Nearly 370 Million Yuan Spent on Facelift of China's Scenic RiverThe Municipal Environment Protection Bureau of Guilin announced that more than 368 million yuan (US$44 million) was spent to clean up the Lijiang River, described by many tourist manuals as China's most picturesque river, over the past two decades.The river running through the city is renowned for its crystal clear water and lime-stone karst peaks in spectacular formations. The city has worked hard to balance its fast economic growth with environmental protection of the river over the past 20 years. In a comprehensive treatment program of the river pollution, the Guilin City Government shut down 27 industrial polluters, and banned sand extracting, sewage discharges from tourist boats and net cage enclosure fish farming in the river. Over 10,000 rural households living along the river have started to use bio-gas or marsh gas as their cooking fuel instead of timber. At the next stage, the city will use a US$34.8 million from the World Bank loan to dispose pollution and soil erosion in an effort to preserve the pristine river. |
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