West Lake to Be Expanded by Thousand muHangzhou government will select a best plan from amongst those draft designs by experts from Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou to expand the West Lake by thousand mu, one fourth of its current size.The West Lake boasts a history of 1,600 years, but its water-surface has been on the decrease since the Han (206 B.C-A.D. 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties. Expanding of the lake has become a thing quite imminent and the project involves 4 pieces of lands, 154 units, 2,586 households with 6,474 people to be resettled. The expansion will pull together a number of tourist attractions, the well-known Lingyin Temple, the Dragon Well and the Southern Peak, etc. that are scattering around the lake to help add a yearly tourist number by 366,000, bringing in an income of 165m yuan. A wetland ecological park will be built, together with the lake to be enlarged so that it will slow down mountain rushes and help settle down some flowing sands to make the lake water more limpid and charming. By PD Online staff member Li Heng |
People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |