On August 22, 2003, Pegasus Communications hosted the Xinjiang Tourism Promotion Seminar at Beijing Grand Hyatt Hotel with topics focusing on Turpan and the Silk Road. This conference paved the way for a series of activities that will promote Xinjiang Turpan region’s culture and its Grape Festival. It is estimated that 150 people attended this Seminar. These included many notable Beijing experts on tourism and artifacts, specialists in Xinjiang and Turpan’s photography, painting and culture, government officials from the Xinjiang Tourism Bureau and Xinjiang’s Turpan County, directors of large travel agencies and key Beijing media.

The word “Turpan” in the Uyghur dialect means “the land of good harvest”. The area is located in the center of Xinijiang. It is a basin at the southern foot of the Heavenly Mountains, stretching 300 km from east to west and 240 km from north to south. On this land of 70,000 squared kilometers, which includes Turpan City, Shanshan County and Tuokexun County, lives 560,000 people, 77% of which are ethnic minorities with the Uyghurs being the dominant group.

Turpan has a very rich history. It was a key stop on the Silk Road and as such, it became the place where western culture met eastern culture and one of the two Uyghur cultural centers. It also served as a preservation of the natural habitat of the western regions and a model for green agricultural civilization. It is simply an open museum of western history, culture and nature. Turpan has the lowest sea-level lake in China, Aydingkol Lake and the sweetest grapes. It contains the world-famous Flaming Mountains and Grape Valley. It owns the underground Great Wall ridge and the only urban sand-hill park in China, Ku Mu La Ge Sand Hill. Other well-known sites include Jiao He Ruins, Gao Chang Ruins, Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Astana Graves, and Su Gong Pagoda. The Turpan region is not only a place filled with unique Gao Chang dances and rich ethnic sensations, it is also a great location with tourism, mining and investment.

During the “Ten Five” period, the economic development philosophy for Turpan was to use its grapes as the backbone in strengthening its primary industry; use its petroleum and natural gas as a basis to speed up the development of its mining and agricultural product processing, thereby improve its secondary industries; lastly, use tourism as a forerunner in the growth of its third group of industries.

Two thousand years ago, when Zhang Sai first unlocked the western region, the Silk Road was officially opened. As the frontier of business, culture and skills exchange between the west and the east, the ancient Xinjiang welcomed its golden era of rapid development. Two thousand years later, the Chinese government is once again calling for the opening of the western regions thereby giving these ancient regions another historic opportunity for advancement. In order to commemorate Zhang Sai for opening the western regions, Turpan hosted the first China Silk Road Turpan Grape Festival ten years ago. As the one of the 40 local cultural festivals recognized by the national government and the only one in Xinjiang, China Silk Road Turpan Grape Festival has already taken place 12 times since 1990. Now the festival is an asset in itself. Its intangible brand value has increased over the years. Especially beginning with the 10th festival when Xinjiang treated it as a tourism festival, the Grape Festival has fully represented the basic strategy in the development of Xinjiang’s tourism industry and therefore has increased in size, effectiveness and liveliness.

In the recent seminar, representatives from various industries discussed the resources and development of Xinjiang and Turpan’s tourism industry. Media in attendance also participated in a demonstration of their keen interest in the topic. The success of the seminar gave another strong push in the promotion of Xinjiang and Turpan’s tourism.