Once isolated, Guizhou is now 'a gem'

Wang Fuyu's eyes sparkle talks about tourism in Guizhou province. The deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Guizhou fires off a string of data, the most striking of it a 58 percent growth rate in tourism revenue for the first half of this year.

A year ago, when he was asked similar questions about tourism, he admitted with worry that tourism had dropped precipitously as a result of the Sichuan earthquake.

But the recovery has been just as remarkable. Total revenue from tourism for the first half of 2009 totaled almost 40 billion yuan. As late as 2007 the industry brought in a total of 51 billion in an entire year. No wonder Wang calls it "an eruption".