The establishment of the China Shangri-La Eco-Tourism Area, a
project jointly undertaken by southwest China's
Sichuan
and
Yunnan
provinces and
Tibet
Autonomous Region, has made encouraging progress over the past
year. This is revealed at a coordination conference of the project
held in Kunming, capital city of Yunnan, on October 27.
The three cooperative partners reached agreement on the
establishment of the area last May, and immediately began
preparatory works, including establishment of relevant
organizations and institutions and conducting on-the-spot
investigation on the available tourism resources.
Work also began on several aspects of the project involving
closing hillsides to facilitate forestation, reforesting some
previously cultivated lands and taking steps to preserve the
natural forest. Sichuan Province has completed 105,800 hectares of
forestation by artificial planting and 38,800 hectares by aerial
seeding.
Yunnan Province, meanwhile, is implementing the Yangtze River
shelter-forest building, as well as natural forest preservation and
some cultivated lands reforestation. It has arranged for 2.22
billion yuan (US$268.22 million) to be set aside to implement the
project of "the Yangtze River and its upper reaches water pollution
preventive plan."
Departments at all levels are working to speed up the
construction of scenic spots and infrastructure facilities in key
areas.
For example, the Tibet Autonomous Region invested more than 60
million yuan (US$7.25 million) in the infrastructure project of the
Qiangba Temple in Changdu County, Ranwu Lake in Basu
County,?Yanjing (Salt Well), Hongla Mountain and Quzi in
Mangkang County. Yunnan Province invested more than 5 million yuan
(US$604,000) in building a tourist service center in the
Gedansongzan Forest Monastery in Shangri-La County, a Tibetan
cultural center in Xiaozhongdian, and a festival celebration square
in Deqin County. The Changdu area in Tibet Autonomous Region has
checked a group of tourist restaurants and hotels, and created
local tourist entertainment companies.
The improvement of traffic conditions is conspicuous. In the
field of air travel, the area has opened routes to all parts of the
country. Currently, Huanglong Airport of Sichuan Province is open
to air traffic and construction of Linzhi Airport of the Tibet
Autonomous Region has begun. Regarding roads, refurbishment of the
Sichuan-Tibet Highway is progressing smoothly. The Suijiang River
and Jinsha River Bridge with an investment of 18 million yuan
(US$2.17 million) and connecting Sichuan and Yunnan has opened to
traffic.
In the field of strengthening information and personnel
exchanges, the area has opened an Internet information service for
the Shangri-La Eco-Tourism Area. Currently, a dozen tourist service
websites named after Shangri-La offer conveniences to tourists. The
Tourism Bureau of Sichuan Province has trained about 100 tourist
guides for the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The conference, attended by the area's responsible officials,
will finish the overall plan of the construction of the China
Shangri-La Eco-Tourism Area as soon as possible. Officials will
also continue to discuss issues related to development of tourism
in the area.
(China.org.cn translated by Li Jingrong October 31, 2003)
