Yunnan Governor Qin Guangrong (秦光荣) asked India to open a consulate in Kunming during a meeting with Indian Tourism Minister Ambika Soni in New Delhi last week, according to Indian media reports.

Direct flights between Kunming and Kolkata, capital of eastern India's West Bengal state, were launched in late 2007, but visa regulations and lack of a Kunming consulate make it difficult for Chinese living in southwestern China to visit India.

In order to obtain a visa, applicants must go to India's embassy in Beijing or its consulates in Shanghai and Hong Kong. For people living in Yunnan, it's often easier to skip the Kunming-Kolkata flight and fly to nearby Bangkok where there is an Indian embassy and more flight options to India.

While meeting with Qin and a delegation of Yunnan officials and entrepreneurs last Wednesday, Soni invited the visitors from Yunnan to invest in India's tourist infrastructure and called for closer cooperation between the two countries.

During the visit, the Yunnan Provincial Tourism Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the West Bengal Tourism Directorate, West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation and Travel Agents Association of India Eastern Chapter to "build a mutual bond on tourism practices, exchange and understanding."

Indian tourist visits to China are roughly quadruple the number of Chinese visits to India.

Tags: Beijing, Hong Kong, India, Kolkata, Qin Guangrong, Shanghai, tourism, travel, visas, West Bengal

Despite being landlocked, Yunnan has plenty of water, including the headwaters of the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween Rivers. It is also home to nine large lakes, with Kunming's Dianchi Lake (滇池) the biggest of the group.

Dianchi Lake is also famous for being heavily polluted – to the point where its water is unfit for industrial use. Yunnan's polluted lake club has recently added a new member – Yangzonghai Lake (阳宗海) – which the provincial government announced has heavy levels of arsenic in its waters. Yangzonghai is now officially considered unfit for drinking, swimming in or fishing in.

The arsenic discovery came during a snap inspection of enterprises operating in the Yangzonghai basin 45 kilometers east of Kunming, with eight companies found to be engaging in illegal polluting practices. Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Industrial and Trade Co Ltd (云南澄江锦业工贸有限公司) has been named as the main polluter.

The company allegedly failed to build the legally required treatment facility for its wastewater, with years of accumulated arsenic seeping into the local water table. Yunnan Communist Party Secretary Bai Enpei (白恩培) and Yunnan Governor Qin Guangrong (秦光荣) have pledged to take "decisive action" to remedy the situation.

As recently as 2002, Yangzonghai had been noted for having water clean enough for drinking and swimming – a stark contrast to the environmental devastation of nearby Dianchi Lake. In February of this year, Kunming Communist Party Secretary Qiu He (仇和) visited Yangzonghai, warning local enterprises that the lake must not become a "second Dianchi".

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Tags: arsenic, Bai Enpei, Dianchi Lake, environment, pollution, Qin Guangrong, Qiu He, water, Yangzonghai, Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Industrial and Trade

Yunnan province announced plans this week to spend 30 billion yuan (US$4.29 billion) over the next three years addressing the pollution of Dianchi Lake, China's sixth-largest freshwater lake and the largest lake on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

Qin Guangrong, governor of Yunnan, described the cleanup work on Dianchi as 'top priority' for building a modern Kunming – which borders the lake on its northeast - according to a Xinhua report. Qin said the project consists of six sub-programs, including pollution interception along the 29 rivers that feed into the lake, plus "ecological protection, dredging, and others". Several wastewater treatment plants will also be built under the project.

Also part of the plan is a scheme to resettle approximately 30,000 lakeside residents in an attempt to restore wetlands in the area by 2010, the report said. Yunnan has spent billions of dollars on reducing pollution in the 300-square-kilometer lake with little to show for it in terms of results. China's major lakes, including Dianchi, Taihu and Chaohu, are suffering from algae blooms that are destroying the lake ecosystems by depleting the water's oxygen content. The central government aims to return the lakes to their 'original state' by 2030.

The announcement by Governor Qin follows recent commercial interest in cleaning up Dianchi. Last year Hong Kong-listed property developer Shui On Land announced that it intended to "thoroughly restore" Dianchi as part of its Caohai Urban North Shore project. The project will dedicate 87 hectares to a mix of high-, medium- and low-density housing and 29 hectares to cultural infrastructure including museums, theaters, an amphitheater and an "artist's community".

According to a Shui On press release, the plan involves a short-term strategy of creating a lake "cell" isolated from the rest of the lake and filling it with clean water. Once the lake has reached a level of recreational cleanliness, the lake cell and the lake will be combined.

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Yunnan Governor Qin Guangrong met yesterday with representatives of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local officials from biodiversity hotspots around the province to deliver a message of cooperation, according to a Xinhua report.

"The government has the same goals with the NGOs in terms of environmental protection. They don't have a hostile relationship. They can communicate and cooperate on environmental and biological diversity protection," Qin told the audience, which included representatives from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Nature Conservancy, The Mountain Institute and several local NGOs.

China's most geographically and biologically diverse administrative region, Yunnan was the first area of China to allow international NGOs to establish operations. As a result, there are numerous international and local NGOs in Kunming, many of which are focused on environmental and biodiversity issues.

Qin pledged to put biodiversity protection at the top of the provincial government agenda this year, he said. In addition to NGO representatives, officials from the areas of Diqing, Lijiang, Nujiang, Dali and Baoshan were present to discuss how to preserve biodiversity vis-à-vis the province's rapid development.

Qin Guangrong image: webcast.china.com.cn

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