Fire Guts Ancient Town in Shangri-La

Shangri-La, the mythical town of James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon, has in the West long summoned visions of a Tibetan paradise.

But on Saturday, part of the tourist district that has laid claim to the name in China’s western Yunnan province was transformed into an inferno after fire spread quickly overnight through wooden houses, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Images showed a large part of the ancient town of Dukezong engulfed in flames and by day reduced to charred rubble. The fire, which broke out at 1:30 a.m., was not put out until 10:30 a.m. due to high winds and the large number of wooden structures in town, said Xinhua. It added that there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, which destroyed 100 homes, Xinhua said.

A number of Chinese towns in and around Tibet have claimed the name of Shangri-La to attract tourists. In 2001 Zhongdian county, known by Tibetans as Gyalthang, was renamed Shangri-La in order to better stake a claim as a tourist hot spot. The 1,300-year old town of Dukezong is one of the major attractions in the Shangri-La area.

Over the past decade, the area has attracted growing numbers of Chinese tourists. Dukezong, once an important stop on the Southern Silk Road, is known for its wooden Tibetan houses and narrow cobblestone alleyways. It sits near a larger, modern city which hosts many of the tourists.

The fire is the most recent of a number of blazes that have struck Tibetan areas. Tibetan towns are traditionally filled with wooden structures, making them particularly susceptible to fires during dry winter months when antiquated heating systems are used.

Source: Wall Street Journal by Paul Mozur

Night fire destroys ancient Tibetan town in China's Shangri-la

BEIJING (AP) — A fire that raged for nearly 10 hours Saturday razed an ancient Tibetan town in southwest China that's popular with tourists, burning down hundreds of buildings as fire engines were unable to get onto the narrow streets, state media and witnesses said.

There was no immediate report of casualties, and the cause of the fire was unclear. State media, citing local authorities, said the blaze started in a guesthouse and was ruled accidental.

The fire broke out at 1:27 a.m. in the ancient Tibetan quarter of Dukezong, which dates back more than 1,000 years and is known for its preserved cobbled streets, ancient structures and Tibetan culture. 

It is part of scenic Shangri-La county in Deqen prefecture.

Once called Gyaitang Zong, the county in 2001 renamed itself Shangri-La, hoping to draw tourists by the reference to the mythical Himalayan land described in James Hilton's 1933 novel. Like hundreds of Chinese cities and counties, Shangri-La renovated its old neighborhood, Dukezong, turning it into a tourist attraction filled with shops and guesthouses.

Photos and video footage showed Dukezong and its labyrinth of houses engulfed in flames that turned the night sky red.

The fire destroyed about 242 houses and shops in Dukezong, dislocated more than 2,600 people, and torched many historic artifacts, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

He Yu, a resident, said she woke to loud, explosion-like sounds to find the old town on fire.

"The fire was huge," she said. "The wind was blowing hard, and the air was dry. I was scared because my home is a little distance away from the ancient town. It kept burning, and the firefighters were there, but there was little they could do because they could not get the fire engines onto the old town's narrow streets."

With fire engines kept out, local residents lined up to pass buckets of water to combat the fire, the Deqen prefecture government said.

Most of the buildings were made of wood and the fire spread easily because of dry weather, state-run China Central Television said.

More than 2,000 firefighters, soldiers, police, local officials and volunteers responded to the blaze and brought it under control at around 11 a.m., the Shangri-La county government said.

Source: Associated Press | Photo: Xinhua

Photos of a snowy Huangshan Mountain

Photos taken on January 9, 2014- Huangshan mountain in Anhui province


Source: xinhua

Daguan Park in China's "spring city" Kunming

Tourists visit Daguan Park in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, January 5, 2014. Kunming is known as the "spring city" because of its mild weather throughout the year


Source: xinhua

Forbidden City to be closed every Monday

The Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum, expanded its closures from Monday afternoons to the entire day, a move the museum said will better preserve its relics and allow enough time each week to maintain them.

"We want to give the architectural and cultural relics a break. But it's not a break for the museum staff. In fact, there is a ton of work to do on Mondays so that the visitors can experience a safer and better Palace Museum," said museum director Shan Jixiang.

The museum, which announced the expanded closures on Monday, had been operating all year round since the 1980s but began to close its doors every Monday afternoon last year to allow for maintenance and housecleaning, Shan said.

Staff members start their housecleaning from the central axis of the palace. In Taihe Dian, or the Hall of Supreme Harmony, where the emperors once held ceremonies, the floor's "golden bricks" have to be cleaned with mops soaked in kerosene.

Previously, the bricks were only cleaned shortly before visitors arrived at 8:30 am, but now staff members have an entire day each week to clean the tiles. Shan said this is the first time that the museum has had enough time to thoroughly clean Taihe Dian in 10 years.

"In ancient times, it took nine years to manufacture these bricks. Once they are damaged, it is impossible to fix them because they are no longer made and cannot be replaced," he said.

The Dragon Throne of the Emperor of China, which features nine wooden sculptures of dragons, is dusted with banister brushes and cotton swabs.

The Forbidden City served as the imperial palace for the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. With 980 buildings and an area of 720,000 square meters, it is considered the largest existing ancient wooden structure in the world.

Fire safety is a key concern for the museum. Temporary housing used as ticket offices are constructed of flammable material. Such housing will be removed and replaced with buildings of safer materials, Shan said. The museum also launched a fire drill on Monday.

All of the exhibition cabinets, interior lighting, signage and posters will be examined and refurbished.
The new signage will echo the palace's interior.

The museum is slated to examine any damage to the walls in the palace this year. Repairs will begin next year.

The museum is planning to change the exhibition in the Antiquarium on a monthly basis, Shan said. The exhibition in the Antiquarium has not been changed since 2006 because many of the exhibits like silk and paper are not suitable to be exposed to the air for a long period of time.

Source: By Sun Yuanqing (China Daily)

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens (HKZBG) in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens (HKZBG) in Hong Kong, January 4, 2014. The HKZBG has more than 1,000 species of plants, and about 300 birds, 70 mammals and 20 reptiles which are housed in 40 enclosures


Source: Xinhua

China's domestic and outbound tourism to keep growing in 2014

Chinese tourists made an estimated 98 million trips abroad last year, spending over US$120 billion on travel, while China also saw 3.3 billion domestic tourists, spending 2.6 trillion yuan (US$429.7 billion) around the country, according to official figures.

A report by the China Tourism Academy showed that the number of people who travel overseas continued to rise in 2013, with the compiled figures surpassing previous expectations.

The report made a positive prediction for 2014, forecasting that both the number of tourists and their spending will increase. The number of people traveling abroad may reach as high as 114 million, a 16% hike from 2013, and their spending will increase by at least 18%, according to the report. In terms of country-wide travel, the number of domestic tourists is estimated to reach 3.58 billion, while they are forecast to spend 3.2 trillion (US$528.8 billion).

Source: Want China Times