Green revolution sees county blossom

Microcosm

Most families in the township, which has a population of about 2,000, undertake tourism-related work, according to local authorities.

Bailang is a microcosm of Arxan, where 60 percent of the 68,000 population work in the tourist industry, said Bai Feng, head of the Arxan tourism administration.

Residents used to herd sheep and cattle, but now they raise stags and does and have also started fish farms, all of which serve the tourism sector.

The combination of tourism with agriculture and animal husbandry has not only raised incomes, but has also helped to preserve the local greenery, Bai said.

In 2002, long before the logging ban, the local government prohibited herding to protect the local flora.

From 2014 to last year, Arxan saw both tourism revenue and tourist numbers more than double. Last year, the county received about 4.3 million tourists and tourism revenue stood at 5.3 billion yuan, according to the county government.

The residents' annual per capita disposable income rose at an average of 9 percent over the same period, reaching 27,981 yuan last year.

In 2011, Arxan was listed as a national poverty-stricken area, but it was removed from the list in April.

Gao Wei, the deputy mayor, said the county is building up an industrial pattern supported mainly by tourism and supplemented by eco-industries, agriculture and animal husbandry with local characteristics.

Rather than taking from nature, the local government has invested more than 1 billion yuan to promote environmental improvements.

While planting 20,000 hectares of trees, it also undertook measures to prevent soil erosion on nearly 15,000 hectares of land, Gao said.

Thanks to those efforts, the green coverage rate has reached 95 percent and the forest coverage rate stands at more than 80 percent, according to the government.

Arxan has been listed as a national exemplary county for the promotion of environmental progress.