Stargazers add luster to little-known prefecture

Why stargazing?

According to Liu, even though Hami has an area of more than 137,000 square kilometers — slightly smaller than Shandong province — boasts diverse landscapes, including snow-capped mountains, deserts and grasslands, and has rich tourism resources, the prefecture is still not widely known as a tourist destination. In Xinjiang, Urumqi city and Altay and Ili prefectures are more popular among travelers.

Since 2017, she said, the local government has considered using dark sky tourism as a way to increase the prefecture's popularity and improve its reputation as a travel destination.

In 2020, it invited a group of astronomy photographers to visit the area and take photos at its various landmarks. Of them included Wang Junfeng, an experienced astronomy photographer, online influencer and one of the co-founders of CSVA.

He was impressed by Hami's condition as a dark sky travel destination.

"Hami has vast wild areas without any light pollution and spectacular and diverse backdrops for star photography," Wang said. "It can be a magnet for our photographers and stargazing enthusiasts."

Also working with China Image Group in Beijing as a project manager, he succeeded in helping the Hami government, China Image Group and CSVA jointly launch the festival in June last year and its second session around the New Year holiday.

Because of the travel inconveniences caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, few astronomy photographers living outside of Xinjiang were invited to participate in the first session, Wang said.

"So we decided to use livestreaming to promote the event," Wang said. "The result was way beyond our expectations."

The festival has garnered 120 million hits on various online platforms, Liu said. As a result, it has become a primarily online livestreaming event. "We realize that it's truly an efficient way to help promote Hami," Wang said.