China plans 'Swiss makeover' for tourism in southeast Tibet

by CNNGo staff

China is forging ahead with high-end tourism in the Tibet Autonomous Region, especially in the southeastern region, with the first of 22 planned villages being given a Swiss motif.

Xinhua News Agency (in simplified Chinese only) reported that Guangdong Province will invest more than RMB 400 million (US$63 million) in Nyingchi's (??) tourism industry, a prefecture some 400 kilometers east of Lhasa, bordering Myanmar and India.

News of the tourism drive came only weeks after reports of foreign tourists being banned from entering Tibet.

A new draw for Tibet

According to the plan, Guangdong will help build 22 "prosperous model villages" in Nyingchi in counties such as Bom� and Zay�.

?Through cultivating the high-end travel industry, [the plan] will turn southeast Tibet into a new ?business card? of Tibetan tourism,? wrote Xinhua.

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