Many ancient and important sites of historic interest in China suffer from too much emphasis on tourist development and not enough on protection, leaving the problem for experts of how to strike a happy medium between the two.
Dazu County is 110 km to the west of Chongqing Municipality. It is a county known for its rock carvings. Over 50,000 carved stone figures mainly about Buddhism spread across 28 townships within Dazu County. The art of Dazu, which emerged in the late Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) and flourished in the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279), represents an important chapter in China's later rock carving culture. It entered the World Cultural Heritage List in 1999.
As the Dazu Rock Carvings is the only world heritage site in Chongqing Municipality, it faces the problem of trying to maintain a high level of protection for its artifacts with the genuine interest afforded it by the prominent listing.
According to the curator of Dazu Rock Carvings Museum, the total income of the scenic spot is over 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million), which is three times that of three years ago. The money is one-eighth of the local government’s disposable income. This year, the local government hopes the scenic spot will increase its revenue by more than 2.4 million yuan (US$289,953). At the same time the county will invest 2 million yuan (US$241,628) to promote the Dazu Rock Carvings at home and abroad.
Li Fangyin, an expert on the protection of the site and its carvings, said that there is a conflict of interest between the protection and development of world heritage sites. The government, he says, should give primary importance to the protection and salvaging of culture relics. The deficit in adequate protection finance can only be solved through utilizing the resource itself.
Since the Dazu Rock Carvings was listed as a world heritage site in 1999, more than 10 million yuan has been invested in the protection and maintenance of the culture relic. Three million of this money came from the national purse, the rest from the museum itself.
According to Li Fangyin, increasing tourist income could satisfy the financial need of local government as well as bring enough money to protect the heritage site. Tourist traffic to the Dazu Rock Carvings can reach 5,000 people per day, he said. However, last year it only received 400,000 tourists, failing to reach the damage-limitation critical point for the rock carvings. Dazu is therefore aiming to strike a balance between development and protection of its site.
Some experts believe that the cardinal principle in the protection of a culture relic is the reasonable management of the resource. However, this tourism revenue is badly needed to make up the largest profit percentage in the local market economy. This problem continues to worry the heritage experts.
The old town of Lijiang is located in Yunnan Province and is also a famous world heritage site. But now, it is facing a serious problem of over development. Millions of tourists each year damage the old town environment. The world heritage site Fuzhen Temple was rebuilt as a hotel in Wu Dang Mountain and Yuzhen Temple, which had more than 600 year history, was destroyed by fire not long ago.
Although the conflict of interest is recognized, some local governments still make unbelievable decisions based on the needs of the local economy. For example, the government in Dazu decided to widen the road to the Dazu Rock Carvings from the town in order to smooth the way for tourists to visit the site. In the future, the geomorphology of the winding path leading to these secluded spots will be changed at Dazu Rock Carvings.
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan April 29, 2003)
