In 2025, Furong Town in Hunan's Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture received 6.53 million visits by domestic and overseas tourists, with ticket purchases by foreign visitors increasing by 61% over the previous year. 

Night view of the waterfall in the Furong Town Scenic Area. 

Furong Town, formerly known as Wangcun Village, was the location of the temporary palace of the Xizhou local chieftain. It gained widespread fame after the famous Chinese movie "Hibiscus Town" was filmed here. Furong Town is acclaimed as a "thousand-year-old town, hanging on a waterfall." 

The International Communication Conference of National Cultural and Tourism Brands was held in Beijing on November 30, 2025. The only representative of Hunan Province, the Furong Town Scenic Area was shortlisted for the top 100 cases of cultural and tourism brands going global, thanks to its dual-track model of overseas social media promotion and international cooperation under the theme "Ancient Town on a Waterfall, Going Viral around the Globe." 

"Last year, more than 338,000 foreign visitors from over 70 countries and regions purchased the tickets," said a spokesperson of a local tourism business. The "Online + Offline" dual-track promotion strategy of the Furong Town Scenic Area serves as its "key to going global," creating a communication loop with "attention from abroad sparking domestic interest." 

Online, the scenic area focuses on mainstream overseas social media platforms, creating a communication matrix through visual content such as the nighttime scenery of the waterfall and stilted buildings, as well as Tujia ethnic performances. Related short videos have received one billion views overseas. 

Offline, the scenic area has established a cross-border tourism service chain, carrying out in-depth cooperation with international tourism platforms, and improving supporting facilities such as multilingual services and cross-border payment procedures. These efforts have enhanced the experience of international tourists. 

In addition, the Furong Town Scenic Area has strived to tell its part of China’s stories well by means of international expressions. It has focused on traditional celebrations such as the Spring Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, creating a series of thematic content programmes including Xiangxi's New Year folk customs and intangible cultural heritage crafts. With distinctive Chinese cultural elements and in-person experience, these programmes help ignite the international visitors' cultural resonance and travel interest. Through interactions on social media and user-generated content, the Scenic Area has developed several viral topics, significantly raising Furong Town's prestige and appeal among global viewers.

During the 9th FIAP Photo Meeting in August 2025, over 300 photographers from around the world gathered in Furong Town. Riccardo Busi, president of the International Federation of Photographic Art, extended an invitation to the world—Come to Furong Town, a unique place in the world! 

Over the past seven years, the number of visits to Furong Town has soared from 300,000 to 6.53 million annually. The number of self-employed businesses has expanded from 737 to 1,451, creating over 1,200 jobs and increasing the income of nearly 4,000 households.

To ensure that Tujia culture is accessible, experiential, consumable, and shareable, the scenic area has developed more than 800 types of cultural and creative products, realizing the integrated development of industrial, agricultural and service sectors. A number of handicraft workshops and silver jewelry plants have been established, offering jobs for 886 local people, supporting 9,876 entrepreneurs, and driving income growth for nearly 40,000 residents in the surrounding areas.