The Kanas Lake National Geopark, a famous natural resort in the
Aletai region of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is expected to
replace the Yellowstone National Park in the United States as the
world's biggest geopark.
Covering an area of 2,000 square kilometers, the park has
China's deepest alpine lake—the Kanas Lake. The legendary "lake
monsters" add a further air to the lake.
Inside the park there are also jokuls (snow- or ice-capped
mountains), grassland and vast natural poplar-birch forests,
attracting millions of tourists, from China and abroad, to visit
the marvelous and picturesque scenery there.
To further tap the tourism resources within the region, local
authority plans to invest 8 million yuan in absorbing neighboring
tourist resorts into the Kanas natural resort, and expanding the
park to cover an area of 10,030 square kilometers.
In 2006, Aletai invested 385 million yuan in building up
airports, and strengthening tourist resort construction. With all
these efforts, the region has received 763,000 tourists, with
tourist revenue of 560 million yuan.
(CRI.cn May 10, 2007)
