The Tibet regional government rejected reports it has abandoned a plan to reopen the region to foreign tourists on May 1, saying it ‘will open soon’, without giving a specific date.The information office of the regional government said: ‘The Tibet tourism bureau is doing its utmost to prepare for the reopening of all scenic spots.’

It has been suggested the region will reopen to foreign and domestic tourists on May 1, a national holiday. A newspaper in Zhengzhou, Henan province, reported that train tickets to Lhasa have already sold out.

Authorities in Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, said last week the region had now reopened to foreign travelers.
Source: China Daily

Well-known female Chinese folk singer, Wan Shanhong sings a song dedicated to Jiuzhaigou at the opening ceremony of the 4th Jiuzhaigou Ice Waterfall Tourism Festival at the foot of iced Pearl Shoals Waterfalls.

Jiuzhaigou in the winter becomes a fairyland of glittering and translucent ice waterfalls, snow-caped mountains and sapphire lakes covered in white.

This festival will last until March 31, 2008. Located in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Region in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, Jiuzhaigou is reputed in China as the Heaven on earth and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.
Source: China View

A national park complex with the most excellent name of ‘Greater Shangri-La’ is being constructed near the Three Parallel Rivers in Yunnan. The complex includes Potatso National Park, Meili Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-La Gorge, Tacheng National Park for the Yunnan Golden Monkey and many other scenic sites.

So it will be big, colorful and will pull yet more tourists to the area which is under the supervision of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The Three Parallel Rivers area is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. And rightly so. Three of China’s great rivers — the Yangtze, Nujiang and Lancangjiang — run roughly parallel from north to south for 170 km. The Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture accounts for 49.2% of the total area which is a magical group of alpine landscapes.

Presently, the Potatso National Park is mapping out its second phase of construction. The road construction up into Meili Snow Mountain will begin soon. By the end of this year, several projects will start equipping the Tacheng National Park for the Yunnan Golden Monkey with a security system and Damo Cave with an asphalt road.

To include the formerly independent Bitahai Lake and Shuduhu Lake into the complex, a 69-km environmental-friendly asphalt road and a 10-km plank road constructed with advanced Finnish technology are being installed. All of which links these areas of outstanding national beauty into one.

The problem will be dealing with all of the visitors who want to go there. However, the parks of this area have much experience and will almost certainly keep it under control. Doubtless there will be loud lamentations from those who would like to keep this a wilderness with only a selected few — basically themselves — visiting. However, there does seem to be a concerted effort to keep the project under control and not impinge much on the area’s natural beauty.
Source: China.org.cn

Qinghai Lake, China’s largest inland salt water lake, in the northwestern province of Qinghai, is to be protected.

The protection will be more significant than it has been in other areas in the past. Jetik Majil, vice governor of Qinghai, where the lake is located said, ‘Not only the projects under construction, but also existing hotels and restaurants will all be demolished.’

Under a new plan for tourism development around the lake, permanent buildings including hotels, restaurants and tourism service facilities will be relocated to an ‘accommodation zone’ at least three kilometers away from the southern bank of the lake.

Jetik Majil said, ‘Grassland will be restored after the buildings were put down. In the future, tourists can only tour around the lake riding horse or bike, or by electric bus, or walking on plank road.’

The 4,300-square-km Qinghai Lake, held to be a ‘Holy Lake’ by Tibetans, is more than 3,200 meters above the sea level, and home to 189 species of birds and a crucial barrier against the invasion of desert from the west.

According to Dong Lizhi, deputy manager-general of the Qinghai Lake Tourism Development, more than 890,000 people visited the lake in 2006 and by July this year, the lake had received more than 500,000 tourists and the figure is expected to hit one million by the end of this year.

To curb the ecological degeneration near the lake, the Chinese government has invested RMB470 million to recover vegetation around the lake and to stop the desert encroaching. The government has banned fishing in the lake since 1982.
Source: China View

It is difficult to know what expectations there were for tourism to the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region once the rail connection to Lhasa was opened. How could it possibly be estimated except on the basis of total ticket sales for the train? As in not an empty seat.

By the end of July, Tibet has received more than 1.7 million tourist arrivals.

The tourist administration originally forecast about three million for the year. Now the figure has been upped to 3.5 million.

Wang Xinwen, head of the Lhasa Railway Station said that on the world’s highest railway there is now a seasonal shortage of tickets on trains to and from Lhasa.

Zhang Lingjie, a manager in charge of domestic routes at China International Travel Service, one of the country’s largest travel agencies, said the company sent more than 500 tourists to Tibet in the first seven months of this year, compared with 400 for the whole of 2006.

He said, ‘Many people like to travel to Tibet by train during the summer vacation. We had to impose a 20% price hike for our package tours since July 15, because our running costs were increasing as a result of higher costs for food and lodging in Tibet and hard-to-get train tickets.’

He said nearly every train to and from Lhasa is fully booked.
Source: China Daily

Four Points by Sheraton has announced plans for its first hotel in Tibet. It is also opening Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang and Four Points by Sheraton Sanya Bay. These three new hotels are scheduled to open between 2007 and 2010 and quadruple the size of Four Points by Sheraton in Asia Pacific in one year.

Four Points by Sheraton hotels cover all the basics including a comfortable bed, a great shower, and free high-speed internet access. To this it adds warm pie, fresh coffee, free bottled water, and a wide selection of beers. It clearly understands the basic needs of the frequent traveler. You get the idea from the illustration.
The hotels are:

Four Points by Sheraton Lhasa which is scheduled to open this year. It is on the corner of East Lingkor Avenue and East Lingkor Road which gives easy access to the city’s primary tourist attractions, shopping areas and entertainment districts. 93 guest rooms, a meeting room, two restaurants and a lounge.
Four Points by Sheraton Lianyungang which is the first internationally branded hotel to open in Lianyungang. One of the first 14 coastal cities in China to open to foreign trade, Lianyungang attracts business travelers but also tourists for the nearby Yuntai Mountain and Liandao Island. Scheduled to open in 2009. 254 guest rooms, more than 14,000 square feet of meeting space, two restaurants, and a bar and lounge.
Four Points by Sheraton Hainan, Sanya is a new resort hotel in which is arguably China’s premier resort destination. Sanya is not only a popular tourist destination, but also a political, economic and cultural hub and foreign trade port. When it opens in mid 2010, the 405 room resort will have three restaurants, a spa and health club and more than 20,000 square feet of meeting space.

Source: BusinessWire

There is a long-term plan for the tourism industry’s sustainable development on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The scheme (2006-20) plans to develop the region along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway into a top-quality tourist destination, which it is hoped will attract some 3 million tourists each year, staying for an average of seven to 12 days by 2020.

Yang Kaizhong, an economist and professor with Peking University who heads the planning team, supported by the China National Tourism Administration, said the development should not be achieved at the cost of the environment.

As a preventive move, Yang’s team has defined ‘no entry’, ‘entry limit’, ‘free entry’ and ‘encouraged entry’ sections in the region.

Yang Kaizhong said, ‘Ten natural reserves in the region, such as the core region of Hoh Xil national nature reserve, will be barred from any entry or tourism development.’

Somewhat fragile and totally irreplaceable scenic spots like the Potala Palace and Tar Lamasery are areas where limits will be set for tourist entry.

But entry into major towns, such as Lhasa, Nagqu, Golmud and Xining, and some scenic spots that are capable of receiving unlimited numbers of tourists, such as the formal research base of China’s first atomic bomb, are encouraged.

It is expected 85,100 hotel rooms will be needed along the railway by 2020, most of which should be located in the towns.

Yang Kaizhong said, ‘We do not encourage building high towers and star-rated hotels there. It is better to have more family hotels, small-scale inns and non-permanent facilities with strong local cultural and architectural features in the community’.

This plan neatly demonstrated the dilemma of all planning authorities. You build a railway and tourists will come. Tourists, if only through erosion by walking, can create problems. This plan seems most intelligently to accept that tourism is inevitable and that it needs to be contained.
Source: China Daily