More and more wild beasts roaming in Zhangjiajie

Increasing presence of service facilities once drove away wild animals and badly damaged the natural beauty of Zhangjiajie, a state forest park in central China's Hunan Province.

However, the situation has turned for better since the city government of Zhangjiajie launched a project to restore once-damaged vegetation in the scenic reserve in 1999.

With famous Wulingyuan Scenic Area, one of the world heritages,Zhangjiajie is famous for its peculiar mountains and natural scenery, with forest covering 97.7 percent of its scenic spots. Approved by the State Council, the scenic reserve became China's first state forest park in 1982.

Statistics show that over 5 million tourists go sightseeing tour in the park each year.

At present, visitors to the scenic area can easily find swarm of macaques looking for food and playing in the jungle, some times making funny actions or making a face toward passers by. And there were reports saying that more and more wild beasts are roaming on high mountains in Zhangjiajie.

Peng Changming, a villager of the Tianzishan Village, showed Xinhua reporters traces of wild boars and hares, and said that another villager of the same village once saw a leopard in the scenic zone.

Reporters saw that grass and azalea trees have covered up former sites of man-built facilities, which were demolished over the past two years, in Huangshizhai and Tianzishan Protection Section.

To demolish buildings and relocate local people

The floor space of man-built facilities once reached 360,000 square meters in Zhangjiajie, with Luoguta, one of its famous scenic spots becoming a "city of hotels" and Jinbianxi (Golden Whip Brook), noted for the "most beautiful grand canyon in the world", was forced to take up 1,500 tons of waste water each day.

The 1-billion-yuan (US$ 120 million) project to restore the natural beauty of Zhangjiajie includes removal of buildings, protection of ecological forest and control of pollution sources.

According to the plan, a sewage treatment plant will be built, 206,000 square meters of buildings demolished and 546 families with 1,791 people relocated out of the scenic reserve.

Ding Yunyong, an official in charge of demolishing buildings and relocating local people, said that the whole project is expected to be completed by the end of this year. He added, protection of local tourism resources will be put at the first place in the future.

Ding said that the demolishing buildings will not affect the accommodation ability in Zhangjiajie since a new hotel village will be built in a proper place.

Villager Peng Changming and his family is preparing to move outof the scenic zone. "I really don't want to leave", he said, adding "but I support government's work since it is the obligation of everybody to protect Zhangjiajie."

Chinese Photographers' Association built a photographic art villas in the scenic area at a cost of 11 million yuan (US$ 1.32 million) years ago, and the building is being demolished.

Diao Huixiang, deputy secretary general of the association, said that "There is only one earth and China has only one Zhangjiajie. To protect Zhangjiajie, we will cooperate with local government to demolish our villa hotels."

Zhang Jia Jie

Scenic Spots of Zhangjiajie national forest park is famous for its 3000 crags which rise in various shapes. They are like persons or animals , very vivid and extremely lifelike in their states or manners. some are rough or dainty, some are strange or surreptitious; simple and natural but unrestained and impetuous, brave and fierce but seductive and charming. All of the precipitous cliffs are gracefully poised. Zhangjiajie contains six wonders: towering peaks , clear streams, queer crags,capricious clouds, rare birds and animals, also precious plants; coverges five uniquenesses; gracious , primitive, tranquil, complete and fresh; demonstrates the wonder of both north or south ; has various beautiful mountains. It s called the real labyrinth of nature, as well as the original painting of China!

Zhangjiajie is also famous for its rich resources of forests. Only in the park , 97.7%of the area is covered with trees. Five most noted families of rare plants growing here, for example : composite family, orchid family, bean family ,rose family and the grass family. The oxlophyta alone amounts to 517 species in 93 families, twice as many as that in the whole Europe; what s more , rare and precious trees are mostly found in the primeval secondary forests, such as dove trees , tulip trees, eucommia ulmoides trees and ginkgoes. Beautiful and distinctive flowers cover the four seasons.

By the way, you will run across a special five-color flower, called lobster flower with its color can be changed for five times per day, and in the shape of lobster.

( People's Daily March 27, 2002)