Erhai Lake: Protection Mode

This April Fool’s Day, no one was joking around in the Erhai Lake preservation district. On April 1, 2017, visitor Xingxing Diandeng had to reschedule a planned three-day trip to Dali, Yunnan Province during the Qingming Festival holiday when he noticed his hotel reservation payment had been refunded. What happened?

On March 31, 2017, the municipal government of Dali shut down all restaurants and inns within the core area of the ecopreservation district around Erhai Lake until a nearby sewage interception project is completed. The core area is densely populated with over 1,800 restaurants and inns that offer enchanting lake views to visitors. The project shut down every single one of the popular “lake-view houses.”

Growing Pains

Dali has long been famed for its snowcapped mountains and the tender moonlight on Erhai Lake. Every year, it draws steady streams of visitors from home and abroad. In recent years, however, Dali’s tourism capacity has been overwhelmed due to the development and construction of the town of Haidong. Shuanglang, a small town of Bai people by the lake, received 2 million visits in 2014. In 2016, the volume exceeded 3.2 million. Within the onesquare-kilometer area at the core of the town’s tourist zone, there are more than 580 restaurants and inns.