Foreigners experience Shanxi

Bright Mhango, a Malawian blogger, had never heard of Shanxi because, he said, it was always overshadowed by Xi'an, famous for its Terracotta Army.

"Shanxi has got it. It can compete with Egypt or Peru, and also Beijing, if it aggressively pursues a certain media line and marketing philosophy. More people need to know about Shanxi," Mhango said, adding that his favorite site was the Hanging Monastery.

"It was located so high, it was so remote and so ancient", he said.

Holger Briel, a German professor at the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, said was impressed with the sites, tourism infrastructure, including transportation, accommodation and English descriptions of tourist attractions during his visit to Shanxi.

"As the tourism industry in Shanxi is booming, in the future, market segmentation might be a way forward by addressing different tourists' needs — backpackers, the luxury segment, families, eco-tourism and so on," Briel suggested.

Yvonne Horst, a Dutch travel blogger, returned to Shanxi for the second time this summer, after visiting the province in the winter of 2011. She said the small shops by the exit of the Yungang Grottoes didn’t exist when she was last there.

Horst said more information in English should be available for foreign tourists. However, as an experienced traveler in China, she said that foreign tourists, especially solo travelers, shouldn’t let the language barriers, culture differences or media reports discourage them from visiting Shanxi or anywhere else in China.

“Get a dictionary, books that help you communicate without saying a word, with point-to pictures and phrases, be ready for adventure and remember that Chinese are friendly and helpful, proud of their cultural heritage and willing to share it with foreigners,” Horst said.

Shanxi is focusing on tourism as the new engine for the provinces'economic development. Revenues generated by the industry during the first quarter of 2015 reached 46 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) and the number of high-level scenic spots has been increasing.

Ma Bin, an official with the Datong municipal committee and publicity department, said more still needs to be done to improve the tourism industry.

"There is a tourism strategy that we have been working on, which will be completed by the end of the year. It includes the improvement of the tourist industry in Datong and Shanxi province," Ma said.

He added that the focus of the strategy is to increase the cooperation between tourism boards, in order to provide better infrastructure and services for visitors.