Nujiang alluring
By Zhang Zhao

KUNMING _ In the last three years, the tourist sector in Yunnan Province has chalked up a series of successes. In 1997, Lijiang was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites. In 1998, Diqing was officially named as the location of the legendary Shangri-La. And in 1999, the ongoing China '99 Kunming International Horticultural Exposition is attracting attention from all over the world.

But looking to the future, what will become the next tourist hotspot in the
province?
For Ou Zhiming, governor of the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, the answer is clear _ his own region.
Ou's optimism is echoed by Yang Guihua, a renowned professor with Yunnan University's tourism department.
In the deep west of Yunnan Province, the torrents of the Nujiang River pour down in a never-ending cascade from the surrounding mountains. They have shaped one of the world's most outstanding gorges _ the Oriental Grand Canyon.
The canyon is around 310 kilometres long, a little shorter than the Grand Canyon in the United States. But the Yunnan canyon is about 4,000 metres deep, compared with the 1,000 metres of the US version, Yang said.
The scenery of the Oriental Grand Canyon has no equivalent elsewhere on earth _ it is extremely narrow and dangerous, with precipitous mountains and thundering water.

As its Chinese name suggests, the Nujiang River lays claim to being the most "furious" water in the world.
Sparkling white waterfalls, grand grotesquely shaped landscape. Besides its beautiful scenery, Nujiang also boasts mysterious and colourful ethnic customs. Approximately 10 ethnic groups dwell in the prefecture,
92 per cent of the population.

The Dulong people, dwelling in the most remote area of Nujiang, are the most mysterious of these groups, since they had little contacts with outside world until last October. Nujiang prefecture also has a long border with Myanmar, laying a good foundation for cross-border tourism.

The Ministry of Communications is now helping to widen and upgrade Nujiang's north-south artery, creating a much better basis for the hoped-for tourism boom.

The prefecture is ready to build two other highways to Diqing _ one is an eastern county of Langping to Diqing's Deqin, the other from a northern county of Gongshan to Diqing's Weixi.

The Nujiang prefecture is also planning to build a highway to link the area to Southeast Tibet to expand the tourist trail to cover both Yunnan and Tibet, Ou said.