AAAAA (5A) is awarded to the most important and best-maintained

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

s in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, given the highest level in the rating categories used by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. As of 2020, there are 279 tourist attractions listed as 5A.

History

The origins of the rating system for tourist attractions are based on criteria first set out in 1999 by the China National Tourism Administration (predecessor to the current Ministry of Culture and Tourism) and revised in 2004. The criteria include quality and management factors like ease of transportation links, site safety, cleanliness, etc., and also takes into account the uniqueness and recognition of the sightseeing offers. Tourist attractions were graded according to the criteria on a scale initially from A to AAAA with AAAAA or 5As added on later as the highest rating. A group of 66 tourist attractions was certified as the first set of AAAAA rated tourist attractions in 2007. The first batch included many of the most iconic historical sites in China including the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrifi ...

and Summer Palace. Additional batches of additional sites have been added including 20 new 5A sites in February 2017. On rare occasions, a few locations have been downgraded from the highest rating category for deficiencies in visitor experience.

List

Downgrading

Tourist sites found deficient by the China National Tourism Administration (merged into the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2018) have lost their 5A accreditation due to deficiencies in visitor experience. In 2015,

Shanhai Pass Shanhai Pass or Shanhaiguan () is one of the major passes in the Great Wall of China, being the easternmost stronghold along the Ming Great Wall, and commands the narrowest choke point in the Liaoxi Corridor. It is located in Shanhaiguan ...

in Hebei was the first tourist site to be downgraded from 5A. The next wave of downgrading occurred in 2016 with the removal of

Orange Isle Orange Isle ( zh, s=橘子洲, t=橘子洲, p=Júzi Zhōu) is an isle in Xiang River, Changsha, Hunan, China. It also known by other names, such as Ju Isle () and Shuilu Isle (). It has a length of , a width of and a total area of . It was also ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...

and Shenlong Gorge in

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...

for "security concerns, overpricing, poor environmental management and poor facility maintenance, as well as bad service mainly resulting from a lack of staff members."

References

External links

Complete list of AAAA tourist attractions (Chinese)
at the website of the central government of the People's Republic of China {{China topics, state=autocollapse Tourism in China Tourist Attraction Rating Categories of China

History

List

Downgrading

See also

References

External links