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Beijing Closer to Regaining Glory as Yachting Town
China's capital has moved one step closer to restoring her old glory as a city with a busy river traffic, by opening a river yachting service along a 50 km-long newly-rebuilt waterway.
Beijing enjoyed a booming shipping business for centuries, but it came to a halt in the late years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) due to political and economic factors.
Since 1998, the city government has invested over one billion yuan to rebuild and transform its water channels, as part of a program to improve the environment.
In July 1999, two waterways 10 km and nine km in length, respectively, were opened to tourist yachts. Last September, another river-cruising course was built. Last month, the rebuilding of a fourth section of the waterway was completed.
Over the past two years, the yachts have transported over 400, 000 passengers.
The two banks of the waterway have become good places for local residents to do physical exercises as well as new attractions for domestic and overseas tourists.
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