Grottoes carved out of cliffs, ancient cities on the grasslands, Tibetan Buddhist temples surrounded by snow-capped mountains - these and other cultural and historical sites in China's vast western region are turning into money-makers for local residents.

Statistics show tourism projects involving cultural and historical sites accounted for 20 percent of the more than 6,000 searching for investment at a recent investment and trade fair for co-operation between eastern and western China. The fair was held in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Shaanxi, known as a "treasure-trove of relics," has put forward a hot springs project that requires an investment of 180 million yuan (US$21.7 million) and a 100-million-yuan (US$12.0 million) museum project to be built for the Famen Temple, the imperial temple of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The province has also planned four tourism zones that highlight the cultural legacies of the Zhou (BC 11th century-BC 256), Qin (BC 221-BC 207), Han (206-220) and Tang dynasties.

This province, home to capitals of 13 dynasties, annually attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from overseas and tens of millions of domestic tourists.

The western region has 23 percent of China's total population and 57 percent of the total land area. However, it only has one-tenth of the nation's already developed tourism resources.

Vice-Governor of Qinghai Province Su Sen said Qinghai had developed a group of tourism products that emphasize instead the snow-capped mountains, vast Gobi Desert, well-preserved Tibetan temples and historical sites along the ancient Silk Road.

Such rich tourism resources are available in all the other western provinces and autonomous regions.

A recent survey revealed that the tomb of a king of the Western Xia Dynasty (BC 1038-BC 1227) located near Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and a town that holds the largest number of cultural sites of the Western Xia in China, is still in existence, but had yet to be visited by at least 90 percent of residents in Yinchuan.

To explore the western region, some Chinese travel agencies organize trips that go to Maiji Mountain, famous for its grottoes carved more than 1,500 years ago, the Western Xia royal tomb, the terracotta warriors in Xi'an, the Famen Temple and many other such cultural sites.

Zhou Tianyou, curator of the Shaanxi Provincial Museum of History, said that western provinces and autonomous regions are paying more attention to protecting cultural relics while they develop them into tourism attractions.

Shaanxi is drafting plans to protect its 72 mausoleums of ancient emperors before turning them into tourism sites.

(People’s Daily 05/06/2001)