July 22, millions of tourists and amateur astronomers gathered at Baoshi Hill by the West Lake in Hangzhou, the best observation point to watch the solar eclipse.

The once-in-a-five-hundred-year solar eclipse motivated not only the amateur astronomers, but also the cities lying on the observation spots. Cities where the eclipse could be seen were in a competition of the “best observation point”. What was behind this game was a heated eclipse marketing.

In fact, when some of the cities knew about this astronomical wonder a year ago, they engaged themselves in building roads, squares, science museums, and in preparing astronomy forum, etc. It was estimated that the solar eclipse would attract at least ten thousand tourists from around the world to the highly populated cities by the Yangtze River. Due to which, many cities entitled themselves with the “best observation point” in order to explore the market.

Tongling in Anhui Province invested RMB 14 million to establish the Square of the Solar Calendar; Anji in Zhejiang constructed an astronomy observation base; Jiaxing erected the Monument of  the Best Observation Point; the tourism industry in Zhoushan took advantage of the eclipse and put forward some relevant itineraries, so did Shanghai.

中文

世纪大日食背后的中国城市营销热

面对五百年一遇的大日食奇观，行动起来的不仅是天文爱好者们，还有位于日食观测带上的城市们。在日食带经过的地方，许多城市都展开了一场“最佳观测点”之争，而在城市博弈背后，更是一场如火如荼的日全食营销热。

事实上，早在去年，不少城市就已经嗅到了日全食的商机，摩拳擦掌地准备起来，纷纷提前修建公路、建设广场、兴建科技馆、筹备天文学术论坛等。由于日 全食奇观至少将吸引十万国际游客来到人口最为稠密的长江流域，为争夺这一市场，众多城市将自己标榜为日全食“最佳观测点”，并由此提前展开了一系列营销活 动。

安徽铜陵投资1400万元，专门建立了太阳历广场，准备了一场大规模的日全食观测盛典“铜都鉴日”，浙江安吉建成了天文观测基地，嘉兴在当地七一广 场建成了国家天文台日全食最佳观测点纪念碑，舟山则利用难得的日全食商机大打旅游牌，上海也紧紧地抓住日全食机遇，向海内外推出体验日全食旅游新品。