Tourism industry in Diqing gets overhaul

Travel agencies and tour guides in the Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture, reeling from reports over abusive tour guides, will have more government oversight as part of the nation's new tourism law, officials said.

Less than a week after the law took effect, a video was released on Oct 6 showing a tour guide in Shangri-La, capital of Diqing, mistreating visitors two months earlier. The news from the travel paradise in northwestern Yunnan province roused attention from the province's top leadership.

In the video, 33-year-old Zhang Tao angrily and forcibly removed a tourist - an undercover CCTV reporter - from the bus and left him stranded on the side of the road after the tourist refused to pay 100 yuan ($16) to visit a Tibetan family near Shangri-La. The tourist filed a complaint, and Zhang was fined 5,000 yuan and his guide certificate was suspended.