms of passenger traffic that day.
After Wen Heyou lined up for hours and ate a variety of flavors of crayfish, Taiping Old Street, a kilometer away, was also crowded. This 375 meters long, width of only 7 meters on both sides of the ancient commercial street, now gathered almost all of Changsha's internet red food, each shop outside the long line, milk tea, stinky tofu has become the standard in the hands of tourists, in the hot temperature, a sip of milk tea, a mouthful of stinky tofu, cold and hot alternate, tourists' emotions were lifted to the peak.
A tourist told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, "In Beijing, I was used to the busy work rhythm and wanted to change cities to enjoy life, but I did not expect that after coming to Changsha, the congestion of Taiping Old Street was almost the same as the morning peak of Line 1." ”
(Taiping Old Street is crowded)
In this city that loves shrimp, it seems that no crayfish can escape Changsha, but there may not be a tourist who does not experience a long queue. Among them, the tea is pleasant and can only obtain "local delicacies" through queuing.
Statistics say that the number of stores with pleasant tea colors may have surpassed that of convenience stores and become the "standard" of local people's lives. The Chinese tea brand, which has only opened stores outside the province in Wuhan, has become the "standard" for tourists to travel to Changsha through the dissemination of online media. Waiting in line for half an hour to order food, and spending another half an hour waiting to be made, is a necessary process to get a cup of milk tea during the festival.
(A tea beauty store in Changsha, tourists need to queue for more than half an hour to order)
At the airport and high-speed rail station, the tea color has defeated such delicacies as Hunan sauce plate duck, becoming the most popular souvenir, tourists seize the last consumption opportunity, the packaged milk tea into the insulated bag, a few hours later, thousands of kilometers away friends, can also share this Changsha's new "local specialties".
Although locals have repeatedly reminded every noodle shop in Changsha that it is delicious, it seems that only by queuing up can you add a new taste to the various ingredients of a bowl of rice noodles.
In the alley on the side of Wuyi Square, the bus new village powder shop covered with the aura of the old brand, although it is open 24 hours, but the queue of diners continues from 8 am to 11 pm, a bowl of rice noodles with an average price of more than ten yuan, often by the long-awaited diners added a few more omelettes, more yards of material, can comfort the hard waiting.
<h4>Changsha's ranking as an international consumer center city has improved rapidly</h4>
In the view of food blogger Wang Wuzhi, Changsha is a consumer city that relies on media "achievements".
"You see Hunan Satellite TV launched so many top-notch entertainment programs, the stars came to Changsha, will not give them delicious food on the program, a taste of shrimp, a plate of stinky tofu, you can provoke the taste buds of thousands of viewers next to the TV." 」 He told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, "Crayfish can be eaten in the whole country, but the taste of shrimp is only available in Hunan, and if a tourist loves to eat the 'authentic Changsha stinky tofu' from the roadside stall in his hometown, will he not aspire to come to Changsha to worship the 'true bodhisattva'"?
He attributed this phenomenon to the fan economy brought by tv media, "In terms of communication methods, the biggest difference between Changsha and other cities is that TV media is very developed and is the city's original image dissemination tool." ”
The rise of online media such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu has brought about an Internet celebrity economy, and more catering brands have pushed the city into the 2.0 era of image communication through just over a dozen seconds of video.
(A scene inside changsha super Wenheyou store)
However, with the continuous heat of Changsha's tourism market, the lack of diversified local consumption elements, traffic congestion and environmental health problems have been further highlighted.
The Hunan Provincial Museum, which displays various cultural relics from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, is another popular attraction in Changsha. The 21st Century Business Herald reporter noted that the museum's tickets were booked out a few days before the National Day, and if you choose to book on October 1, you can only book tickets until October 9.
In the hot temperatures, the Hunan Provincial Museum is the best choice for daytime excursions. In Wang Wuzhi's view, Changsha needs more indoor excursion projects. "For example, in the hot pot restaurants in Chengdu, consumption needs to be carried out in a fixed space, and Changsha, whether it is stinky tofu or milk tea, is a mobile consumption model, but the problem is, tourists with stinky tofu and milk tea, what other places can attract them to go?"
In addition, under the background of the limited scope of subway operation, the problem of road congestion and parking difficulties in Changsha urban area continues to plague tourists.
The relevant departments of Changsha have also noted this problem, and in the "Three-year Action Plan for Changsha City to Create a Regional International Consumption Center City and Changsha Consumption Upgrading (2021-2023)" released this year, it is clearly proposed that Changsha will launch 17 specific measures from five aspects, such as upgrading consumption carriers, cultivating market players, enriching consumption formats, activating consumer markets, and optimizing consumption ecology, to accelerate the construction of a regional international consumption center city, and the average annual growth rate of the city's total retail sales of social consumer goods in the next three years will be about 8%. By 2023, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Changsha will reach 562.9 billion yuan.
The above plan said that it will encourage the introduction of the first stores of the top 500 brands, focus on the introduction of internationally renowned commercial brands to settle in large commercial complexes and blocks, build a regional international well-known brand marketing center, encourage and support the internet red brand to continue to grow, vigorously promote the development of the internet red economy, continue to build the Changsha "net red city" brand, and focus on building a night economy demonstration zone with the "May 1st business circle" as the core, improve the quality and upgrade of jiefang West Road, Qinyuan food street and other high-quality night consumption agglomeration areas, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Build 10 night economy demonstration blocks, 100 night economy demonstration stores, plan to transform 30 characteristic boutique night markets and blocks, and create 50 night consumption business cards with popularity inside and outside the province.
According to the "International Consumption Center City Evaluation Report" released by the 21st Century Economic Research Institute, Changsha's ranking among cities in the country has risen from 14th in 2019 to 11th in 2021, which is the fastest rising city, showing Changsha's strength and speed in building an international consumption center. Some analysts also believe that how to achieve the expansion of Changsha's consumption influence from regional to a larger scope will be a topic that Changsha needs to study in the next stage.
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