During this National Day holiday, governments in many places took the initiative to open government compounds, canteens, and parking lots to allow tourists and citizens to rest and eat hot meals for free.
Opening the door not only solves the urgent need for people to travel during the holidays, but also shortens the psychological distance, making the warmth of people's livelihood truly visible and tangible. Can the open door of the agency compound become a always-open door? What new services can public resource sharing unlock? Can the guidelines and regulations be strengthened to make services more considerate and beneficial to the people? During the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday that just passed, which local government agencies opened their doors, and what did they do?
Yangzhou, Jiangsu
Open for many years in a row, warm hospitality continues to grow
During this National Day holiday, the government canteen in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province once again became an "Internet celebrity restaurant" that tourists from all over the world rushed to visit. As one of the first cities to open government canteens to the public, Yangzhou has received more than 27,000 tourists since it launched the initiative to open government canteens during holidays in 2019. This livelihood service practice of sharing public resources during holidays not only solves the pain points of "difficulty in parking and difficulty in eating" for tourists during holidays, but also provides a fresh sample that can be used as a reference for the opening of public services in other cities across the country.
Before 11 o'clock, many citizens and tourists had already come here, parked their vehicles in the Yangzhou Municipal Government compound, and waited for their meals in the canteen in advance. At 11:30, the canteen opened on time. The reporter saw that a Huaiyang simple meal for 28 yuan includes two meat dishes, one vegetable and a small stir-fry, and rice and soup are free.
During this year’s National Day holiday, the canteen of the West Courtyard of the Yangzhou Municipal Government is open to tourists at noon and evening every day. In addition to basic convenience facilities such as wash basins and baby chairs, the canteen also provides free packing boxes and hand-drawn Yangzhou tourism maps. The specially set up specialty area also supplies local specialties such as salted goose and Yangda milk, bringing the authentic Yangzhou taste directly to tourists’ tables.
Xia Chaoqun, deputy director of the Yangzhou Municipal Government Life Service Center: From the beginning of ensuring daily meals, to now we have a professional team to design the menu. We have also set up a tourist guestbook to collect and adopt opinions and suggestions extensively, so as to ensure the delicious characteristics of Huaiyang while taking into account the tastes of tourists.
In addition to allowing tourists to eat well, we also do not forget about "frugality" and "safety". The canteen uses big data to predict passenger flow based on the parking situation in the hospital, and accurately controls the amount to eliminate waste. In addition, the canteen has also strengthened the quick inspection of ingredients.
Xia Chaoqun, deputy director of the Yangzhou Municipal Government Life Service Center: Randomly inspect 3 to 5 types of vegetables and pork every day to detect pesticide residues and clenbuterol, achieving a safety threshold in advance. Adhering to the principle of not being for profit, the pricing only covers the cost of basic dishes, truly benefiting tourists.
Hubei Huanggang
Optimize travel experience from "eating" to "parking"
During this year’s National Day holiday, several cultural and tourism scenes such as Dongpo Chibi, Yiai Lake, and Dongpo Bund in Huanggang, Hubei Province continue to gain popularity. The Huangzhou District Party Committee Canteen, which is close to the scenic spots, decided to open it to the whole society and serve citizens and tourists with affordable and transparent convenient packages.
The reporter saw at the cafeteria of the Huangzhou District Party Committee in Huanggang City that many tourists who had visited Yiai Lake Park and checked in at the Dongpo Bund chose to walk here for a few minutes to have a meal nearby, without having to wait in line around the scenic area. The self-selected set menu launched by the canteen is priced at only 15 yuan. Each tourist can enjoy four dishes, one soup and free refills of rice. The dishes take into account local tastes and the dietary preferences of tourists from the north and south.
According to statistics, during the National Day holiday, this government canteen received a total of more than 3,500 citizens and tourists. In addition, Huangzhou District has also coordinated and opened 2,410 internal parking spaces in 66 administrative institutions in the district, all of which are free for tourists. From "eating" to "parking", we will comprehensively make up for the shortcomings of convenience services around the scenic area and effectively optimize the travel experience of foreign tourists.
Chongqing Rongchang
“One meal” drives consumption and special subsidies gain popularity
It seems that the government canteen is open to tourists and provides more than just "an affordable meal". It has also become a new entrance to leverage surrounding cultural and tourism consumption. During this National Day holiday, Chongqing Rongchang District innovatively launched a combination model of "free experience in government canteens + cultural tourism consumption subsidies", further activating the vitality of the holiday economy. From "come in for a meal" to "stay and play for two days", this convenient meal stimulates a real increase in cultural tourism consumption during the holidays.
The reporter saw in the canteen of the Rongchang District Government Office that there was a long queue of tourists waiting to pick up their meals and pay their bills. Rongchang braised goose, lard soaked cakes, yellow jelly and other small bowls of local specialties are priced at only 3 to 10 yuan per bowl, which is very affordable. Many dishes are "swept away" as soon as they are put on the dining rack.
It is understood that dining in the agency canteen is subject to a reservation system, and citizens and tourists can make reservations for meals through the WeChat mini program "Rong e Travel". Citizens and tourists who come to dine can learn about Rongchang's core cultural tourism resources and unlock accurate travel strategies through the cultural tourism promotion display boards and volunteer introductions.
Rongchang District Government Canteen Staff Dai Kangxin: Arranged more than 10 volunteers to go to the site to provide some convenience services, such as dining guidance, cultural and tourism Q&A, travel route guidance, etc.
As of noon on October 7, this government canteen had received more than 4,000 tourists during the holidays. In addition, Rongchang District also simultaneously launched a series of convenience measures such as free public transportation, free parking, free tourist attractions, and special food specialties, and issued 1.2 million yuan in electronic consumption vouchers, covering multiple consumption scenarios such as catering, accommodation, cultural and creative industries, and continued to release the vitality of holiday consumption.
Jiang Xingyu, head of the Rongchang District Cultural Ecological Protection and Management Center: We open the office canteen not only to provide dining services, but also to break the barriers of public resources, use considerate, affordable, and heart-warming services to retain our tourists and gather popularity, and then add special consumption subsidies to truly benefit the people, make the city prosperous through cultural tourism, and increase consumption efficiency.
Dai County, Shanxi
Government compound opens during holidays to solve parking supply problem for tourists
During the National Day holiday, in Dai County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province, the local government compound opened its doors to tourists - not only free parking, but also providing hot water, toilets and charging piles, winning praise from tourists for its "full sincerity".
The Dai County Government Courtyard is close to the ancient Yamen of Daizhou and the Ashoka Pagoda, a national key cultural relic protection unit. During the National Day, government compounds are open to public vehicles free of charge and provide free toilets, free water supply and other services.
In order to ensure the orderly parking of vehicles and the implementation of convenient services, the Dai County Government compound also arranged dedicated personnel to be on duty and provide guidance to maintain order on site.
Li Qilong, a staff member of Dai County Government: We opened the county government compound to solve the practical problems of parking and supply difficulties for tourists, and provide supporting facilities to allow tourists to visit Dai County’s historic sites with ease.
The government compound is open to the public on a regular basis, sharing resources to benefit customers and the people
Opening the doors of the county government compound and providing free parking spaces to the public is not a measure to benefit the people just launched this holiday. Starting from 2022, signboards will be set up here every holiday to provide corresponding services. And such measures are continuing to escalate.
Dai County is a national historical and cultural city, and Daizhou Ancient Government Office and Ashoka Pagoda are local landmark cultural and tourism resources. The number of visitors to scenic spots surges during holidays, and tight parking spaces and insufficient public facilities have always been pain points for tourists. According to the staff, as early as 2022, the parking spaces in the Dai County Government Compound were open to the public for free all year round. However, due to the lack of warning signs, only some locals knew about it, and foreign tourists did not know.
Wen Jianbin, Director of the Dai County Agency Affairs Service Center: In response to this situation, starting from 2022, we will set up notice boards indicating free parking, free toilets, and free water supply at prominent locations at the entrances of government agencies during the holidays to provide convenience for the masses and tourists.
There are more than 200 parking spaces in the Dai County Government compound. This holiday, it has received more than 30,000 tourists and parked more than 7,000 tourist vehicles.
Driven by the demonstration, various agencies and units across the county actively responded and took the initiative to open up. At present, more than 500 free parking spaces have been added to the public. The whole region has jointly improved the ancient city's tourism supporting facilities, which has greatly alleviated the parking pressure in core scenic spots.
Wen Jianbin, Director of the Agency Affairs Service Center directly under Dai County: In the next step, we will continue to optimize management and coordinate and balance the parking needs of internal staff of the agency and the parking needs of external tourists. This will not only ensure the normal operation of the agency, but also continue to provide convenient services such as parking, toileting, and drinking water.
Expert interpretation:
Can the open door of the agency compound become a always-open door?
From Jiangsu Yangzhou, Chongqing Rongchang to Shanxi Dai County, we have seen more and more government agencies across the country opening their doors to welcome tourists. A convenient meal warms the stomachs of tourists and retains their hearts. Opening the door also reflects the increasing service awareness of government agencies. Since it can provide such popular services, naturally everyone has more expectations. In addition to serving tourists during holidays, can we also serve citizens on weekdays? If the door of the government compound is open on holidays, can it become a door that is always open on ordinary days? How to move from temporary to normal? What new services can public resource sharing unlock? How can we make the service more considerate and beneficial to the people in the future?
Ma Liang, professor at Peking University School of Government: The government compound is open to the public during holidays, providing parking and catering services to tourists and citizens. Such measures not only bring citizens and the government closer together, but also help to better promote the opening up of public resources and the provision of services. We can see that in many places now it is a voluntary approach, or a self-selected action. In the future, more efforts should be made to promote various government agencies and public departments to open corresponding spaces and resources to the outside world to serve surrounding residents and serve more of the public. At this point, we must realize that the space and resources of the public departments of these agencies and compounds are public and should also serve the public. Therefore, at this point, how to ensure this kind of opening up and resource sharing through system construction and form a normal operating mechanism is very worthy of exploration.
At the same time, we must also consider how many public spaces and resources like government courtyards are there? In which areas are they distributed? What hours can it be open? What kind of functions does it have? To find out the bottom line, we can really build a set of digital public resource maps. Being able to coordinate and share these public resources also makes it easier for local residents and tourists to inquire, make reservations and use them. It not only saves many of us search time, but also better matches supply and demand.
In addition to being open to the public on holidays and weekends, there are actually many more possibilities to explore. Public resources like this not only serve cultural tourism consumption and services, but can also better empower urban community governance. There are still many residents who need cultural and sports activities, and some public departments can provide similar spaces, venues and services. For example, in summer, many citizens want to enjoy the cool air; in autumn, some areas need to dry food. Seasonal services like this can also provide more possibilities through the opening of public resources. Of course, we can see that the resources of some large institutions such as party and government agencies are more reflected in policies and government services, so we can use such windows to publicize more policies to the outside world and launch more services to benefit the people.
