One mln people visit Xibaipo revolutionary site in 2018

Xibaipo, a major revolutionary site in North China, received over 1.03 million visitors in the first four months of 2018, an increase of 11 percent year on year.

Xibaipo, in Pingshan county, Hebei province, is an old revolutionary base where the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was garrisoned from May 1948 till early 1949, drawing up the blueprint for a new country and preparing for the CPC's new role as the ruling party.

Chen Zongliang, chief of the CPC committee at the Xibaipo Memorial Hall, said that tourists now can choose their own travel plans based on their interests. Tour guides have also learned to make their introductions more interesting by performing "clapper talk," a traditional Chinese narrative singing style.

More than 130,000 people visited the revolutionary site during the recent three-day holiday.

Red tourism sites have seen growing popularity in recent years. China's National Development and Reform Commission has encouraged more efforts to preserve revolutionary sites and released a list of red tourism sites in 2015.