Newsletter

　！！ 2007-9-12


Tibet Is Open in Winter: Official
　
　

　

A leading tourism official in Tibet says he wants to change the perception that Tibet is "closed" to tourists in winter so more visitors can see the region's attractions in off-season.

Pagzho, director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Bureau of Tourism, said travelers on tight schedules who want to visit Potala Palace should avoid going during the peak summer season.

Pagzho said the misunderstanding that it was impossible to travel in Tibet during winter should be changed.

"I want people to know that Tibet is highly accessible to tourists in winter," he said. "I'm sure tourists could visit the Potala Palace three times a day if they came in winter."

The months of July to September are the prime time to visit Tibet where oxygen in the air becomes extremely scarce in cold weather in winter.

This summer peak season, Lhasa, the regional capital, saw an average of 9,000 tourists daily, of whom almost 5,000 arrived by train, said Pagzho.

The Potala Palace, one of many scenic sites in Tibet, was a priority sight for many tourists.

However, the palace administrators restrict visitors to 2,300 a day and the palace is open from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM, making tickets highly sought-after during the summer months.

Tourists are forced to stand in long queues starting from early in the morning in order buy tickets to the Potala Palace.

Pagzho said tourism and cultural relic protection departments had been working together to attract more tourists to Tibet after October.

In the meantime, the regional government had built a hall where tourists who failed to obtain tickets could see the palace through a documentary. It had also stepped up construction of another museum at the foot of the palace to exhibit cultural relics from the palace.

Located in the northwestern corner of Lhasa, the Potala Palace was built by Tibetan King Songtsa Gambo in the Seventh Century during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It was extended during the 17th Century by the Dalai Lamas.

The 13-story palace features the essence of ancient Tibetan architectural art and was included on the list of world cultural heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1994.(source:china.org.cn)

 

　

House of China Opens
　

The much-touted "China House," in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, welcomed its first batch of visitors on Monday.

The landmark building, clad with 400 million porcelain pieces, which was completed months ago, officially opened on Monday.

The owner of the house, businessman Zhang Lianzhi, reportedly spent US$65 million on decorating the building with his wares collected over the past two decades.

A charity opening was held on Monday, at which items, donated by well-known Chinese stars including Jackie Chan were auctioned off. (source: crienglish.com)


　
 
Tang Dynasty to be rebuilt in Xi'an
　
THE State Administration of Cultural Heritage in Xi'an has announced it will rebuild a 1,300-year-old market in the city.

According to the construction company, Datang Xishi, the planned West Market will cover 33 hectares, will cost RMB3.5 billion (US$460 million), and will be completed by 2010.

The market will be designed to give visitors a glimpse into the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), with two planned phases of construction. The first phase will include antique and souvenir shops, a museum, restaurants, reception centres for foreign visitors, and a supermarket and will be open to the public in June 2008.

The second phase will feature the culture and customs of the old Silk Road, according to the Datang Xishi, and will have space for offices and residential flats.

The Xi'an Tourism Bureau said that the aim of the development was to encourage visitors to spend longer periods of time in the region. (source:ttg)
　


　

China Building World's Largest Botanical Garden
　
　 China is building what it hopes will become the world's largest botanical gardens at Shaanxi Province's Qinling Mountain.

With a 530 million yuan (US$66 million) investment from the central government, the gardens, covering 458 square kilometers, will house rare plants and animals both native to the region and from around the world.

When completed, it will be four times the size of Australia's Queensland Botanical Gardens, currently the world's largest, said Guo Daozhong, director of the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Resources Administration Bureau.

"We plan to complete the project in 2008, and make the gardens a multi-functional botanical park for scientific research, botanical education, biodiversity conservation and eco-tourism," Guo said.

"With a north-south span of over 40 kilometers, the gardens will contain various eco-climates and contain 3,446 kinds of plants, 5,000 species of insects and more than 600 species of vertebrates including rare wild animals like pandas and golden monkeys," said Shen Maocai, director of the gardens.

The Qinling National Botanical Gardens are an enlargement of the existing Qinling Botanical Gardens, located in central Shaanxi's Zhouzhi County. The new gardens will range from 460 meters to 3,000 meters high and contain plains, hills and high mountains, Shen told China Daily yesterday.

The ecologically-rich Qinling Mountain area is the watershed of the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin.

According to the director, the gardens will help protect all plants growing in the mountains as well as 900 species plants from temperate zones and 2,000 various tropical and subtropical plants gathered here.(source:China Daily)