A high-tech approach has been introduced at the Wulingyuan scenic area in Zhangjiajie City in Hunan Province. Visitors now insert electronic admission cards into the electronic admission system at the gate. And they must then go through an automatic “fingerprint” collection procedure. Actually it’s a thumbprint which is checked before the gate opens automatically to allow the tourists into this scenic area. Senior staff in Zhangjiajie say that according to an online search the installation may well be the first of its kind in the world.
With its many scenic spots including the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and the Suoxiyu Nature Reserve, the Wulingyuan scenic area is on the world natural heritage list.
It takes at least two days for tourists to be able to fully appreciate all the natural wonders of the area and to do so they need to gain access to the various scenic spots on a number of different occasions.
So an admission ticket really needs to be valid for two days but this has led to many problems for the management. Different people have been getting in using the same ticket. Invalid tickets have been used. There have even been forged tickets, which is not so difficult with a traditional paper format.
The electronic fingerprint admission system was first introduced in December of last year.
A successful eight-month trial saw it cope effectively with a throughput of over 1.5 million visitors. This represented an increase of 30 percent on those actually recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year and not surprisingly income from admissions has also greatly increased.
Recently, information technology experts from universities and scientific research institutes including the National University of Defense Technology came together in Zhangjiajie to conduct a thorough technical appraisal.
On their recommendation multi-stage cipher keys have been adopted to further guarantee the safety of the system. With an enhanced ability to identify fake tickets, the system is now well established and has proven itself to be both reliable and easy to operate.
It has been reported that during the trial operation period, many large national scenic spots and recreation parks sent their people to see for themselves. Now they all wish to introduce this system.
(china.org.cn by Wang Qian, September 23, 2002)
