An aerial view of a hydro-electric power plant in the Tianmu mountain range. [Photo provided to China Daily] Natural splendors and historical legacies endow a slice of the Tianmu Mountains with wild and man-made allure, Owen Fishwick discovers. Keep your back straight and clench your buttocks, says Tintin, my Filipino horse guide whom I was allotted just 30 seconds earlier. It's the first time I have ever ridden a horse and my director tells me to relax and look more professional as I deliver my lines to a camera some 50 meters away. We're at Mogan Mountain, outside the city of Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, to shoot a film about how eco-tourism is rejuvenating local communities. This mountain is a place where people come to chill out and forget about their worries, but horse riding isn't really my relaxing cup of tea. But the scenery is. Deep within the mountains, I am embraced in a sea of bamboo that stretches to mist-covered peaks. The air is cool and fresh with the earthy smell of nature. Dotted about the green landscape are small villas, some with distinctly Western architecture, more and more of which have been converted into homestays or nongjiale. Located 200 kilometers from Shanghai and about 60 km from the provincial capital, Hangzhou, Mogan Mountain forms part of the greater Tianmu mountain range and has for years been a place where city folk come to unwind. custom bar braceletcustom sports braceletscustom logo wristbandsde securite pour personne ageeembossed wristbandscolorfilled wristbandsembossed printed wristbandsdual layer wristbands
URUMQI - About 1.2 billion cubic meters of water is expected to be discharged into the basin of the Tarim River, China's longest inland river, this year, to supply its lower reaches that dried up decades ago, local authorities said Monday.The far western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region began water infusion to the river in late February and is expected to transfer more water in July, according to the regional water resources department.More than half of the water is expected to go to the main stream of Tarim River and the rest to Yarkant, Aksu and Hoten rivers, among others in the Tarim Basin, according to the department.Xinjiang has infused 7 billion cubic meters of water to the dry trunk stream of lower reaches of the Tarim River in 18 rounds of water diversion since 2000, making the local forest of desert polar, a tourist attraction.The Tarim River runs 1,321 kilometers along the rim of the barren Tarim Basin, a sparsely populated area about the size of Poland.Excessive irrigation in the past used too much water, which caused the river's lower reaches to run dry in the early 1970s and push the trees to the verge of disappearance.
