Shanxi province had 114 million Chinese visitors, in the first half of 2013, up 27 percent year-on-year, bringing revenues of 103.2 billion yuan ($16.9 billion), for an increase of 26.16 percent.

Thanks to new policies, the province's tourism industry hasn't been affected too much by the economic downturn and has, in fact, seen considerable growth. On the whole, there's been a boom in the first half, with tourism revenue’s growing faster than the national average, by 15 percentage points. The amount of inbound tourists kept a year-on-year increase above 10 percent.

Provincial government policies in recent years helped tourism survive the economic decline, along with promotional activities, like exhibitions in China and abroad and media promotions, backed by large spending, which improved the branding of Shanxi’s tourism.

In 2013, Shanxi began selling tickets at a sharp discount to boost tourism. There was also a "Leisure Tour of Beautiful Shanxi" activity with some positive results, after it started in May.

Part of Shanxi's economic development strategy brought investment to tourism and 228 projects under construction in the first half, with total investment above 120 billion yuan.

Edited by Zhou Yuanyuan and Roger Bradshaw