Tourism on high

Apart from its tourism industry, Arxan has welcomed border trade and offers travelers duty-free shopping for snacks, cosmetics and folk art from Russia and Mongolia.

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, more than 130,000 tourist trips were made to the city during the National Day holiday-about 95 percent of last year's figure during the same period.

Arxan had 4.99 million tourist visits last year, up 16 percent over the previous year. Income from tourism was 6.08 billion yuan, also up by 16 percent from the previous year.

Favorable tourism policies have also been made to offer travelers more incentive to visit the city. Local authorities have tapped into Arxan's rich winter resources and rolled out study and self-drive tours as well as cross-country experiences for tourists looking to experience its winter charm.

Wang Tianfeng, vice-mayor of Arxan, says the city can offer tourists a wide variety of tourist spots, and tourists can enjoy going to hot springs, viewing the glittering and translucent rime, and having fun in towns styled like castles.

Currently, Lucun is working on developing distinctive rural tourism featuring sightseeing with local characteristics, as well as forest-themed cuisine and accommodation.

"For a long while, domestic tourists enjoyed deer spotting in Japan," Zheng says. "It got me thinking about our cute deer and I have to come up with something to let more people know and come to see our deer here."