Visit to China's Five Low-carbon Scenic Zones
created: 2010-04-15
The limelight is on low-carbon living, which has been fashionable for quite a while, and low-carbon travel is now gaining increasing popularity among travel lovers.
In contrast with luxurious travel, low-carbon travelers minimize their energy consumption and pollution while on trips, reflecting the awareness of protecting the environment.
These five destinations allow travelers to keep their carbon footprint small. You can have a try!
1. Yan Zi Gou (Swallow Cove)
Location: inside the famous Gong Gashan International Travel and Recreation Zone, 283 kilometers from Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan Province.
Reason: It established its reputation after being selected as the shooting site of the arks in the blockbuster 2012.
Yan Zi Gou has not been as well-known in western Sichuan's travel circuit until the disaster movie 2012 featured it as one of its settings. Glaciers, snow-topped mountains, forests with colorful leaves, and hot springs can all be found here, while the highlight is a 30-kilometer red stone shoal, whose origin is still a myth at present. The scenic zone calls for low-carbon travel concepts, so the sightseeing buses are reduced, and even the expanded walking path was built on the path villagers used as they went picking herbal medicine. In the scenic zone, disposable raincoats are no longer sold, and free raincoats are offered instead.
2. E Mei Mountain
Location: Southwest China's Sichuan Province
Reason: A pioneer in advocating low-carbon travel
Energy-saving measures have been widely adopted across the scenic zone. The forests have been well-protected, with the coverage percentage of E Mei Mountain kept over 95 percent through the years. March to June is the best season to appreciate rhododendrons on the mountain, while in spring, visitors can also enjoy picking spring tea and bamboo shoots.
3. Zhang Jiajie
Location: western part of south China's Hunan Province
Reason: Battery-powered bicycles and mixed-power buses are the means of transportation in the scenic zone, and wild animals and visitors coexist well in the area.
The Hollywood blockbuster Avatar must have impressed you with those floating Hallelujah Mountains, which are said to have been inspired by the "Southern Sky Column" in Zhang Jiajie. Nowadays, it has become the most popular spot in the area. Thanks to strict controls on automobiles and an emphasis on mixed-power vehicles and battery-powered bicycles as the main transportation methods, visitors can enjoy the fresh air and see wild macaques from time to time.
4. Shangri-La
Location: in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Reason: low carbon is the lifeline of the eternal beauty of Shangri-La, a place renowned for its enchanting natural scenery and diversified landscape.
Situated on the southeast edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Shangri-la is a scared destination featuring snowy mountain, canyon, grassland, highland lake and original forest scenery. Mei Li Snow Mountain is the symbol of China's low-carbon travel. The highland lakes are the purest fresh water lake group in mainland Asia.
5. Da Xing An Ling (Greater Khingan Mountains)
Location: north of Heilongjiang Province and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Reason: the biggest oxygen bar in China, one of the top three low-carbon scenic zones.
Covering a large forest area - a total of 84.6-thousand square meters, equal to the territory of Austria or 137 Singapores - Da Xing An Ling is an oxygen-providing paradise. There are more than 400 wild animals and 1,000 wild plants living in the area. It is an ideal getaway for trekking, exploring and escaping from the heat of summer.
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