On November 21 and 25, 2014, a marketing campaign promoting Beijing's high-end tourism will be launched in the Mediterranean. A tourism and cultural feast will be presented in Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy, showing the oriental beauty and charm of Beijing, as well as all the more modern attractions of China's ancient capital.

This campaign, organized by Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development (BMCTD) with the participation of Beijing's mainstream tourism enterprises, is ready to unveil high quality tourism packages, and showcasing a safe, open, and warm tourism environment.

The BMCTD has featured tours of all kinds — from sports tours, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) tours, exhibitions and festivals tours, cultural heritage and museum tours, and cultural performance tours. These tours try to present the rich cultural heritage of old Beijing and the vibrant charm of new Beijing to Southern European visitors.

Roaming the ancient capital, enjoying the great outdoors

Think of Beijing, and you might think of the splendid, colorful Forbidden City, the magnificent, impregnable Great Wall, and old Beijing hutong—lanes and alleys with every brick and tile redolent of history, but you might not realize that in such an ancient capital, you can also have fun with sports and sporting events while taking in the beautiful natural scenery.

The recently arranged four-season sporting-event tourist routes will fully present the new tourist attractions of Beijing, which combine sporting events with natural scenery. In these tourist routes, you might travel to historical sites of interest, get a good work out, and enjoy a sporting event.

In spring, you might hike in Mentougou, enjoy Beijing's blooming spring flowers; in summer, you might ride a bicycle, enjoy this carefree mode of travel; in autumn, the harvest season, you might experience the passion of the athletes in China Open Tennis; in winter, you might ski at Nanshan, gliding freely across the snow.

You might hike up the Great Wall, taking in the magnificent vistas of China on top of this famous attraction.

Experiencing TCM culture in the ancient capital of China

TCM has a long history. It has guided generations of Chinese people, with its concept of the human as an integral part of nature, theories of yin-yang and the five elements, to heal illness and preserve health. Under the influence of TCM culture, health is a hot topic for Chinese people. Every Chinese has some knowledge of TCM: "Cultivate yang during spring and summer, cultivate yin during autumn and winter", "Cultivate yin and preserve health of lungs with white fungus porridge".

Hike the Badaling Great Wall, go sightseeing at the Summer Palace, take a rejuvenating TCM bath at Taishen Xianghe mountain villa, have a taste of a TCM meal, relieve the rigidity of sore muscles and activate blood circulation at Zhongwei Yuyuan Fushan Restaurant — do all this and more on the carefully crafted TCM tours, which combine traditional scenic spots with TCM culture.

Bringing Beijing's oriental charm and fragrance to Mediterranean

Although an old saying goes "Good wine needs no bush", there is also a famous quote "Opportunities will always favor those who are well-prepared". In order to make the fragrance of the altar wine—Beijing Tourism—reach out to the Mediterranean from the deep end of a hutong, BMCTD will invite Chinese embassy officials, local tourism officials and local major tourism enterprises to this campaign. Both sides will have in-depth discussions and interactions on development of the industry, tourism policy, tourism culture and other issues. Meanwhile, BMCTD will also distribute exquisite brochures that systematically introduce tourism products, channels and methods of purchase, and provide local tourism enterprises with firsthand experiences and opportunities to communicate directly with travel agencies in China, to promote cooperation and construct a seamless process from communication to sales of tourism products. This will facilitate the entry of Beijing high-end tourism into Southern European markets.

The campaign for promoting Beijing's high-end tourism, organized by BMCTD, has become a brand campaign with a series of large-scale events. Last year, in Germany and Austria, the BMCTD not only successfully introduced and promoted the "72 hours visa-free policy for transit visitors", but also greatly enhanced European tourists' understanding of Beijing. It played an active role in boosting European inbound tourism market. According to the statistics of BMCTD, in 2013, the number of European tourists to Beijing was nearly 1.2 million person-times, accounting for 30.4% of the total inbound tourists, becoming an important source of tourism to Beijing. In February 2014, tourists from Germany to Beijing saw an increase of 19%.

In this regard, Yu Debin, Deputy Director of BMCTD, said that in order to further boost inbound tourism, Beijing is developing a variety of new tour formats and modern tourism, which combine rich cultural resources with traditional tourism resources. Against this background, the TCM culture tourism, sports tourism, festival tourism, museums tourism, and cultural performances tourism emerge and become the main aspects of future development of Beijing tourism. Meanwhile, as famous tourist cities, Athens and Rome each contain rich tourism resources. BMCTD looks forward to further cooperation through the campaign in both cities and achieve greater development.