The northwestern province of Qinghai will introduce tough new measures to protect the environment around Qinghai Lake, the country's largest saltwater lake.
Under a new plan for tourism development around the lake, which is expected to be enacted next year, permanent buildings including hotels, restaurants and tourism service facilities will be relocated to an "accommodation zone" at least 3 km away from the southern bank of the lake, Jetik Majil, vice-governor of Qinghai, said.
"We will closely monitor projects currently under construction, and a number of existing hotels and restaurants will be demolished," he said.
"Grassland will be restored after the buildings have been pulled down, and tourists will be able to tour the lake only on horseback, by bike or electric bus, or on foot along a specially built wooden walkway," he said.
Situated more than 3,200 m above sea level, the 4,300-sq-km Qinghai Lake, referred to as "Holy Lake" by Tibetans, is home to 189 species of birds and provides a crucial barrier against the encroachment of the desert to the west.
The beautiful scenery has attracted more and more tourists to the lake in recent years, Dong Lizhi, deputy general manager of the Qinghai Lake Tourism Development Company, said.
More than 890,000 people visited the lake last year and by July this year, it had already received more than 500,000 tourists. The figure is expected to hit 1 million by the end of the year, he said.
However, with booming tourism comes pollution, with many hotels and restaurants discharging waste directly into the lake and tourists littering the area, Dong said.
Also, rising temperatures and less rainfall have caused the lake to shrink considerably over the past 50 years.
Figures from the provincial environment protection administration show the lake shrank by more than 380 sq km between 1959 and 2006, and the average water level dropped 3 m to the current 18 m.
In addition, more than 111,800 hectares of land around the lake are under threat of desertification brought about by overgrazing and global warming, the provincial forestry department has said.
To curb the ecological degeneration, the government has spent 470 million yuan ($62.5 million) to recover vegetation around the lake and to deal with desertification. It also banned fishing in the lake in 1982.
"However, the situation is still worrying and we don't want to see the environment around the lake worsen as tourism booms," Jetik said. "That is why we will launch the new program."
Jetik said garbage in the new accommodation zone will be collected and disposed of at a nearby waste treatment factory, and more litter bins will be put around the lake.
Source: Xinhua Editor: Yang Xue
