World heritage dilemma

In haste to inscribe their names on the World Heritage List - which includes countries or regions who pledge to protect their natural and cultural heritage - quite a number of localities must have calculated how much they will be able to cash in on the distinction.

Despite the fact that the grant of such prestige is originally intended to have better preservation measures for the heritages listed, many local governments consider the UN title as a brand that can be flouted to attract more tourists.

But Wutai Mountain, a holy Buddhist site in North China's Shanxi province, experienced a drop in income from tourism by 200 million yuan ($29.27 million) in 2008, a year after it was listed as a world cultural heritage. In another case, the efforts to acquire the UN distinction have put the poor county of Libo in Southwest China's Guizhou province, in a hole of 200 million yuan.