NEW YORK - Wang Fuyu, deputy Party chief of Guizhou province, brought a 60-person ethnic performing group to New York in the second week of October, when the most beautiful scenery is in New England.

Instead of the attraction of the incredible views of autumn leaves, Wang encourages more American tourists to visit his province - Guizhou, the most cultural diversified province, located in Southwest China.

"Guizhou has the rich cultural heritage as home to a string of Chinese ethnic minorities. Combined with the unique Karst landscape and refreshing natural environment, the place has become one of the most popular international tourist destinations in China," Wang said.

"The friendly local people welcome everyone in the world to visit Guizhou."

The performers will travel to Atlanta, Las Vegas and San Francisco on Oct 17.

American tourists were the second-largest overseas group in Guizhou last year at about 15,000 people, a figure only exceeded by the number of Japanese visitors. And the figure is expected to increase by 30 percent year-on-year, while more cooperation is built between Guizhou and American travel agencies this year.

Due to the less-developed transportation system and highway construction, Guizhou's economic advance has been listed at the bottom of the country's GDP rankings. But the tourist industry has been considered as the new engine of local economic growth by the senior government official.

In 2010, the tourist industry contributed about 106 billion yuan ($25.16 billion) to the local economy, which is 30 percent growth from the year before. Guizhou hosted more than 100 million visitors from home and abroad last year.

"Guizhou has been recommended as a tourist destination by many travel agencies in the US since last year, and it noticeably helps us to attract more American visitors," Wang said, adding that before the direct cooperation, Guizhou could only host around 3,000 outbound tourists who transferred from major Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

"If you can stay in Guizhou for only two days, you still can have an incredible experience," Wang said. He recommends visitors to experience both nature heritages such as the Huangguoshu Waterfall, the largest waterfall in Asia, as well as to see the village where Miao minority people gathered.

In Guizhou, there are 17 ethnic groups, with more than 1.6 million minority and indigenous people, which accounts for about 40 percent of the local population.

In the same area, visitors can experience different ethnic cultures from the Dong minority at the foot of the mountain, and the Bouyei minority halfway up the mountain, to the Miao minority who dominates the mountain top, Wang said.

Each minority has its own language, costumes and lifestyle. The rich population of minorities in Guizhou allows for many ethnic festivals throughout the lunar calendar. Almost 1,146 festivals are celebrated in the area every year based on different cultural backgrounds.

"Guizhou people are endowed with a gift in singing, dancing and drinking by nature. I am sure everyone will have a lot of fun during their visiting," the official added.

China Daily