“Chinese Flavor”in Travelling

As the 2500th birthday of Shaoxing, Zhejiang and the 2010 World Expo is approaching, the “Sunrock” travel project located in the Mt. Kuaiji, Shaoxing is also under construction. Its most featured “Ancient Residence Center” which cost over 800 million and its corresponding installation “Country Paradise” will be put into use in May 2010, same time as the World Expo.

Shaoxing Couples World Expo

As one of the oldest cities in China, Shaoxing, which is called “the museum without walls”, has abundant amazing landscape, wonderful natural scenery and distinctive custom.

Shaoxing is famous for its scenery, bridges, wine, handwriting and traditional (Chinese) opera. A lot of famous people were born and grew up there, such as the Chinese ancient King Dayu, calligrapher Wang Xizhi, Lu Xun and the first premier of the PRC Zhou Enlai. In Shaoxing, people can also explore a lot of places of interests, like Home of Lu Xun, Shen Garden, Tomb of Dayu and so on.

Last October, Shanghai Economic and Trade Commission named Shaoxing as one of the destinations of the Yangtze Delta Trip in Expo experiencing programme, which is a special travelling route designed for the World Expo participants. According to the official estimation, more than 70 million tourists would come to Shanghai next year, many of which will go to Shaoxing and visit every area of this city by taking its specific black awning boats and tricycles.

Next year is also the 2500th birthday of Shaoxing. Base on these two opportunities, Shaoxing government has brought forward the concept of “Shaoxing, full of scenery”, that aims at building Shaoxing to the most characteristic travel resort in China.

Due to the fact that people pay more attention on relaxing rather than sight-seeing in travelling, Shaoxing is going to build an integrate resort whose major part is the “Sunrock” project.

Targeting at Mid-range Market and High-end Market

The “Sunrock” project is located near the Wangxian Bridge of the Mt. Kuaiji resort. It is built by Qinsen (Shaoxing) Culture and Tourism Development Co., Ltd, which is the subsidiary company of Qinsen Group Co., Ltd (Qinsen Group). The total investment will be 800 million yuan and by now 200 million yuan has been put in. The project is designed by US-based WWCOT Architecture and the Design Institute of Landscape & Architecture, China Academy of Art.

According to the introduction of Zhang Hong, marketing manager of Qinsen Croup, the area of “Sunrock” project will cover 197 thousand m2, and total construction area is 82 thousand m2. The project was divided into two plots based on different usages. Plot A includes an international 5-star hotel as well as an independent enterprise chamber. Plot B is used to restore the historical sites like Yangming Academy and Longrui Palace, including the “Ancient Residence Center”, “Country Paradise” and an international 5-star hotel. Now it is Plot B that is under construction.

It is known that the “Ancient Residence Center” will be finished at the end of this year. The “Country Paradise” will have its first business partner coming in 2010. Both of them will be put into public in May 2010, when the World Expo will start too. The 5-five star hotel near Longrui Palace will be finished and open in 2011, Different from the hotel in Plot A, which is a standard high-end business hotel, this one is targeted at the chief executive officers in large enterprises.

In this beautiful lap, crossing a 9000 m2 wide of sakura blossom we may see a general skeleton of seven distinctive ancient villas that date back from Ming and Qing dynasty, as well as an ancient opera stage. Opposite to the skeletons, construction of “Country Paradise” is almost finished. It performs the function of restaurant, health care and entertainment. Within the Country Paradise, there are eight shops that each covers an area of about 500 m2 to 1000 m2, and an enormous club that takes up 3000 m2 which includes the Yangming Academy.

It takes only 10 minutes to “Sunrock” resort by car from Shaoxing city. Besides convenience, there are a lot of places of interests in the Mt. Kuaiji, where the “Sunrock” project is located, such as the mausoleum of hero Dayu and Xianglu Mountain. These sceneries have made Mt. Kuaiji one of the most famous mountains in China. The Chinese hero Dayu named Mt. Kuaiji his own territory and got married here, the same place where he was buried too. Then many years later the first emperor of China - Emperor Qin Shi Wang - came here and offered a sacrifice to Dayu, hoping to gain the power to rule the whole world. There are other construction programmes nearby, along with other corresponding facilities such as the biggest international golf course in Shaoxing. Zhang Hong said that the project is targeted at mid-range market and high-end market to attract customers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Yangtze Delta areas who are looking for completely relaxing. At the same time “Sunrock” may also attract people from places around Shaoxing to come here and get an experience of ecotourism. The concept of “enjoyment in leisure” is advocated to enable the customers to enjoy the historical interest and the country funs at their leisure time.

Unique Ancient Residence

The most impressive part of this project is the “Ancient Residence Center”.

The president of Qinsen Group said that the ancient residences endow the “Sunrock” project with otherness, innovation and uniqueness that is impossible for other holiday resorts to get. It combines the demand of leisure travel with the president's personal collection space to create a resort with “Chinese flavor”. The project firmly sticks to the principle of “connecting classic and modern, selecting leisure and vacation”, emphasizing most on “Chinese flavor”.

The president of Qinsen Group is so fond of ancient wooden buildings and furniture that he owns a great deal of rare scented rose-wood antique whose number tops in the field of personal collection. Houses in Country Paradise consist of the president's best ones.

We can see many old houses in “Sunrock” resort that dates back from Ming and Qing dynasty which are the distinctive building of Jiangnan district in China. According to their varied styles they are named differently. Except the tiles on the floor and the brick walls for fixing, each part of the ancient residences, like beam, lintel and pillar etc., was moved from where they were originally located and assembled in the site of project. Therefore, apart from some necessary anti-corruption measures and repairs to the breakages, these wooden structures are nearly the same with what they were 200 or 300 years ago.

The old stage removed from Jiangxi is one of the most attractive spots which were built at the end of the Qing Dynasty. With the coverage of more than 100 m2, this grand stage was the largest one descended from the Qing Dynasty in South China. Now, Qinsen Group is trying to invite some troupes playing Kunqu Opera, Huangmei Opera and Shaoxing Opera to present an excellent performance when the restoration of the old stage is finished.

According to Yang Peng, standing vice general manager of Qinsen (Shaoxing) Culture and Tourism Development Co., Ltd, the company tries to preserve the rare ancient building through the “Ancient Residence Center”. In that way, the company can fulfill its social responsibility and carry forward the traditional culture in the modern business operation.

Qinsen Group was registered in 1996 in Shanghai. With the core business of commercial investment and development, the company commits itself to the common development in garden and greening, plants production and sale, hotel and restaurant, holiday resort, entertainment and leisure, bodybuilding and hairdressing as well as park management. The company has several legal entities and branches. It has built up good relations with some large property enterprises like Shimao Group and Dahua Group. One of the companys achievements is the Shanghai Dahua Qinsen Leisure Square, which is one of the largest and best places for leisure in the northern part of Shanghai. Qinsen (Shaoxing) Culture & Travel Development Co., Ltd was founded at the beginning of 2008 and is responsible for developing the “Sunrock” project in Shaoxing.