Chongming to open RV camp sites this year

The city’s first campground for recreational vehicles is set to open in Chongming in October, a tourism official for the county said yesterday.

The park will have two separate areas, at Mingzhu Lake and Dongping Forest, said Zhang Lixin, director of the Chongming County Tourism Bureau.

The lake camp will be open on October 1, while the forest section will follow later in the year, he said.

Both will offer a full range of utilities and will be open to people with their own RVs and those who want to rent one, Zhang said.

The lake park will have 25 vehicles to hire and the forest park 101, he said.

The city government has been keen to develop RV tourism. As well as the Chongming campgrounds, others are planned for Qingpu District, the Sheshan National Tourism Resort in Songjiang District, Dishui Lake in the Pudong New Area and Shanghai International Circuit in Jiading District. Tourism officials are also considering creating special routes for RVs in the Yangtze River Delta.

Despite their enthusiasm, the concept of RV holidays is still new in China and yet to be adopted by the public. In Shanghai, only a few hundred people own a recreational vehicle, and the vast majority are either rich or famous, officials said.

Meanwhile, a bicycle park is also set to open in Chenjia Town, Chongming, some time next year, Zhang said.

The venue, which will span about 1.2 square kilometers, will feature a range of state-of-the-art facilities, and host international cycling competitions and extreme sports events, he said.

(Source: ShanghaiDaily)