Lesson 12

of cement on a shoulder pole up the 7, 000 steps of Taishan. Wonderful exercise, and you can earn 2 yuan a day. Those who complain about Yransportation difficulties of any kind can watch the lao taitai-the old ladies with bound feet - who walk from their villages and make the arduous ascent of Taishan, cheerful and spry. Or ride a bus in any Chinese city at the rush hour, as the Chinese must do every day. (Or any American city; or deal with a Manhattan cabbie. ) And those who complain of the bureaucracy should try going to the Social Security Administration in the US when you are one of the poor and powerless.

    I hope to come back to China some day. But. no matter what, I will never lose what I,ve been given here.
    My thanks to all Chinese for showing me a new, higher standard of strength of character and kindness. And my thanks particularly to the people of Shandong Mining College for their unlimited, unstinted loving care.

                   3. Yunnan Makes Efforts to Boost Tourism

    Starting from scratch, tourism in Yunnan Province has made progress by leaps and bounds in the last decade. Only 1, 284 foreign tourists went there in 1978, the year when the provincial tourism bureau was established. The figure rose to 121, 300 in 1988 - an average annual increase of 25. 4 per cent, said deputy bureau chief Miao Kuihe in an interview .

    In the provincial capital of Kunming alone, there are 11 posh hotels, with accommodations chiefly for foreign tourists, and nine travel agencies that provide services for them. There are also 10 arts and crafts stores in Kunming with a variety of articles with exotic flavours, including national costumes of the minorities.
    In such a short time, tourism has asserted its role in the socio-economic
development of the province.
    In Kunming, tourism has provided jobs for 12, 000 people. In the whole province 25, 000 people work in tourist departments.

    Tourism has helped to promote the catering trade, transportation service and commerce of Kunming. It has helped to accelerate the city construction and its embellishment. Moreover, contact with tourists from afar has widened the horizons of the locals, deputy director of the municipal tourism bureau Peng Shaoxi said.
    It has become a consensus of local authorities that tourism is a vanguard ndustry in opening the province to the outside world;it is of trategic importance in economic development, and it represents the orientation of urban construction. In 1988, the provincial government listed tourism as the sixth industry in.importance in economic development, said deputy bureau chief Miao.

    Now, 29 of Yunnan's municipalities and counties are made open to foreigners, a fact favourable to tourism.
    Because of Yunnan' s abundant tourist resources, Miao envisions still brighter prospects for the tourism of the province.
    It is estimated that by 1995, Yunnan will receive about 200, 000 tourists annually and by 2000, their number will rise to 320, 000. Hotels by then should have accommodation for 10,000 people.
    To meet the needs of tourism, appropriate measures are being taken in various aspects, Miao said.

    In April 1988, a centre was set up providing short-term professional training for three to five months for employees in tourist departments. All th'e big hotels have their own training section, aiming at improved service. Seven young employees have been sent to the United States to learn management expertise. Dozens of chefs are in Hong Kong to learn various styles of cuisine. And some young employees are sent to college to learn foreign languages as well as professional skills in tourism, Miao said.

                 4. Advantages of Yunnan to Develop Tourism

    According to the publicity chief of the provincial tourism bureau, Chen Keqin, on the strength of its distinctive geographic and ethnic features, Yunnan has the following advantages for the development of tourism :
    A good number of scenic wonders. They are roughly located in three areas. First, those in the area centring around Kunming, of which the Stone Forest is one. The spectacular, jagged rocky formations that rear their heads to the skies are winning world fame. There are also karst caves in this area.

   Second, those in west Yunnan with the two ancient cities Dali and I.ijiang. The Tiger-leaping Gorge of the Jinsha River deserves a mention. It is 16 kilome;res long. The narrowest section of it is ab

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