Chen Guangfu's Tourism Creation

China tourism started late. It was founded in the 1920s, initiated by the famous banker Mr. Chen Guangfu.

In the early 1920s, China's tourism industry was still blank. At that time, foreign financial institutions in China took over the tourism business. For example, the United Kingdom's "Tongji Long Company" and the United States' "Bank of Yun Tong" have travel departments. The branches of these banks in Shanghai, Hong Kong and other places also have tourism departments to handle all the tourism business of Chinese and foreign tourists. These travel departments also issued traveler's checks, which were called "Tian Tong bills" at that time (they could be used universally when the currency systems of warlords were not unified at that time). At that time, the government did not attach importance to tourism, and no one thought of taking back this spillover right.

1923 In the summer, Chen Guangfu, a famous financier, planned to visit Yunnan in Hong Kong, so he went to a foreign-run travel agency to buy tickets. When he saw the foreign staff of the agency's ticket office talking and laughing with a woman, Chen Jingli was ignored for a long time, so he gave up all this and went to Yuntong Bank to buy tickets. On the way, his thoughts fluctuated, so he decided to set up a Chinese travel agency to collect relevant books and materials and take them on board to read. At that time, the ninth meeting of the National Education Association was scheduled to be held in Kunming on122, and representatives from all provinces would gather in Shanghai, transfer to Vietnam via Hong Kong and take the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. Chen didn't want people in the education field to suffer during the trip, so he called the head office of Shanghai Bank and asked him to contact the conference director immediately to arrange accommodation for representatives from various provinces in Shanghai for the convenience of the participants. Bank of Shanghai set up the Travel Department in August 2008 and applied to the Ministry of Communications for permission to sell train tickets. At that time, the Ministry of Communications was holding a national railway intermodal conference. As soon as the unprecedented application was submitted, it was opposed by foreigners' representatives. The representative of China strongly supported this new thing of competing for power with foreigners and passed it. At first, the Travel Department of Shanghai Commercial Bank only sold train tickets for Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou, and then successively signed ticket contracts with Yangtze River Shipping, North-South Shipping and foreign shipping companies, and soon expanded to railways such as Beijing-Suiyuan, Han Jing and Jinpu, and added branches of many travel agencies in various branches. 1924, Chen Guangfu needed to "discount" (the loss of local coins) in view of the inconvenience of carrying silver dollars at that time, and bank notes were restricted by popular areas. Therefore, with the expansion of tourism business, 1927, Chen Guangfu decided to separate the tourism department from the bank and set up China Travel Agency, with the tourism department of each branch as its subordinate branch. At this point, large-scale tourism began to appear in China.

19301February, when Chen Guangfu passed through Xuzhou Station northward, it saw third-class passengers stranded at the station and asked China Travel Agency to set up guest houses and canteens in some areas. That year, Cho Joon-Ho was hired as editor-in-chief, and China's first tourism publication, Tourism, was founded. The magazine, with illustrated pictures, introduces places of interest at home and abroad, and encourages the people of China to improve their love for the motherland and their interest in tourism.

From the tourism department to the China travel agency, Chen Guangfu loses money every year because of the initiative and complicated procedures of handling car and boat tickets. Colleagues and friends advised him to stop, but Chen was unmoved. He said, "Although this travel agency is losing money every year, it has saved a lot of benefits for the country, otherwise it will send more money abroad."