{"id":94976,"date":"2026-10-23T00:07:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94976"},"modified":"2026-10-23T00:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:07:02","slug":"reboot-of-dayong-ancient-city-tests-if-chinas-loss-making-tourism-projects-can-be-revived-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94976","title":{"rendered":"Reboot of Dayong Ancient City tests if China\u2019s loss-making tourism projects can be revived"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/07\/2c86715e-50a2-4cbc-a215-5a4a09bab448_90534078.jpg?itok=5sBTyW5g&amp;v=1786097621\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In mid-July, Dayong Ancient City \u2013 a state-backed replica town in China\u2019s mountain tourist hub of Zhangjiajie \u2013 reopened its gates after a major overhaul, drawing more than 150,000 visitors in its first three days, according to official figures.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That marked a stark contrast to the site\u2019s recent past. Built to showcase architectural styles from the Ming and Qing dynasties, the site in the central Chinese province of Hunan was, until recently, little more than a ghost town, struggling amid years of crushing losses.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Dayong Ancient City is emblematic of thousands of underperforming developments nationwide \u2013 a by-product of China\u2019s past construction boom that favoured scale over sustainability. Beijing has increasingly pushed to reactivate stagnant assets as local governments face severe fiscal pressure from plunging land-sale revenues amid a prolonged property slump.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Conceived during China\u2019s era of debt-fuelled urban expansion, the project, at a cost of more than 2 billion yuan (US$296 million), was built to give the region a modern urban landmark. Instead, it has struggled since trial operations began in 2021, accumulating net losses exceeding 1.6 billion yuan over five years, according to annual reports from its owner, the Zhangjiajie Tourism Group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3363321\/reboot-dayong-ancient-city-tests-if-chinas-loss-making-tourism-projects-can-be-revived\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><br \/>\n<center><script>\n  atOptions = {\n    'key' : 'ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540',\n    'format' : 'iframe',\n    'height' : 90,\n    'width' : 728,\n    'params' : {}\n  };\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highrevenueformat.com\/ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540\/invoke.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In mid-July, Dayong Ancient City \u2013 a state-backed replica town in China\u2019s mountain tourist hub of Zhangjiajie \u2013 reopened its gates after a major overhaul,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[5434,6292,540,27956,27957,3924,2504,21916,181,5058],"class_list":["post-94976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-ancient","tag-chinas","tag-city","tag-dayong","tag-lossmaking","tag-projects","tag-reboot","tag-revived","tag-tests","tag-tourism","wpcat-4840-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}