Microblog draws tourists to China's 'town of longevity'

When he was deputy chief of Bama Yao Autonomous County government, Huang Lei opened a microblog account Happy Bama at China's twitter-like service Tencent Weibo in Aug. 2011.

He is happy that the account, now with more than 70,000 followers, has drawn legions of tourists from faraway places, including foreign countries, to this "town of longevity" in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Bama, about three hours drive from the region's capital city Nanning, is widely regarded as a town of longevity. Local citizens live extraordinary long lives thanks to the unique climate, healthy diet and peaceful life.

Huang said the account did not have many followers in the beginning. But by interacting with local netizens and helping them solve "petty things", Happy Bama saw steady increase in the number of followers.

Encouraged by this, he opened a personal account after his own name.

As Happy Bama gains more fame, it is followed by both local citizens as well as people in faraway places. To help them learn about Bama, Huang Lei posted pictures of local cuisine and beautiful landscape on his microblog.

A policeman from Dezhou, east China's Shandong Province, contacted Huang Lei after reading his posts. Shortly after that, he and 20 relatives and friends came to Bama on summer vacation.

Liu Yan, a visitor from southwest China's Guizhou Province, came to Bama during the National Day holiday in 2012.

"Happy Bama brought me here," said Liu, who was in Bama with several friends. "This microblog account has painted a very attractive picture of Bama. I can't help coming here to see it with my own eyes."

As the number of followers grow, Huang began to offer more information to meet various requests. These include weather information and travel tips.