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Ye Wen Zhi: The Sky is the Stage, the Code to Breaking Through the Low-Altitude Tourism Industry

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2025-04-07


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On March 18, the main forum of the 2025 China Tourism, Leisure and Entertainment Industry Annual Conference, hosted by the China Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (CAAPA), was held in Beijing. Mr. Ye Wen Zhi, Chairman of Tianxia Phoenix Tourism Group, President of Hunan Tourism Association, and President of Hunan Aviation Sports Association, delivered a speech on the theme of The Sky is the Stage: The Code to Breaking the Situation of the Low-Altitude Tourism Industry.


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Text Version ( Organized according to the live speech audio)



Me and General Aviation



Today, I'll talk about me and my general aviation.





1993 Years ago, I invested in and built a general aviation airport in Zhangjiajie and opened a helicopter route from Changsha to Zhangjiajie. At that time, Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport was still under planning, so I transported the first tourist into Zhangjiajie. However, the picture of this airport is incorrect; this is Hehua Airport because this was some time ago, and I couldn't find a suitable picture. However, I also want to mention that when we started general aviation, a business tycoon also participated in our general aviation ceremony, Mr. Mou Qizhong, Chairman of Nan De Group. 32 Years ago





1999 Year 9 Month 11 Day ,we organized the 1999 World Aerobatic Flight Grand Prix in Zhangjiajie, allowing planes to fly through the Tianmen Mountain cave in Zhangjiajie. CCTV and Hunan TV jointly broadcast it live to the world, with over 10 billion viewers watching the live and recorded broadcasts. This event opened the Tianmen, which had been silent for thousands of years, with business, achieving humanity's flying through a natural mountain cave, a great feat. This event also became a milestone in the history of Chinese tourism marketing. Although it has been 26 years since the event, judging from its global influence and the technological means of dissemination at the time, 来看, it should be said that it remains unsurpassed.





2006 Year was the China-Russia Culture Year, and I organized the Russian Air Force's aerobatic flight performance at Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie. CCTV and domestic and foreign 15 television stations broadcast it live, with billions of people worldwide watching the live and rebroadcasts.





2012 Year, at the Aizhai Bridge in Xiangxi, I organized the Aizhai International Low-Altitude Skydiving Festival. Skydiving experts from 16 countries 42 participated in 6 seconds of life-or-death speed. This was also broadcast live by CCTV and Hunan TV, and about a dozen other domestic television stations. What you saw on the screen were scenes from our live broadcast.





This 2018 year, at the opening ceremony of our Hualong Music Festival, we used a small squirrel helicopter to lift a red piano, which we also call the Red Skylark, onto the Zhangjiajie cliff of Yubi Peak. We saw the Red Skylark playing "My Motherland" on the cliff. This was a performance art in the world music scene and a world's first. This event's popularity spread globally through short videos, photos, and articles, reaching over 5 100 million people.





I was a member of the 11th and 12th National People's Congress. During my ten years as a representative, I proposed suggestions on opening up low-altitude airspace and promoting the development of China's general aviation industry.





I am also a general aviation enthusiast. I am currently the first chairman of the Hunan Provincial General Aviation Sports Association. Perhaps not many people here can fly and skydive, but I can still fly with my team members at 4800 meters and 3500 meters high, performing formations and hand-in-hand poses. I have also flown 7 types of helicopters and 4 types of fixed-wing aircraft. So I am a general aviation enthusiast and practitioner. We started in this field 32 years ago, which is the low-altitude economy today, and in these 32 years, we have created two world's firsts in the low-altitude field: one is the 1999 year's flight through Tianmen Mountain and the other is the 2018 year's piano on the cliff.


But in between, we also did some emergency response to emergencies, including disaster relief. There may have been tourists in Zhangjiajie or Xiangxi Prefecture who experienced traffic accidents or other incidents, and we have carried out several medical emergencies. So, the first part of my speech is about me and my low-altitude activities, me and my general aviation.



The Path Ahead for General Aviation



Secondly, I want to talk about the low-altitude economy. Many local governments believe that building an airport is the low-altitude economy. In fact, to be precise, our understanding is called general aviation.





General aviation refers to aviation operations other than civil passenger and cargo transportation; it broadly encompasses general aviation It is widely used in industry, agriculture, electric power, education, emergency rescue, disaster relief, including forestry, fisheries, construction, sports, monitoring, and meteorology. This is a very fundamental aspect, but China, due to the issue of low-altitude airspace control, has for many years developed its land resources and utilized its oceans, but due to control issues and other reasons, the utilization rate of our spatial land resources has not been fully utilized, resulting in huge waste and idleness.


Especially when low-altitude airspace is not well-opened, it has led to our aviation equipment, basic aviation equipment, and general aviation equipment manufacturing lagging behind advanced countries at least more than 50 years.


2008 During the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, after the Tangjiashan barrier lake formed, two loaders and excavators needed to be transported to the Tangjiashan barrier lake. At that time, China only had one Mi 26 helicopter, which was rented from Russia. Even worse, none of China's helicopter pilots could fly this mission. During such a major disaster, while we were supposedly ahead in various aspects, the pilots at that time were temporarily borrowed from Russia, and we also temporarily borrowed one Mi 26 and two Mi 26 helicopters, along with Russian pilots, to complete the diversion work at the Tangjiashan barrier lake.


At the same time, we also saw 2008 during the Southern China ice storm in 2008, due to insufficient emergency rescue and logistical support capabilities and disaster relief capabilities, the entire southern region was paralyzed. 2008 During the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, if you remember, you saw those armed police soldiers carrying gasoline barrels to Tangjiashan barrier lake to deliver gasoline. We are wondering how far behind we have fallen in this area? Especially because our low-altitude airspace is not open, leading to our basic aviation education also lagging behind developed countries. During World War II, you saw so many Japanese, so many pilots in the Kamikaze, teenagers going to the battlefield, including Germany and the United States, so many aviation pilots, when the war reached that point, they had a strong aviation reserve force, but in this aspect, we are far behind developed capitalist countries.





Look at our country's airports, the total number of general aviation airports is about 2000 or so, including large and small airports and general aviation airports. The United States has 22,000 general aviation airports. The number of general aviation aircraft that can fly in China so far, I estimate, does not exceed 5,000 while the United States has 55 tens of thousands. This is 100 times the difference, so we must see the gap.


Because of this huge gap, there is a huge development space. In short, it is we also hope that our local governments and everyone can see the future growth space of low-altitude economic development. Of course, everyone needs to participate, because the low-altitude economy includes aircraft management, aircraft maintenance, aircraft training, and airport utilization. Now, in Xiangxi, Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport, Tongren Airport, Huayuan Airport, Huaihua Zhijiang Airport, including western Hubei prefecture Enshi Airport, we can utilize these airports, whose current utilization rate is not very high. We can establish aviation education bases. For example, now in Hunan, Hubei, and Weinan, there are more than 100 aircraft used for basic aviation education and training, and the growth space and market are also very large. Therefore, I think many people misunderstand the low-altitude economy as simply operating an aircraft and attracting tourists. We can start from medical emergency rescue, disaster relief, emergency response emergencies, including aerial seeding, pest control, electric power, and tourism, which is only a very small part.





Finally, I will conclude my speech with "My...". Thank you.




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