Investment and tourism flock to Tongren to take advantage of its rich natural resources, Yang Jun reports.

Authorities in Tongren, Guizhou province, are looking to boost the development of its water industry, as the city prepares to host the first international natural drinking water expo between Saturday and Monday.

The city's total output value of bottled water and other water-related industries reached 8.97 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) in 2015, or 13.1 percent of the total industry value of the city, according to the city government.

"With its rich natural resources, Tongren has attracted a number of big brands in the industry, such as Nongfu Spring and Watsons, to invest in the city in recent years," said Yang Xiangdong, deputy Party chief of the city. "We have also developed a number of local enterprises. The prospects (for water-related industries) are more than bright."

The First Guizhou International Natural Drinking Water Expo will be held in Bijiang district of Tongren starting from Saturday, with major bottled water producers including Acqua Minerale San Benedetto SpA, Hangzhou Wahaha Group, Longlife, and Tibet Water Resources Ltd set to take part in the expo.

"Hosting the water expo in Tongren will serve as a good promotion platform for the water resources of the city. We hope the water expo can become a high-end platform in the industry," Yang said.

Fanjing Mountain, located in Tongren, reportedly has the best preservation of natural forests compared with areas of the same latitude across the globe.

The environment has also endowed the city with high-quality, pure, natural drinking water resources.

The city, located in the eastern part of Guizhou, is rich in fresh water, springs, water for medical purposes and drinkable hot spring water. This has made it possible for the city to develop into a world water-manufacturing hub.

The city has 180 springs that can discharge more than 5 liters of water per second, with a total flow of 2.4 billion cubic meters of water each year. The springs enable the production of 150,000 bottles of mineral water each second.

China's beverage giant Nongfu Spring Co Ltd was among the first major beverage companies to invest in Tongren.

"The reason we chose Tongren is because of its well preserved ecosystem, high-quality mountain springs and friendly investment environment," said Wen Shengzao, general manager of the company's subsidiary in Tongren.

Wen said his company has a total annual production of 600 million bottles of water in Tongren.

The city's water resources are also rich in minerals, such as strontium, zinc and selenium, elements that are indispensable to human bodies.

The region's rich water resources are conducive to the development of the fishing industry and hot spring-themed tourism.

The city has about 40,000 hectares of water suitable for fish farming, which took up 20 percent of the provincial total.

Tongren now has about 6,000 hectares of water surface dedicated to ecological fish farming, with the output value of the fishing industry exceeding 1 billion yuan. The development of this industry has greatly helped poverty relief efforts in the city, local officials said.

Shiqian, Sinan, Yinjiang and Yanhe counties in Tongren are also rich in hot springs. The Shiqian county was accredited as "the home of hot springs in China" in 2009.

The Chengnan Hot Spring in Shiqian receives more than 500,000 tourists each year and provides about 400 jobs. The hot spring generates about 30 million yuan each year in tourism revenue.

Jiutian Hotsprings in Sinan county, featuring Tujia ethnic culture, receives 240,000 tourists each year. It provides 200 employment opportunities and brings about annual revenue of 15 million yuan.

Xia Hong, deputy mayor of Tongren, said the city government is looking to attract more enterprises to invest in the city through further optimizing its service awareness and policy support.

The authorities are looking to increase variety, improve quality and cultivate brands to increase the competitiveness of the city's bottled water industry.

"We are aiming to develop natural drinking water into an advantageous industry and a new growth engine by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan period (2016-20)," Xia said.

"By then, the total output value of the bottled water industry will reach 20 billion yuan and production volume will exceed 3 million tons."

Contact the writer at yangjun@chinadaily.com.cn

Xu Wei and Dong Xianwu contributed to this story.

(China Daily 11/16/2016 page10)