Healthy development of ‘red tourism’ needed

IT IS ESTIMATED that the Chinese tourists will pay more than 100 million trips to places of historical interest related to the development of the Communist Party of China this summer. Guangming Daily comments:

Visiting sites of significance to the Party does offer some appreciation of Chinese history and social development. But it is noteworthy that the “red tourism” has become a convenient cover for some public institutes to pay taxpayers’ money for their Party members’ tourism under the guise of patriotism education and political enlightenment.

There are such “red tourism” spots nationwide. But the organizers tend to ignore the “red tourism” sites in their own cities or nearby, choosing instead to organize tours to more remote ones. In summer, the “red tourism” sites in the cool mountainous regions such as Guizhou province in Southwest China, which was an important stop on the Red Army’s Long March in the early 1930s, and Shaanxi province in Northwest China, the longtime revolutionary base for the Party from the 1930s to 1940s, are popular destinations. (lājī jìliàng shōufèi)

The National Development and Reform Commission released guidelines on innovating and improving the price mechanism on Friday aimed at promoting green development. The document advances a new policy of charging for solid waste processing as a means of reducing the amount of waste generated. This is the first time the government has advanced a fee for garbage disposal based on weight.

The document requires actively promoting

On July 1, the Party’s birthday, some popular sites have to put a ceiling on the number of visitors for safety reasons.

The natural environment and ecology around these sites are mostly well protected and there are comfortable hotels and entertainment facilities. It is no secret that the supposed ideological baptism has actually become a leisure activity or sightseeing experience for some Party members.

The organizers of such tours can easily obtain reimbursement for “red tourism” expenditure, which they classify as Party history education, organizational construction or political learning.

The disciplinary and supervisory watchdogs should take concrete actions to check the practice, which has persisted for years and is seemingly immune to the anti-graft campaign just because it is “politically correct”.

Garbage charged by weight

reform of the urban domestic garbage disposal charge, with waste charged by weight, and nonclassified garbage charged at a higher price.

China faces a great challenge in disposing of waste. The urban garbage exceeds 200 million tons every year according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development's statistics, and according to Liu Jianguo, a professor at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, when rural waste is included the amount of garbage produced in the country probably exceeds 400 million tons every year.

The document further clarifies building a nationwide solid waste disposal charging mechanism that fully covers the cost and allows reasonable profit for waste processing companies. Mechanisms to encourage garbage classification, waste minimization and garbage treatment should be established, and the hazardous waste disposal system should be improved.

Garbage charged by weight is of great significance to promote garbage classification, save resources, protect the environmental and improve people's living environment, according to the document.

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