China plans road to Everest

AvidTrekker

The kuchchaa road to EBC exists for the last 12 years and is in regular use by the mountaineering expeditions and tourists with their 4WD's

All this is just a lot of noise and hot air.

As if road building was ever stopped by any Govt. on Planet Earth? Why should China be expected to be any different?

__________________
The Universe is an ellipsoid?... or a Spheroid?? If the sphere smiles... it becomes an ellipse. This IS Creation.

greenman

Indeed, the pressure should not be agenst the improvements to the road itself but to make sure that any devolpment that follows it is sustainible and actually helps the local community.

As much as it goes agenst the myth that "travelers" who spend $10 a day can't possible harm the enviroment high end tourism is IMHO the future of such sustainible devolpments. The fact is if your spending $100 a day that leaves alot more room for some of it to be funnelled into them rather than cheap hotels/hostels that use up the local wood supply and dump a ton of rubbish.

capt_mahajan

Not an expert, but Dunno about the high end tourism bit. Interesting point though.

Agreed, a person may generate similar amounts of rubbish regardless of where s/he is staying. But I have a feeling high end hotels consume much more energy and resources, and therefore pollute more. And the money is being made by corporates-unsure if they do much for local sustainability.

They also employ more locals, and pay some local taxes, so presumably there is that local benefit.

Wonder how it works out on balance.

__________________
.
Humpty Dumpty was pushed. How do you know when push comes to shove?
Indiamike moderating team ..ich bin ein oneliner

greenman

I wouldnt say that high end tourism itself is automatically more sustainible but I do think it provides more of an opportunity for sustainibility if managed well. I'v never actually visited but I see Bhutan put forward as a great example pretty often and it only targets the high end.

I just get the feeling that the prices alot of the backpacking community are used to paying are simpley not compatible with sustainible devolpment in many areas. When a new area is "discovered" and you have small numbers theres normally not a problem but as it takes off charging $10 a night simpley doesnt give you the profit margin to change the way you run your business much.

the19trier

I think Chinese still own a fairly large share of unwisdom due to its isolation from the western world for years. The phase of china now is like the phase of victorian time or the rooseveltian time, when development and construction is everything. Now the western world view has changed, and though US is still the largest polution country, the tone has changed at least, but China gov, after years' of isolation, still celebrates development alone.

Yet the demand now is high and multi-facet. The number of travellers is rising sharply in recent years, and transportation needs to adapt. Meanwhile ecological and enviromental issues become important, we need to help China understand these. Americans and etc learn it the hard way, but china need to learn it smarter now. It is a global world.