Biz News Flash

China invests in protecting ancient town

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-24 14:46

LANZHOU -- China will invest more than 4.7 billion yuan ($723 million) over the coming 10 years to improve the natural environment of a desert-threatened oasis city that holds one of the world's most impressive ancient Buddhist cave frescoes, local officials said Friday.

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The plan for preserving the oasis, in northwestern Gansu Province, has been approved by the State Council and will be a major boost for Dunhuang, also an ancient Silk Road town, to fight an uphill battle against desertification, said officials with provincial water resources bureau.

Authorities will build channels to bring water in from outside, promote water-saving technologies and methods, ration the use of water, and plant more trees and wetland plants, according to the plan.

Dunhuang has been protected from the encroaching dunes of the Gobi Desert by a belt of forests, wetland and lakes sustained by two major rivers and abundant underground water. In recent years, however, excessive draining of water in the region has dropped the levels of the lakes, shrunk the wetlands and dried up the rivers.

Experts say desertification also threatens the preservation of 1,000-year-old Buddhist frescoes in the Mogao Grottos, which were listed in 1987 by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization as China's first world heritage site.