« Tough Times for Jesus in Xinjiang | HOME PAGE | Everybody Loves Hu. »
October 14, 2007
Kanas: Monster of all National Parks
So, you've been to Yellowstone National Park and you think to yourself, "How wonderful am I now that I've visited the world's largest national park? Pretty darn wonderful." But not so fast you smug bastard! Never missing an opportunity for one-upsmanship, China has decided to kick us American capitalist pigs with our gaudy geyser down a notch:
Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has planned to build the world's largest national park by integrating the scattered neighboring tourist resorts into a whole.
The Kanas Geological Park, now around 1,000 square kilometers, will be expanded to about ten times larger in a few years after incorporating the nearby tourist regions and grassland...
Of course, I remain in the "wonderful" category... I've been to both Yellowstone (well, I drove through) and Kanas Lake.
The most positive development mentioned in the article is the demolition of all of the restaurants and inns in the immediate vicinity of the lake, although I expect that this means that the new luxury accommodations will be more expensive. It'll be worth it, though, if your trip to the region isn't marred by the disco/karaoke yurts blasting Chinese pop songs that I encountered in 2005.
You can read the full Xinhua article below.
China to build world's largest national park in NW ethnic region
13 October 2007
Xinhua News Agency
(c) Copyright 2007 Xinhua News Agency
URUMQI, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has planned to build the world's largest national park by integrating the scattered neighboring tourist resorts into a whole.
The Kanas Geological Park, now around 1,000 square kilometers, will be expanded to about ten times larger in a few years after incorporating the nearby tourist regions and grassland, said Tan Weiping, head of the park administration committee.
Tan said under a new tourism development plan, the Tiere Keti town of Kaba County and the Hom Kanas town of Burqin County will be included in the new national park, which s expected to replace America's Yellowstone National Park, covering an area of about 9,000 square kilometers, to become the world's largest.
"The new national park is helpful to protect the unique natural scenery, wildlife and cultural relics here," said Tan.
The local government has invested more than 8 million yuan (1.06 million US dollars) to map out the incorporation plan.
Kanas geological park, almost 1,000 kilometers north of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, boasts a range of landscapes, including the Kanas Lake, China's deepest alpine lake, snow-capped mountains and grassland.
The park has attracted more and more tourists since it opened in the 1980s. It received 917,000 tourists in the first 10 months this year, a 32 percent growth over the same period of last year, and the figure is expected to exceed one million by the end of this year.
However, the booming tourism has also brought increasing environmental pressure to Kanas, which has also been called "the god's backyard" for its beautiful scenery.
"Local residents have set up many wooden restaurants and family inns nearby the lakes and in the forests over the past years, which have caused pollution to the environment," said Tan.
Under the new tourism development plan, the restaurants and inns have been demolished and will be removed to a new accommodation zone, which is about three kilometers away from the Kanas geological park and tourists can go to the park by shuttle bus.
posted October 14, 2007 at 04:50 PM unofficial Xinjiang time | HaoHao This!
Comments
sigh i need to go to both still. i'm in the anti-wonderful category.
Posted by: Jenn at October 17, 2007 04:07 AM
Russia, China regions join efforts to develop tourism.
17 October 2007
ITAR-TASS World Service
(c) 2007 ITAR-TASS
BARNAUL, October 17 (Itar-Tass) — Tourism and innovations are promising directions of cooperation between Russia’s Altai region and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region of China, the vice-governor of the Altai region said at a news conference on Wednesday following a trip by a region’ s delegation to China.
At talks with the leadership of the Xinjiang Uygur region, the sides discussed among other issues the unveiling of an international tourist route around the Altai Mountains going across China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia.
In particular, they discussed the possibility of letting Russian vehicles with tourists to the Chinese region as well as awarding an international status to the Chinese-Mongolian border crossing point Bulgan-Takeshiken.
Russia’s Belovodye-Tour company is engaged in active work with tour operators from China and Mongolia and the international route will be opened already in 2008, vice-governor Boris Larin said.
Posted by: michael at October 18, 2007 05:30 PM
already kanas is grossly overpriced, this move looks set to put it into the massively overpriced range. Soon chinese will have to leave china to get any kind of value for money while taking a holiday
Posted by: davey at October 18, 2007 05:46 PM
Keep up the great work. It very impressive. Enjoyed the visit! | buy tramadol online
Posted by: adam at September 3, 2008 12:00 PM