Qian'an: A new picture of urban transformation connected by the Great Wall, Luanhe River and Yellow Emperor culture

Text/Wang Lichen

From the marble Great Wall at the foot of Yanshan Mountain to the Luanhe River system passing through the city; from the Xuanyuan Pavilion that carries the culture of the Yellow Emperor, to the Tianyuan Valley tourist resort that combines traditional culture with modern technology... In Qian'an, Hebei, new connections are being formed between mountains, water, the Great Wall and urban space.

From September 27th to 29th, the 4th "Great Wall Covenant" global promotion event and world cultural heritage dialogue series will be held in Qian'an City, Tangshan City, Hebei Province. With the culture of the Great Wall as a link, this resource-based city, which once thrived on mining and was strong on steel, is accelerating the transformation of cultural and ecological resources into new driving forces for the development of the cultural tourism industry. Urban functions and consumption scenarios are also changing accordingly.

How a section of the Great Wall connects a thousand-year cultural context

At the southern foot of Yanshan Mountain in the north of Qian'an City, the Baiyangyu Great Wall winds along the ridge.

Different from the familiar masonry Great Wall, part of the city wall here is made of local marble. The mountains, stone colors and city walls are intertwined to form a unique landscape. The Baiyangyu Great Wall was first built in the Northern Qi Dynasty and repaired many times in the Ming Dynasty. The existing Great Wall is relatively complete and about 4,552 meters long.

In the past, the Great Wall was more of a historical and cultural heritage. Nowadays, in Qian'an, the Great Wall has begun to have more connections with rural tourism, study, homestays, sports and other industries.

In recent years, Qian'an has promoted the construction of the Great Wall National Cultural Park, implemented projects such as the Baiyangyu Marble Great Wall Cultural and Tourism Integration Zone, and developed themed activities, study products and rural tourism scenes around the Great Wall culture.

In addition to the Great Wall, there is another important cultural clue in Qian'an - the Yellow Emperor culture.

At the commanding heights of Huangtai Mountain Park, Xuanyuan Pavilion has become one of the cultural landmarks of Qian'an City. The building is 54 meters high and is presented in the architectural style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The interior displays the culture of the Yellow Emperor and the history and culture of Qian'an through exhibitions, cultural relics and interactive experiences.

This also makes Qian'an's cultural tourism resources no longer limited to a single scenic spot. The two cultural threads of "Great Wall" and "Xuanyuan" gradually form a new cultural experience in urban space.

A Luanhe River gives the "Steel City" more water city space

Beyond the Great Wall, the Luanhe River passing through the city has become an important support for the city's spatial renewal.

In recent years, Qian'an has continued to promote water control and revitalize the city, improving the urban spatial layout with the Luanhe River as the ecological core, forming 14 square kilometers of water surface and more than 5,000 acres of construction islands, and connecting urban parks, scenic spots and rural tourism resources through ecological greenways and other facilities.

Along both sides of the Luanhe River, spaces such as Huangtaishan Park and Left Bank Sports Park are constantly improving, and functions such as sports events, mass cultural activities, and leisure tours are gradually superimposed.

The Water Culture Week held in Qian'an in 2026 will integrate city parades, intangible cultural heritage displays, national fitness, water sports and other contents into urban public life. At the same time, the local government continues to promote the linkage of Tianyuan Valley, Shanyekou, Baiyangyu and other scenic spots with rural B&Bs, ecological picking, outdoor camping, Great Wall self-driving and other businesses, forming a tourism product system such as "main city leisure + Great Wall study + Luanhe sightseeing + rural health care + sports and entertainment".

Behind this change is Qian'an's readjustment of urban development methods.

It is understood that Qian'an was once a typical resource-based city, and the steel industry has long occupied an important position. Today, it has already been selected as a construction unit of the national cultural industry and tourism industry integrated development demonstration zone. Although high-quality steel is still the foundation of local industry, industries such as cultural tourism, biomedicine, new materials, and green hydrogen energy are also accelerating development.

From layout along the river, development across the river, to shaping urban space with water as its veins, the Luanhe River has gradually transformed from a natural river into a link connecting ecology, city and industry.

How does a city turn attractions into industries?

The increase in scenic spots does not mean that a city has successfully transformed into a cultural tourism model. What Qian'an is doing is to recombine scattered cultural, ecological and industrial resources, so that tourism can gradually transform from "seeing a scenic spot" to "experience a city".

In Tianyuan Valley Tourist Resort, Huangdi culture and Guzhu culture are combined with parent-child entertainment, folk experience, and digital technology. With "culture as the soul, architecture as the surface, and tourism as the body", the scenic spot has set up multiple theme parks and folk streets, and uses AR, VR, holographic imaging and other technologies to allow historical culture to enter the tourism consumption scene through immersive experience. The resort has also been selected into the Hebei Province Smart Tourism Immersive Experience New Space Cultivation Pilot Project.

In Baiyangyu, the Great Wall is combined with rural tourism. New scenarios such as night tours on the Great Wall, B&Bs, and study tours are constantly emerging; in urban areas, sports events, cultural performances, and urban tourism are interconnected; some traditional industrial parks have also begun to explore "industry + tourism", and Jingdong Pipe Industrial Park has become a national 3A-level tourist attraction.

The boundaries of the cultural tourism industry therefore continue to extend to urban life.

From a Great Wall, to a river, to a city, Qian'an is trying to establish a more complete cultural tourism industry chain. It provides cultural content with historical resources such as the Great Wall and Yellow Emperor Culture, provides urban scenes with ecological spaces such as Luanhe River and Huangtai Mountain, enriches consumer experience with scenic spots, events, performing arts, research studies, homestays, etc., and then connects different areas through transportation, greenways and public service facilities.

The "Qian'an City Land and Space Master Plan (2021-2035)" announced in 2026 also proposes to use the Luanhe River ecological landscape belt as the ecological core to lead the development of urban groups and build a Qian'an characteristic water city with water as its veins.

For resource-based cities, transformation does not mean saying goodbye to original industries, but looking for new growth space outside of the industrial base. While Qian'an continues to strengthen traditional advantageous industries such as high-quality steel, it has also further transformed elements such as landscapes, the Great Wall, and culture that were more "urban resources" in the past into cultural tourism products and consumption scenarios.

When the Great Wall enters the cultural tourism industry from a historical heritage, when the Luanhe River changes from an urban river to a public space, and when Huangdi culture enters the travel routes of young people through technological experience, a "modern water city" at the foot of the Great Wall is also forming a new urban development picture.