Photo shows the Manxin Wangyou Valley scenic spot in Huocheng County, Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Zhou Peng)

Vast fields of purple unfurl, their fragrance stretching far. In the summer heat, the "purple economy" of Huocheng County, Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang, known as "China's Lavender Town," is in full bloom. Compared to previous years, most tourists are slowing their pace to savor local delicacies, experience floral therapy amidst the sea of flowers, or rest in distinctive homestays. This signals a shift in the "flower economy" from mere sightseeing to immersive experiences, and from setting spots for taking photos to themed tourism.

In recent years, leveraging their unique strengths, cities and prefectures across Xinjiang have actively explored ways to transform advantages into sustainable growth, opening new avenues for distinctive industries. Two sets of statistics highlight profound changes in Xinjiang's specialty sectors. In the first half of 2025, Xinjiang received nearly 133 million domestic tourist visits, generating tourism revenue of 142.56 billion yuan (about 19.89 billion U.S. dollars), representing year-on-year increases of 11.15 percent and 11.59 percent respectively. Second, from the aspect of business growth, Xinjiang saw 201,800 newly registered market entities in the first half of the year, a 9.71 percent increase year on year. Notably, distinct sectors like agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishing surged by 112.88 percent.

Unlocking potential advantages

Huocheng, China's earliest lavender-growing area with its largest plantation base, is maximizing this advantage by creating diverse lavender landscapes. The Manxin Wangyou Valley scenic spot, featuring 12,000 mu (about 800 hectares) of lavender, became an instant hit upon opening last year. During June and July 2025, it attracted about 10,000 visitors daily.

"We use specific cultivation techniques to extend the lavender blooming season into autumn," explained Li Xiaoguang, the manager of the scenic spot. The park features three main routes, namely sightseeing, walking and cycling routes with themed zones, fostering diverse activities like lavender viewing, specialty homestays, and family-friendly education – encouraging visitors to linger and relax.

Meanwhile, Huocheng County is expanding its lavender processing industry through maxize the post-harvest value. Wang Wenhui, an official from the county's agriculture bureau, stated that Huocheng promotes diversified development, multi-level utilization, and value addition at every stage of lavender products, forming an integrated industrial chain from planting and product research to leisure tourism. Statistics show that driven by lavender and other industries, the county's rural disposable income grew by eight percent last year.

To achieve high-quality development, unlocking potential is essential. Xinjiang's regions focus on optimizing industrial spatial layouts and deepening industrial chains. Huocheng lavender, a nationally renowned "golden brand," fills a niche with its valley landscape park and pushes deeper through multi-level utilization and processing to overcome weaknesses like low processing capacity and short industrial chains.

Horgos, which borders Kazakhstan and boasting multiple open platforms such as comprehensive bonded zone, supporting area, development zone and free trade zone, makes openness as its core strength. Streamlined approvals, customs clearance, and transport ensure smooth movement of people and goods. In H1, Horgos Port saw a 33.9% YoY increase in cross-border passenger clearance. By July 2, 2025, over 5,000 China-Europe(Central Asia) freight trains had passed through its railway port, 42 days earlier than last year.

This vibrant flow of people and goods fuels an economic "fusion effect" in Horgos, transforming openness into industrial advantage. Key sectors like manufacturing and medical equipment are accelerating their cluster growth. In Q1, actualized investment rose by 10% year-on-year.

Synergizing advantages

Jinghe County, situated at the rail-road junction connecting Alashankou and Horgos ports, capitalizes on its unique location by building the Jinghe International Intermodal Logistics Park. This hub integrates functions like distribution, processing, multimodal transport, bonded customs clearance, e-commerce, and bulk commodity trading.

"Goods shipped by truck to Almaty, Kazakhstan, can arrive fastest in one day," said Fang Wenbin, business manager of Jinghe Xihai Intermodal Logistics. Seamless rail-road transfer significantly boosts efficiency, establishing Jinghe as a logistics hub.

The park achieved 496 million yuan (about 69.09 million U.S. dollars) in import-export trade in Q1. With enhanced cold chain facilities, it helps Xinjiang specialties like grapes, lamb, and dairy, plus products from other regions, reach markets. Plans include promoting trade-logistics-industry synergy and developing characteristic processing industries.

Unlike Jinghe's port advantage, Wusu City embraces two highways popular on the internet, including the Duku highway and S101 highway, favored by self-drive tourists. The city invested 120 million yuan (about 16.71 U.S. million dollars) to build the "Wusu Post" multi-functional tourism service center at their intersection, featuring food outlets, hotels, homestays, campsites, and EV charging stations.

Now the "Wusu Post" functions as both a tourist hub and a tourism accelerator. Meng Ying, director of Wusu's Culture, Sports, Radio, TV, and Tourism Bureau, noted that nearby Baiyanggou Town is developing herder family inns, helping locals benefit from tourism. Boosted by the center, Wusu received 2.72 million tourist visits (up 40.83 percent year on year) and generated 1.85 billion yuan (about 257.7 million U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue (up 28.87 percent year-on-year) in the first five months.

"It's a perfect spot to rest, eat, recharge, and then continue the trip. The intersection itself is a scenic spot to take photos," said Xia Yiqing, a tourist from Wuxi, Jiangsu.

Capitalizing on highway traffic, Wusu integrates "transport + tourism," building a "fast access, slow travel" infrastructure network, transforming scenic routes into regional development corridors and income streams for farmers and herders.

Extending advantages

Under the sun, vibrant green pepper fields stretch across Anjihai Town, Shawan City. As Xinjiang's edible pepper distribution hub, the town grows 40,000 mu (about 2,667 hectares) of peppers. To consolidate and extend this advantage, Chen Li, deputy director of Shawan's Agricultural Technology Extension Center, said a 2,100-mu (140 hectares) R&D base was established this year, introducing 68 new varieties.

Currently, Anjihai's strength lies mainly in primary production. To capture more processing value, the town is attracting pepper processors. Eight companies have set up operations, and the Xinjiang Pepper Trading Market has been established, explained Han Feng, the town's deputy Party secretary.

Xinjiang Sunshine Food Co., Ltd. based in Anjihai, produces pure chili sauce and "Big Plate Chicken" chili sauce using local peppers. "Contracts with growers ensure quality supply. Anjihai's high-quality peppers enhance our brand," said Sun Zhijun, the deputy manager.

Jinghe County's goji berries also exemplify value-added processing. Despite large-scale cultivation since the 1970s, the industry faced challenges due to distance, quality control issues, and low value addition.

Jinghe revitalized its industry by establishing planting advantages through a "six unified and one separate" model (unified planning, inputs, tech guidance, management, quality testing, sales; separate household management). Efforts paid off with China's Agricultural Product Geographical Indication (GI) status in 2012 and inclusion in the China-EU agreement on geographical indications in 2020. The county now cultivates over 100,000 mu (about 6,667 hectares) of goji berries, yielding nearly 60,000 tons of fresh fruit annually.

Extending this advantage, Jinghe has nurtured 15 processing and 47 e-commerce enterprises, exporting products to 23 countries and regions. Tianshan Fruit Industry Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. operates seven production lines (juice, beer, wine), transforming the planting advantage into a "planting + processing + trade" model.

Leveraging its goji resources, Jinghe also explores deep integration of "culture + tourism + commerce," promoting its berry culture, image, and healthy lifestyles. "Activities like e-commerce livestream festivals, GI product traceability tours, and cultural exhibitions enhance Jinghe's fame and consolidate the goji industry's strength," said Wang Wei, Director of Jinghe County's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau.

(Source: Ecnomic Daily)