'Snow Town' responds to complaints

Dahailin Forestry Bureau's tourism department published a series of investigative results and penalty decisions Thursday after several days of investigation in China's Snow Town, a popular attraction in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

The investigation came in response to a complaint from a tourist in a WeChat post soon after it circulated online Friday.

The tourist, whose identity is unknown, said she booked a triple room for two nights at a low price, but when the family arrived, they found the hotel had other plans.

After refusing to change to another room where conditions were much worse, the family was asked to leave on the second day.

According to the tourism department, the manager of Zhaojiadayuan guesthouse was punished for arbitrarily overcharging customers and treating them in a rude manner.

Besides being fined 59,360 yuan ($9,135), the manager has been blacklisted as one of the dishonest guesthouses, which will be looped on the LED screen in the scenic area.

Now the guesthouse has been closed and the house owner has decided stop renting it to the manager.

However, inspectors from the administration denied the tourist's complaint about finding a bowl of instant noodles at the tourist center priced at 60 yuan, about 12 times the normal price.

"The number 60 refers to its commodity code," said the administration in the announcement. "After scanning the QR code, the customer can see the price is 10 yuan."

"In order to stabilize the price of dining in the town, we have launched various family-style cafeterias, where each tourist can enjoy breakfast at the price of just 20 yuan, and lunch and supper at 38 yuan," said Sun Qingke, the director of the town's administration committee. "A hotpot buffet is only 78 yuan for per customer."

Because the tourist didn't provide the license plate number of the tour bus, the inspectors couldn't verify that the conductor in the bus recommended attractions to the tourists without permission.

The administration asked the company involved not to arrange any conductors on the tour buses and to strengthen measures to avoid similar problems.

"In addition, tourists can buy tickets on the internet and any ticket booths distributed throughout the town," according to the administration. "It was concocted by the conductor that tourists couldn't buy tickets without the help of a tour guide."

After investigating the admission fees of the tourist items in the attraction named Xuelang Valley, which was also pointed out among the problems of overcharging in the post, the administration announced that the attraction was leased to a private company and the prices had applied for administrative approval and record-keeping in the price control department.

"We have offered our apologies to the tourists," said Li Shi, deputy director of Dahailin Forestry Bureau's tourism department. "We will deal with the existing problems seriously and strengthen measures to regulate tourism in the town."

Contact the writers at zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn