The Shanghai Film Festival is leveraging the burgeoning movie tourism trend in China, showcasing the country's cinematic heritage and its diverse landscapes. This year, the festival's 'Grand Landscape: A Cinematic Portrait of China' program features 15 Chinese classics, each highlighting iconic locations. The initiative aims to encourage film enthusiasts and casual viewers alike to explore these places, blending cinematic appreciation with travel. The festival's programming manager, Freda Fan, explains that film tourism has been gaining traction over the past five years, with specific films attracting visitors to particular regions. For instance, 'Ne Zha 2' led to a surge in visitors to Yibin in Sichuan, while 'The Creation of the Gods' series drew attention to Henan's cultural heritage. In Shanghai, 'B for Busy' and 'Her Story' have made the city's daily life a popular tourist draw, with young people flocking to explore the alleyways, cafés, and grocery stores featured in these films. The festival's 'Grand Landscape' program is a strategic move to present a brief history of Chinese cinema through geography, showcasing the country's internal richness, cultural diversity, and the intergenerational legacy of its filmmakers. It includes films set in various regions, from the mountains of Tibet to the island of Hainan, and along the Yellow River in the north to the Yangtze in the south. The festival's efforts are supported by local and national tourism authorities, who have launched campaigns like 'Taste Cuisine with Films' and 'Shopping with Films'. These initiatives are part of a broader government-led push for film tourism, which has been gaining significant media coverage in recent months. A report from the China Film Administration highlights the economic impact of the film industry, stating that each yuan collected at the domestic box office generates 15.77 yuan for related industries, with tourism being a major beneficiary. While the 'Grand Landscape' program features only 15 films, it represents a small but significant effort to showcase China's cinematic and geographical diversity. Fan acknowledges that this selection may not fully capture the country's diversity but aims to present the beauty and touching stories of the land through revisiting Chinese classics.
