20 lakes disappear every yr in China

Chinanews, Hefei, July 16 - According to Zhou Shengxian, the director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, lakes in China are fast degrading. It is said that some 20 natural lakes disappear every year, which only worsens China's water security.
Zhou said this at Lake Pollution Prevention and Control Meeting held in Hefei, Anhui Province on July 12, 2007.
China's excessive development of water resources has caused the problem. Besides, China used to claim a great many farmlands from lakes. In the past 50 years, more than 1,000 lakes have gone out of existence. Take Huibei as an example, where there used to be more than 1,000 lakes, but now there are only 300 left.
"We must take immediate action to save the lakes in China by giving them a chance of respite," said Zhou.

Death toll rises to 30 in Anhui, another peak to come

Chinese soldiers make preparation for flood rescue and relief operations at the Yingshang section of the Huihe River in east China's Anhui Province on Sunday, July 15, 2007. [Photo: Xinhua]
July 16 - Disaster relief authority in east China's Anhui Province announced Sunday that floods have killed 30 people and affected more than 15 million residents in 15 cities of the province.
Consistent rainfalls started to pour down Saturday in the southwestern Anhui and northern part of the Huaihe river, with precipitation in 30 townships exceeding 100 millimeters.
By 8:00 a.m. Sunday, 60,000 houses have collapsed, and 585,000 people have been forced to relocate. A total of 300,000 people are suffering from drinking water shortage. Total economic losses have reached 9.17 billion yuan (about 120 million U.S. dollars), latest statistics from the provincial disaster relief show.
The provincial civil affairs department has allocated 5.3 million yuan for the disaster relief work. By Thursday, 44 million yuan allocated by the central government has been sent to the flood-battered areas.
Sources with the Huaihe Water Resources Committee said water level at Wangjiaba, a crucial hydrological station along Huaihe, has been pushed up by fierce downpours in the upper reaches of the river to 28.21 meters by 10:00 a.m. Sunday.
When the last flood peak arrived, eight buffer zones along the Huaihe River were commandeered, including the Mengwa flood reserve near Fuyang in the eastern province of Anhui. The water discharge led to the evacuation of about 157,800 residents.
The committee said the third flood peak is likely to pass Wangjiaba late Monday, and they may have to discharge water from the station to Mengwa again if the water level reaches warning marks.
Nine flood reserve areas along the Huaihe River, with eight in Anhui, have been commandeered to combat the coming flood peak. The Luohewa flood reserve area in Huainan City of Anhui was put to use for the first time of the year at 4:00 p.m. Sunday.
On Friday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited troops and residents fighting the floods in Anhui. He promised that evacuees will get maximum compensation allowed by rules from the government.
By Friday, a total of 403 Chinese had been killed as a result of flooding, 105 were missing and 3.17 million people had been relocated as the rains coupled with ferocious flood waters continues to batter central and southern China.

Deserts become valuable tourism resources in Gansu

Chinanews, Lanzhou, July 12 – Gansu provincial tourism department has decided to attract more city dwellers from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to visit the deserts in the province.
During its recent promotional campaign, local tourism department set the Pearl River Delta region (including Fujian), the Yangtze River Delta region (with Shanghai as the center city), and the Circum-Bohai Ring area (with Beijing as the center city) as the three main tourism resource regions for Gansu.
The above three regions are all located in or near the coastal areas. People living in these regions are accustomed to the green grass and coastal scenes. However, few of them have seen the Gobi Desert, and frontier passes along the Great Wall. So places like these will surely remain as a tourist attraction to them, some tourism analysts say.
According to international experiences, when the per capita GDP in a certain region exceeds 3,000 US dollars, people are likely to make long-distance travels. The per capita GDP in the above three regions has already exceeded 3,000 US dollars, so Gansu sees in this a golden opportunity to attract more people from these regions to come and visit Gansu, the tourism analysts say.
Located in northwestern China and along the ancient Silk Road, Gansu boasts abundant tourism resources. In Gansu, the Mogao Grettoes and the Jiayuguan Pass, the western terminus of the Great Wall, are listed by UNESCO as world cultural heritage sites. 72 tourist sites in Gansu are listed as the state-level relic protection sites. The natural scenes in Gansu are gorgeous and colorful. Apart from desolate land, there are the Gobi Desert, Yadan landform and Danxia landform in Gansu. In addition, in Gansu, there live 45 different ethnic groups. The different ethnic groups have their unique living styles and festivals to celebrate.
In recent years, the number of tourists that come to Gansu from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou has been fast on the rise. Many large, mature tourism agencies are also located in these three cities. With their mature operational experiences, it is expected that Gansu’s tourism industry will have a great prospect.