Eco-corridor adds beauty to Lake Erhai
Green mountains and lucid waters are indeed mountains of gold and silver, and environmental improvement means greater productivity. A sound environment promises great economic potential, generates good returns, and contributes to economic and social sustainability.
--- Taken from President Xi’s Remarks at the Opening Ceremony of the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019 Beijing, China
A view of Lake Erhai in west Yunnan's Dali prefecture (Yunnan Daily/Huang Xingneng)
Eco-corridor adds beauty to Lake Erhai
August saw west Yunnan’s Dali bathed in bright sunshine, with streams of tourists going to the Erhai lake shore for leisure and sightseeing. “Please care for the saplings in green areas,” said Yang Zhilong, a Dali native. Whenever the waves of travel swelled, Yang would volunteer to remind some of the sight seers.
The so-called green areas by Yang are part of the eco-restoration project of the Erhai lakeside wetland in Dali county-level city, or the “Erhai eco-corridor” for short. The ecological project involved eco-restoration, wetland maintenance, construction of eco-corridors, resettling lakeside villagers, improving pipe networks, and scientific experiments.
A section of the Erhai eco-corridor (Yunnan Daily/Huang Xingneng)
Yang Zhilong, aged 68, grew up near the Erhai lake. “In the past, my fellow villagers were building houses and growing crop in the surrounding areas of Erhai, but we didn’t realize that part of the fertilizers and domestic sewages would pollute the lake back then.”
As the number of tourists increased later, Yang recalled, many villagers opened lakeside inns. “To be appealing to the visitors, some even extended their accommodation facilities into the shallow waters of the lake. As a result, Erhai was seriously polluted.”
However, the negative impacts have been minimized following construction of the Erhai ecological corridor. According to Li Xuexin, a deputy director of the Erhai eco-corridor project, the lakeside areas where the residential buildings and crop fields used to be located have been turned into gardenlike areas and eco-wetland.
Tourists run along the Erhai eco-corridor. (Yunnan Daily/Huang Xingneng)
Now the beautiful areas are reducing pollutants into the lake, improving the water quality of Erhai and maintaining its ecological stability. The overall water quality of Erhai Lake was excellent in 2020, rated as Class II water by national standards in 7 months and Class III in 5 months.
“The Erhai eco-corridor resembles an ecological highway that was built to surround the Erhai Lake. Making the eventual defensive formation to stop pollutants from entering the lake, the corridor also contributed to a beautiful and livable environment for the public,” said Li Xuexin, adding the corridor is good for sightseeing, reading, exercises and local economy.
Strolling along the eco-corridor nowadays, tourists are greeted by waterfowl chirps, flowers and willows. Accompanied by local residents, the visitors are taking photos, walking and jogging. Certain sections of the Erhai corridor have become hot spots to take wedding photos.
Part of Erhai and its surrounding areas (Yunnan Daily/Huang Xingneng)
In constructing the Erhai eco-corridor, part of Yang Zhilong’s court yard was torn down, but he was not annoyed by this. “As a Dali native, I feel it obliged for us to protect the Erhai lake,” said Yang. “After all, the eco-corridor did obviously make the lake clearer following its completion.”
Text source: CNS and others; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue