During the National Day holiday, traffic flowed steadily along the 168 Golden Coastline in Cangnan, Wenzhou. Along Provincial Road 232, local tourism slogans could be seen from time to time: "Endless Blue and Green, Mountains and Sea of Cangnan." Although this small mountain-and-sea town of Cangnan boasts Zhejiang's longest natural coastline, its tourism resources are relatively scattered and it long lacked a compelling tourism IP. After reconsidering the feasibility of strategically upgrading its coastline resources, Cangnan County proposed the concept of the "168 Golden Coastline," deciding to use a coastal ring road to string different natural and cultural attractions together like beads on a chain and pursue clustered development. In early 2023, after comprehensive renovation, the entire 168 Golden Coastline opened to traffic, linking along the way islands, beaches, fishing ports, ancient villages, coastal defense relics, and many other internet-famous check-in spots and transportation viewing stations, achieving "a different view along every stretch of road" and "a different scene at every stop." The many townships dotted among Cangnan's green mountains and clear waters each lean on the mountains and look toward the sea. Drawing on their own histories and natural endowments, they have created one attractive tourist destination after another. It is a golden thread stringing beads into a chain, turning "single-spot check-ins" into a complete "all-area roaming" experience and reconstructing the cultural tourism landscape of this small coastal town.
From "Passing Through in a Hurry" to "Staying Put." Through the white walls, the blue sea comes into view, with fishing boats dotted on the water. After ordering a cup of coffee at the "Yuanyu Sea" coffee homestay in Yuanyu Village, Chixi Town, visitors look up and find themselves in an intimate encounter with beautiful natural scenery. Ms. Yu from Yiwu brought her child and was lazily waiting for companions who had gone to the seaside to look for seafood to return. "Children usually carry a heavy academic burden, and the air here is nice—you can see the sea just by opening the window." She thoroughly enjoyed the leisure of the holiday. In 2023, Cangnan native Lin Xianli, who had long worked in photography, was moved by the beauty of Yuanyu Village and spent 2.4 million yuan to transform an old primary school into a coffee homestay. The homestay not only offers an excellent sea-view location but also carefully creates diverse photography spaces. Some customers, while taking photos or checking in, decide they want to stay there. "I used to be in the photography business, but as photography equipment became widespread, the market declined, so I shifted careers. In essence, cultural tourism is actually quite similar to photography—it is about conveying beauty," Lin Xianli expressed his view. He told reporters that the homestay became hugely popular as soon as it opened, and in peak season it was hard to book a room. Last National Day holiday, tourists even lined up just to drink coffee, and at the peak, more than a thousand cups were sold in a single day. The changes in Yuanyu Village are remarkable. Since the overall development of the 168 Golden Coastline, the village's cultural tourism industry has also experienced major growth. Several high-end homestays have opened in the village, tourist traffic has increased substantially, and collective income has risen significantly. More and more people have shifted from "passing through in a hurry" to "settling in with peace of mind," gaining a deep experience along this coast.
The transformation of Conch Bay. Conch Bay, located in Caoyu Village, Mazhan Town, Cangnan County, is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one side. It was once a little-known small fishing village. In 2024, because of the local need to build a nuclear power project, Caoyu Village built a smoother passage connecting it to the outside world, and the drive to the town was shortened from 50 minutes to 10 minutes. Conch Bay Beach thus became known to more tourists and became an important part of the 168 Golden Coastline. The Conch Resort also emerged at the right time, opening the prelude to the transformation and development of Houcao Village. Post-95 Cangnan native Xue Shengli originally worked in Sanya, Hainan. In 2020, together with surfing enthusiasts, he surveyed surfing spots along the coast and finally established a surfing base project in Conch Bay. "The terrain here, with mountains on two sides sandwiching a bay, naturally forms a 'U'-shaped bay, with high swells, strong winds, and relatively stable wave shapes throughout the year," Xue Shengli said. He introduced that during this year's seven-day National Day holiday, the surf base's experience courses were already fully booked, with young tourists making up the majority. At 2 p.m., tourist Ms. Weng from Hangzhou walked back to the beach from the sea. She had just completed a series of experiences but still looked full of energy. She told reporters that she had brought her daughter to Cangnan for a holiday, and the mother and daughter had signed up for surfing lessons together. Over an hour and a half, they tried again and again to balance their bodies and feel the joy of riding the waves. "The coach gave us a lot of encouragement and great emotional support." Ms. Weng was very satisfied with the surfing experience. Conch Bay is gradually attracting tourists' attention as Cangnan's 168 Golden Coastline gains popularity. Xue Shengli introduced that in this summer alone, more than 3,000 tourists came to experience it.
New life for the old mines of Fanshan. If the physical linking of the 168 Golden Coastline is only the first step, what comes next is to enrich the connotation of all-area cultural tourism destinations. Cangnan did not carry out uniform development of cultural tourism, but instead preserved the most authentic flavor of each place, hoping to let everyone truly slow down when they come here and feel the healing and beauty between the mountains and the sea. Fanshan Town is a mining town with a long history in southern Zhejiang. Its proven alum reserves account for 60% of the world's total and 80% of China's. At its peak, alum output value accounted for about 38% of the total industrial output value of the entire Wenzhou municipality. By the 1980s and 1990s, however, with higher environmental requirements and the emergence of alum substitutes, demand for alum fell sharply. In 2017, as the last group of workers left the mine shafts, local alum mining stopped. The mine closed, people left, and at its most desolate, Fude Bay Old Street had only five or six elderly residents remaining. The path to transformation began with a renewed understanding of the value of industrial heritage. Drawing on cases of industrial heritage revitalization such as Germany's Ruhr region and England's Ironbridge Gorge, Fanshan Town gradually embarked on a path of cultural tourism integration. The local area integrated industrial heritage with mountain-and-sea resources and transformed them into cultural tourism resources, creating scenic spots such as Stope 312, Fude Bay, and the Former Residence of Zhu Cheng, and also opening specialty experience centers such as the Wonderful Stone Hall, Ore Hall, and Alum Mine Museum. In Fude Bay Village, Fanshan Town, south of Cangnan County seat, a small train carries visitors along the former ore transport track, weaving between old street shops and abandoned calcination furnace chimneys. "Judging from ticket sales, during this year's National Day holiday, the single-day visitor flow into the mine shafts for sightseeing was nearly 5,000," said Chen Lulu, a member of the Party Committee of Fanshan Town. Inside that undulating mine tunnel, items such as miner uniforms, rock drills, main shaft winches, and mine car tracks are preserved. Visitors wearing safety helmets experience the former industrial era in mine tunnels that remain at 18 degrees Celsius year-round. Ms. Qiu from Anhui and her friends strolled and took photos along the way. "I grew up in a plain area and had not been exposed to many mountains and mines, so I wanted to see what old mine tunnels were like. Here you can feel what it was like for miners to extract, giving a sense of being there in that era," she said. According to statistics from the Cangnan County Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau, in 2024, tourists visiting Fanshan reached 1.67 million, while by 2025, it took only 10 months for the number of visitors received to approach the full-year level of 2024. The integration of culture and tourism has not only brought popularity but also attracted people back. In Fanshan Town, there is a specialty snack famous across the country—rouyan, named for its resemblance to a flying swallow. In 2014, Zhu Shiqin, an inheritor of the rouyan craft, responded to the government's call and returned home to start a business. He insisted on purely handmade production while also adhering to the concept of "upholding tradition without sticking to the old, respecting the past without restoring the past," and constantly innovating, helping Fanshan rouyan successfully be rated as an intangible cultural heritage of Zhejiang Province in 2022. He also created an integrated "production, culture and tourism" model, built a study and experience base, and opened online and offline sales channels, bringing Fanshan rouyan to the whole country. "Now Fanshan Town's rouyan industry has driven employment for about 5,000 people, with annual output value reaching 350 million yuan," he told reporters. Rouyan was once the warmth miners felt when they returned home. He also wants to make Fanshan rouyan a visible memory and a tasteable culture. Among those returning home to develop the area are also young "new makers," and Su Hang, who previously worked at a university in Shanghai, is one representative. After returning home in 2019, he actively participated in the repair and upgrading of Fude Bay Village. Discovering that there were no cultural and creative products in the scenic area, he opened his own Bafang Cultural and Creative Studio, using his design expertise to develop a series of cultural and creative products related to the "World Alum Capital," hoping to tell Fanshan's story to the world. "Many people come to Fude Bay and know this is where alum was refined, but they do not know how alum was refined. Alum refining involves mining, calcination, weathering, and crystallization, and there are more than a dozen varieties of ore alone. The story here is very, very long," he said. "This mineral culture is also rare in the world." Official statistics show that in the first half of 2026, the Cangnan 168 Golden Coastline received a cumulative 3.59 million tourists, with total tourism revenue of 805 million yuan. This 168-kilometer coastal road has already gone beyond its role as transportation infrastructure. It has propelled this small town at Zhejiang's southernmost tip to become a new cultural tourism landmark in the Yangtze River Delta. It links the industrial memory of the old mining area, the everyday bustle of small fishing villages, the new trend of coastal sports, and the slow travel time in mountain villages, turning "single-spot check-ins" into a complete "all-area slow travel" experience and reconstructing the cultural tourism landscape of this small mountain-and-sea town. This also confirms the logic of county-level cultural tourism upgrading: true vitality is never supported by a single internet-famous scenic spot, but instead uses travel routes to revitalize existing assets and uses scenes to retain people. What was once the "edge land" of the coast has become a vibrant belt carrying employment, entrepreneurship, and nostalgia. A scenic road has not only refreshed the town's cultural tourism map, but also allowed the vitality of the county to extend farther and farther along the road.
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