When Hong Kong action movie director Tsui Hark's latest martial arts blockbuster "Seven Swords" became the curtain-raiser at the 62nd Venice Film Festival, it had at the same time made free advertising for the unique and charming landscape of Xinjiang .

The movie, set in Xinjiang in the early 17th century, tells the story of how seven sword-wielding Kung Fu masters battled a bloodthirsty mercenary general and his army to save an innocent village.

It was no surprise that Tsui, a world famous moviemaker, had selected Xinjiang as the place to shoot his favorite hero epic. Actually, this westernmost autonomous region of China, which is also the largest habitat of the Uygur ethnic group, has become a popular location of film making in recent years, even contributing to the Oscar-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Meanwhile, the desolate deserts, snow-covered mountains, prosperous oases and exotic cultures in the region have made it a "holy place" for both domestic and foreign tourists.

According to the autonomous regional tourism department, Xinjiang has received nearly 80 million visitors from all over the world and the accumulative turnover from tourism has reached 57 billion yuan (7 billion US dollars) since China adopted its "opening-up policy" in 1978.

In the summer of that year, Patku Abdurahman, who lived in Kashi, an ancient city in southern Xinjiang , took off her face veil and had a peep of the first foreigner she ever met in her life, who impressed her much with his "high bridge of nose and blue eyes."

"The foreigner Patku met was one of the 88 foreign tourists we first received in 1978. This should be remembered as the genesis of the development of Xinjiang's tourism," said Naimu Yasa, director of the regional tourism department.

Ever since then, the regional government of Xinjiang has given priority to developing tourism as one of the six local "pillar industries", and has poured huge investment to improve the transportation and communication conditions in the country's largest provincial-level region in terms of land area.

The efforts have paid off as the latest statistics from the regional tourism department showed in 2004, nearly 320,000 foreign tourists spent more than 90 million US dollars in Xinjiang , several thousand times of the figures in 1978.

In addition, the tourism turnover in 2004 exceeded 11.6 billion yuan (1.43 billion US dollars), accounting for 5.3 percent of Xinjiang 's gross domestic product, according to the department.

"As a less-developed region in China, the rapid development of tourism has not only made known to the outside world the great changes that took place in Xinjiang during the past two decades, but also brought fortune to the local people," said Naimu Yasa.

At Dafusagai Village in Turpan, which is dubbed "the hometown of grapes," Emilie Grollier, a French tourist, was eating fresh grapes with her friends at the courtyard of Uygur farmer Niyaz Rahman. The French just visited Jiaohe Ruins, a 2,300-year-old city on the ancient Silk Road, in the morning.

"It's amazing. In the morning, I was in the ancient town, feeling the old history of the Silk Road through the broken walls, but now I am enjoying the peaceful life of local people," said Emilie, who works at a college in central China's Henan Province.

The Rahmans were also very happy to see the coming of tourists like Emilie. The Uygur family has received more than 10,000 tourists since last year, when the local government launched a "home visiting" program to enable the curious tourists to experience the daily life of common Uygur families.

"In the past, my whole family lived on planting grapes and earned about 10,000 yuan (1,230 US dollars) a year," said Niyaz Rahman.

"But things have changed now. Last year we earned more than 30,000 yuan (3,700 US dollars) from receiving the tourists. Now, more and more people come here, and our life is turning for the better," said the 53-year-old man, adding that he planed to spend 20,000 yuan (2,460 US dollars) to redecorate his house with typical Uygur characteristics to attract more guests.

The regional government of Xinjiang is also speeding up to tap the rich local tourism resources by improving the tourism infrastructure facilities, especially the means of transportation.

Annual government investment in this field has soared to more than 100 million yuan (12.33 million US dollars) since 2000, said Chi Chongqing, Party secretary of the regional tourism department.

By 2004, Xinjiang had launched 78 domestic and international flights, which made travel to and in Xinjiang more convenient, together with a land transportation net consisting of more than 3,000 kilometers of railway and 860,000 kilometers of highway, said Chi.

In addition, with a total investment of 6.2 billion yuan (747 million US dollars), the Jinghe-Ili-Horgos Railway, Xinjiang 's first electrical railway, started construction in 2004 and is expected to open to traffic in 2008.

A part of the trans-continental railway network linking China's coastal regions with southern European countries, the railway will run 295.73 kilometers through the Mongolia Autonomous Prefecture of Bortala and the Kazak Autonomous Prefecture of Ili, which are both situated in the western part of Xinjiang .

The railway will largely ease the transportation strain between Xinjiang and other provinces and regions of China, as well as the central Asian countries, and help bring more tourists to Xinjiang , said Chi.

"We believe the future will be even better. As director Tsui will continue his epic of the 'Seven Swords' on the movie screen, the epic takeoff of Xinjiang 's tourism will also keep running," said Chi.

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2005)