The "Pang Donglai" in Henan's cultural tourism sector has started to "adjust and reform" scenic spots across the country.

The "adjustment and reform" moves of Pang Donglai targeting national retail enterprises are being gradually copied at the "pixel level" by Henan's cultural tourism industry.

Just two days ago, Kaifeng Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd. officially took over the Evergrande Cultural Tourism City project, and planned to put it into operation by 2028. Earlier, the company also set up a cultural tourism company with Shandong Water Margin Liangshan Scenic Area to export its scenic area operation experience externally.

Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden, which is located in the same city, participated in the restructuring and revitalization of Baofeng Lake Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie as a "long-term strategic think tank" through its affiliated enterprise.

The growth path of these Henan cultural tourism projects is similar to that of Pang Donglai: first, build their own business into a phenomenal brand, then carry out light asset export externally. In the terminology of the retail industry, it is called "adjustment and reform" and "paired support".

This is really thought-provoking: Why can the leading projects in Henan's cultural tourism industry take the lead? What did they do correctly? How should other scenic spots learn from their experience?

Wansui Mountain Starts to "Adjust and Reform" Scenic Spots Nationwide

There are more details about the cooperation between Wansui Mountain and Kaifeng Evergrande Cultural Tourism City.

The initial total planned area of the Kaifeng Evergrande Cultural Tourism City project was 11,625 mu. According to its publicity caliber at that time, the total investment of the project reached 100 billion yuan.

However, the project was left unfinished. The state-owned assets of Kaifeng took over the project at the end of last year.

According to the report from Kaifeng Daily, Kaifeng Cultural Investment Group, together with Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd., officially took over the Evergrande Cultural Tourism City project, and planned to open and operate it in 2028.

It is not difficult to see the role played by Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd. from such an organizational structure. Local state-owned assets are responsible for relieving the capital pressure, while Wansui Mountain provides the specific operation capabilities.

With big IPs such as "Matchmaker Wang's Marriage Introduction", Kaifeng Wansui Mountain Scenic Area once grew into a national phenomenal scenic spot. Its operating entity is Kaifeng Wansui Mountain Tourist Zone Co., Ltd., which belongs to the Kaifeng cultural tourism state-owned assets system after equity penetration.

Therefore, Wansui Mountain's participation in the operation of Kaifeng Evergrande Cultural Tourism City is essentially to "adjust and reform" its peer scenic spot. This logic is similar to the underlying logic of Pang Donglai's participation in adjusting and reforming other retail brands.

In fact, there is another news ignored by people in the above report of Kaifeng Daily. The report mentioned that "Longting Park, Tianbo Yangfu and Hanyuan Stele Forest will be entrusted to Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd. for operation and upgrading."

People familiar with Kaifeng know that the three above-mentioned scenic spots are all time-honored local scenic spots, but their overall performance is neither outstanding nor bad.

This kind of one-to-one paired support and "adjustment and reform" is what Kaifeng state-owned assets expect Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd. to do to revitalize the existing stock of scenic resources.

Hotel Finance noticed that Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd. has long gone out of Kaifeng and Henan, and participated in the operation and construction of other scenic spots across the country.

In September 2025, Jining Water Margin Liangshan Scenic Area reached a strategic cooperation with Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd.: in early 2026, Shandong Wanliang Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd., a three-party joint venture, was officially put into operation.

According to media reports, Jining Water Margin Liangshan Scenic Area took the initiative to extend an olive branch to Wansui Mountain.

For Liangshan, with the help of Wansui Mountain's mature immersive product development and efficient operation system, it can quickly complete the iteration of scenic spot products and experience upgrading, so that the dormant Water Margin IP can glow with new vitality.

This move can be regarded as the "adjustment and reform" of Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd. to the Water Margin Liangshan Scenic Area. At the same time, Wansui Mountain Co., Ltd. has realized light asset export, broken through the geographical development boundary, and expanded the territory of its IP industry.

The results after the cooperation are remarkable. Before the cooperation, the scenic area received about 1 million tourists annually, most of whom were over 35 years old, and the proportion of secondary consumption was extremely low.

After the cooperation, the Water Margin Liangshan Scenic Area now holds more than 100 activities every day, including Water Margin performances, traditional acrobatics, parade interactions and other activities. The customer group structure is significantly younger, and the average stay time has been extended from 2-3 hours in the past to more than half a day.

Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden That Cannot Be Ignored

In Henan's cultural tourism industry, Wansui Mountain is not the only one that can go nationwide to "adjust and reform" peer scenic spots.

Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden, which is also located in Kaifeng, is another key player. In June this year, Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden officially submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, planning to become the "first share of Henan cultural tourism". Prior to this, it has subscribed for 8 million shares of Zhangjiajie Tourism Group for 31.68 million yuan through its affiliated party, Jifu Qingyuan, and participated in the restructuring and revitalization of Baofeng Lake Scenic Area as a "long-term strategic think tank".

Source: Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden

The role of Jifu Qingyuan is not a simple investment, but to export a mature scenic area operation system, including cultural exploration, product transformation, performance creation, fine operation and other modules.

It can be seen that the positioning of Jifu Qingyuan has a very prominent trace of "paired support" and "adjustment and reform".

In August last year, the information on the website of Shangqiu Public Resources Trading Center showed that the overall operation planning and entrusted operation service project of Shangqiu Guide Prefecture City (Shangqiu Ancient City) in Henan Province was won by Henan Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden Tourism Management Co., Ltd. at a price of 5.4 million yuan after bidding.

This winning bid includes the overall operation planning and entrusted operation of Shangqiu Guide Prefecture City in Henan Province, with 12 months of entrusted operation service.

In addition, Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden and its related companies have participated in projects such as the operation upgrading project of the southern area (including the northern area) of Fuliu Mountain Scenic Area in Xun County, the tourism custom town in Luanchuan, and other projects.

In fact, in Henan's local cultural tourism industry, Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden has a longer history than Wansui Mountain.

This large-scale real-scene tourism performance theme park built according to the Song Dynasty painting *Along the River During the Qingming Festival* ranks first among 5A-level scenic spots in Henan Province and fourth among single theme parks in China.

In 2025, Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden received 9.6 million tourists in total, with a total revenue of more than 2 billion yuan from 2023 to 2025.

*Hotel Finance* believes that the "light asset + intellectual export" model of Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden breaks the path dependence of traditional scenic spots on "heavy asset expansion", marking the transformation of Henan cultural tourism scenic spots from a single operator to a service provider for the whole cultural tourism industry chain.

What Did the "Pang Donglai" in Henan's Cultural Tourism Industry Do Right?

Nationwide, the operation of scenic spots is not easy. Some rely on "old heritage" - historical and cultural ancient cities, while others "live at the mercy of the elements" - natural scenic spots. In this process, many scenic spots have problems of repeated construction and serious homogenization.

Take Wansui Mountain and Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden as examples.

There are no less than 80 scenic spots focusing on the Song Dynasty culture in China. Judging only from the cultural heritage, each scenic spot has its own characteristics. But why are the two scenic spots in the same city recognized by tourists across the country?

Moreover, the ability to implement "adjustment and reform" and "paired support" to the outside world also confirms the recognition of their peers.

Source: Wansui Mountain Wuxia City

*Hotel Finance* believes that the above-mentioned scenic spots have great similarities with Henan's Pang Donglai, which is the main reason why they have become extremely popular.

On the one hand, they provide extreme service and realize word-of-mouth fission.

The service and reputation of Pang Donglai are self-evident. As for the above-mentioned scenic spots in Henan, there are several details. A friend told *Hotel Finance* that the charging standard of shared power banks in Wansui Mountain Scenic Area is 1 yuan per hour now, which was 4 yuan per hour before.

In Wansui Mountain, key large-scale performances are equipped with on-site sign language interpreters to solve the pain point that hearing-impaired tourists cannot understand the plot, which is a rare configuration in domestic scenic spots.

In addition, one ticket of Wansui Mountain can be used for three days.

The price of goods in Wansui Mountain Scenic Area is very affordable. In summer, the scenic area also distributes iced watermelons for free at multiple points. "Wansui Mountain Scenic Area is not only cost-effective, the key is that it really puts itself in the shoes of tourists." This friend said.

The same is true for Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden. In order to make tourists cooler when queuing, the scenic area has built Song-style lotus leaf sun umbrellas and cool sheds;

Source: Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden

Tourists can exchange Jiaozi (ancient Song Dynasty banknotes) for iced watermelons, integrating convenient welfare into the gameplay of Song Dynasty culture; the staff of the scenic area are not only guides, but also cultural commentators, and even the "intimate housekeepers" of tourists.

Pang Donglai "treats customers as family members", and these scenic spots in Henan "treat tourists as friends". This kind of "beyond-expected service" forms word-of-mouth fission, making Henan's scenic spots become "gathering places of returning customers".

On the other hand, they win through excellent operation.

*Hotel Finance* believes that this is the core reason why Henan's cultural tourism industry can carry out high-frequency "adjustment and reform" externally. The hardware of these two scenic spots is not top-level. But Wansui Mountain focuses on content production, traffic operation and emotional operation; Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden focuses on high-quality systematic operation, whole industrial chain management and standardized control.

"Matchmaker Wang's Marriage Introduction" of Wansui Mountain has become a big IP; the total number of external actors employed by Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden reaches 1229, most of whom are NPC actors.

It can be said that these two scenic spots have basically formed the pattern of "one stage every three steps, one NPC every five steps". In addition to elegant large-scale productions, the performance section also has more down-to-earth interactive projects.

Most of their content has become IPs with high immersion.

In the current communication context, such projects are extremely easy to become popular.

More importantly, their success makes many existing scenic spots with inferior natural resources see the hope that they can replicate the model.

*Hotel Finance* believes that the nationwide "adjustment and reform" of Henan's cultural tourism industry has released a new signal to China's cultural tourism industry: resource competition has turned to operation competition. At the same time, industrial division will also be refined, differentiated and professionalized.

In the past, when talking about scenic spots, we used to learn from Disney, Universal, Merlin Entertainment and other international groups. But their investment threshold is extremely high.

The "Pang Donglai" in Henan's cultural tourism industry, taking user value as the core and refined operation as the means, gives many existing scenic spots more opportunities to achieve unexpected success.

This kind of "adjustment and reform" and "paired support" may be more suitable for the current domestic cultural tourism industry.