Plateau lake's uncertain future

While people living around Taihu Lake were haunted by algae, thousands of kilometers away in the northwestern province of Qinghai, farmers and herdsmen living around Qinghai Lake, the country's largest saltwater lake, were busy preparing to receive tourists from all over the world.

Perched more than 3,200 meters above the sea level, the 4,300-square-km Qinghai Lake, located in the northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is not only a "Holy Lake" to Tibetans, but also home to 189 species of birds and a crucial barrier against the desert spreading from west to east. With a slim population of more than 70,000, the Qinghai Lake valley is historically a land for farming.

"Generally speaking, the lake is healthy thanks to few industrial projects even till now ", said Zhao Haoming, head of the provincial environment protection department.

Beautiful scenery has drawn more and more tourists to the lake in recent years. According to Dong Lizhi, deputy manager-general of the Qinghai Lake Tourism Development Co. Ltd, more than 890,000 people visited the lake in 2006 and by July this year, the lake had received more than 500,000 tourists and the figure was expected to hit one million by the end of this year.

Degyi, 19-year-old Tibetan girl who grew up in a nomadic family living by the lake, has been getting used to her new role as a tent restaurant waitress.

Like many of their neighbors, Degyi's father began to set up two white tents four years ago on the grassland on the southern shore of the Qinghai Lake, to receive tourists. Visitors are provided with traditional Tibetan food like boiled mutton, milk tea and yogurt made of yak milk. They can also rent a horse to pose for pictures or for riding.

Though the business only lasts from May to October, Degyi's family is able to earn more than 15,000 yuan every year, accounting for two thirds of the family's annual income.

However, with booming tourism comes pollution. The waste produced by hotels and restaurants have been discharged into the lake without being properly treated and garbage, such as crisp packets and plastic drink bottles left behind by tourists, are frequently found around the lake.

In addition, the lake is threatened by global warming and encroaching desert. Statistics with the provincial environment protection administration show the lake shrunk more than 380 sq km between 1959 and 2006 and the average water level dropped three meters to the present level of 18 meters.

More than 111,800 hectares of land around the lake has been suffering from desertification brought about by overgrazing around the lake and global warming, according to the provincial forestry department.

To curb ecological degeneration on the lake, China has invested 470 million yuan on recovering the plants around the lake and dealing with desertification. Local government has also banned fishing in the lake since 1982.

A latest move taken by Qinghai is to ban the construction of permanent buildings around the lake.

"Not only the projects under construction have been stopped, the hotels, restaurants, and shops near the lake shore will be torn down," said Jetik Majil, vice governor of the province.

According to Jetik, under a new tourism development plan around the lake which is expect to be enacted next year, permanent buildings such as hotels, restaurants and tourist service centers will be relocated to an "accommodation zone" at least three kilometers away from the southern shore of the lake.

"Grassland will be restored after the buildings are demolished. In the future, tourists can only tour around the lake by riding horses and bikes, taking shuttle buses powered by electricity or walking on a boardwalk," said the vice governor.

"For a province like Qinghai which falls far behind many of our counterparts in terms of economic development, to improve GDP growth is very important to us", said Jetik. "However, we can't afford to taking the old road of developing first, cleaning up later."