Tourists need emergency shelters: govt

Popular tourist areas in the capital must start to provide areas for emergency shelter, following the response to the July 21 rainstorm, authorities have announced.

Beijing government said via its microblog Saturday that from now on, large scenic spots in Beijing will gradually designate areas which can be used as an emergency shelter. There will be signs erected to indicate where these emergency areas are located.

Zhang Yahong, director with the park and scenic area administration department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry, would not comment other than saying that designating emergency areas is not mandatory.

"The environment of some scenic spots may not be suitable to designate one," she said.

But Zhang did tell the Beijing Daily on Friday that many of the 375 parks and scenic spots in Beijing are built in or near mountainous areas, vulnerable to natural disasters.

"At present, lots of them haven't designated an emergency shelter," she said.

Beijing has two areas at particularly high risk of a natural disaster in the mountainous areas to the northeast and southwest of the urban area.

These areas encompass dozens of well-known scenic spots, including Tanzhe Temple in Mentougou district and Qinglong Gorge in Huairou district, the Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Cai Xiangmin, head of the Beijing Institute of Geological Survey, said that he does not think an emergency shelter could help solve problems brought by disasters like earthquakes, landslides or flood.

"The most practical method lies not in designating emergency shelters but increasing both the tourists' and the local employees' awareness of what to do in a disaster.

"In extremely harsh weather, people should not go to mountainous areas and the scenic spots should not be open to the public," said Cai.

To avoid floods, tourists would need to go to higher ground, said Cai, but this only puts them at higher risk of landslides or rock falls.

Since the rainstorm in July, Shidu scenic spot in Fangshan district has designated two buildings which can be used as emergency shelters.

"The two are still temporary and are actually a rehabilitation center and a medical center in the township which successfully provided accommodation and medical services to affected tourists during the rainstorm," Wei Ran, vice head of Shidu township, told the Global Times Sunday.

"Without emergency shelters, the safety of visitors could not be guaranteed," he said.

"We are re-planning the construction of Shidu and have included the designation of formal emergency shelters in the project," noted Wei.