The press conference for the 2021 Rowing Master Regatta to be held in Guilin's Pingle county from June 25 to 27. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2021 Rowing Master Regatta is scheduled to be held in Guilin's Pingle county from June 25 to 27, officials announced during a press conference held on May 8 in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

The regatta is expected to make full use of Pingle's many lakes and rivers and further promote the integrated development of water sports and tourism.

Zhou Zhengying, Party secretary of Pingle county, said during the press conference that the event will have four racing courses, and competitors will be divided into two groups during the race, namely the master group and the professional group.

Nearly 1,000 athletes from leading domestic rowing club teams such as Huawei, Vanke, Intel, Tencent, Baidu, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Shanghai Jiaotong University are expected to compete in the regatta.

Pingle county has seen remarkable success in balancing cultural tourism development with environment protection, attracting many visitors from home and abroad.

The county was visited a total of 796,000 times in the first quarter of 2021, with overall tourism consumption of 770 million yuan ($120 million), increasing by 173 percent and 126 percent year-on-year, respectively.