Chenlu, an old hub for ceramic making

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has set one of the country’s western provinces up for tourism-led growth.

Northwestern China’s Gansu province, known for its Mogao Buddha grottoes and Silk Road relics, is seeing more growth from tourism than traditional heavy industries.

The province, once considered a strategic corridor connecting ancient Chinese dynasties with Europe and the Middle East along the Silk Road routes, saw its economic growth outperform the country’s average of 7.4 percent last year, thanks to tourism-related services that overtook manufacturing as the biggest pillar of the local economy.