Society

Pingyao's ticket price hike 'not official's fault'

By Lan Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-12 08:17

Lanterns hang over a major thoroughfare in the 2,700-year-old town of Pingyao on Feb 6, a week before this year's Spring Festival. [Xinhua]

TAIYUAN - Officials denied that a planned 25-percent increase in ticket prices for an UNESCO World Heritage Site in North China's Shanxi province had anything to do with the financial burden caused by free reception for officials.

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The ticket price of Pingyao, a city renowned for its well-preserved 2,700-year-old ancient city wall, is expected to increase to 125 yuan ($18) from the current 100 yuan during a hearing on July 19, Xinhua reported on Saturday.

The ticket revenue "offers some help" to the world heritage site's maintenance, but could not completely meet the increasing need to protect the site, an anonymous official of the city government was quoted as saying.

Authorities hope the increase would control the rapid growth of tourists.

However, the official denied the increase has any connection with the free reception for officials, which previous reports said had pushed the tourist city into the red.

The ancient city has been paying the expenses for up to 100,000 official visitors on free sightseeing trips a year, which has cost the local government millions of yuan in ticket revenue a year, the Chengdu Business Daily reported in June.

These visitors are officials who say they are visiting Pingyao on official public duty. They are given free admission to the tourist site along with free lodging and meals.

"The free reception for officials has not caused any great financial pressure," Liu Guohong, publicity director of the city's Party committee, told China Daily in an earlier interview.

"Local authorities are working on a better and more scientific reception system for officials."

Li Chengyan, a professor of anti-corruption from the school of government at Peking University, told China Daily that Chinese officials' travel expenditures in the name of public duty could exceed 200 billion yuan every year, based on his conservative estimate.

"Many local governments, especially those of big cities or tourist sites, have been put under tremendous financial pressure by offering free reception to officials from various government agencies," he said.

Government agencies are accustomed to enjoying free travel disguised as business trips, he said.

"To solve the problem and prevent corruption, central authorities should make a law stipulating the budget expenditure - in terms of civil servants' business trips, car use and hosting guests - must be made public every year," he said.

An accountability system and an independent supervisory mechanism also should be followed, he said.

However, the professor admitted the financial burden of local governments will not be eased soon, as central authorities have no plans to release budget expenses in the near future, he said.

More than 1.1 million tourists visited Pingyao in 2009, a sharp rise over the 50,000 who visited in 1997, when it was named a World Heritage Site.

The site's annual tourist capacity - about 1 million - is soon expected to be exceeded after the construction of a nearby high-speed railway and an expressway.