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| Fenghuang county, Hunan provincem. Photo takin on April 13, 2013. (Xinhua) |
Gong Fuyun, who has been running a hostel in the Fenghuang old town for more than eight years, said he hopes the new entry charge will "bring some positive changes".
Gong said the government has started repairing the roads and banning non-local vehicles from entering the old town.
Cai from the county government added that about 3 billion yuan will be allocated to infrastructure improvement and other management work in the old town by the end of 2015.
Fenghuang is not the first such site to begin charging admission fees. The entry price for the ancient town of Pingyao in Shanxi province is 150 yuan on ordinary days and 160 yuan during Spring Festival.
However, the new policy in Fenghuang has sparked fierce debate and protests since its implementation.
Yuan Yulai, a lawyer who specializes in administrative law, took to his official Sina Weibo account on Saturday to call for a boycott of Fenghuang, which won support of many netizens.
Many shop owners and small traders in Fenghuang closed their shops on Thursday in a strike protesting the decision to charge for entry.
Du Xiaoli, who works for a travel agency in Fenghuang that helps tourists book hotels, said reservations had decreased by at least 70 percent compared with the same period last year despite April normally being the peak season for travel to the old town.
Wang Jianmin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Tourism Research Center, said the government of Fenghuang is defending its ticket policy with "a lousy excuse".
"There are many other available measures to limit tourist numbers, such as asking tourists to make reservation one day before a visit and establishing a maximum daily capacity of tourists," he said.
"Tourists need to pay taxes on accommodation and food at tourist sites, so the government of Fenghuang is guaranteed sufficient money for its preservation work."
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