The Chinese take Baikal from Russia
Baikal runs the risk of becoming China’s “inner lake”. This conclusion suggests itself, even if you look at the tourists resting on the lake very briefly. March 30 in Irkutsk even hosted a special round table of representatives of travel agencies, which discussed a very important issue - how to ensure the legal right of Russian citizens to relax on the lake. As it turned out, there is simply no place for Russians on Lake Baikal.
For example, in 2017, about 800 thousand tourists visited the Olkhonsky district - despite the fact that the entire population of Irkutsk is 640 thousand people. The vast majority of tourists are Chinese. Chinese citizens come to Baikal to rest, and in such a quantity that they occupy all hotels. Since the Chinese reserve seats in advance, when the Russians want to relax on the lake, it turns out that they simply have nowhere to stay.
Travel agencies themselves offer - close the lake for foreign tourists for three summer months, when there is a main flow of Russian tourists. A more gentle proposal is to introduce certain quotas for the rest of Chinese citizens. It would seem, why do bigwigs of the tourism business offer such initiatives? Tourists are coming - and fine, because the profit is coming. But it turns out that most Chinese tourists come bypassing official tour operators. The Chinese have their own tourist service, which practically does not intersect with the Russian one and, moreover, does not pay taxes and does not bring profit to the Olkhonsky district.
A smaller part of Chinese visitors stay at Russian legal hotels, but this is enough to prevent Russians from finding free places, wanting to relax on Lake Baikal. But not even this circumstance is alarming. When Chinese guides meet fellow tribesmen, they openly tell them that Baikal belongs to Russia temporarily, and in fact it is the Chinese "northern sea".
A huge flow of tourists entails a danger to the unique ecological system of Lake Baikal. Nearly a million Chinese tourists around the lake are a serious environmental stress. Moreover, they wash their things using powders and other means, they are there - in the lake. Water is polluted, the coast is being trampled down, huge damage is being done to the flora and fauna of Lake Baikal. Entrepreneurial businessmen also distinguished themselves, primarily Muscovites - they built small hotels right on the coast, in the water protection zone. Entrepreneurs - both Chinese and Russian - are interested in quick and easy money, and they don’t give a damn about environmental problems.
If the state can restore order in the tourism industry on Lake Baikal, it will be possible not only to regulate the flow of Chinese tourists and protect the right of Russians to relax in their own state, but also significantly replenish the region’s budget. By the way, this is a very important task and a good way out of the situation of poverty and economic backwardness, in which Transbaikalia and the Irkutsk region have long been.
For example, in 2017, about 800 thousand tourists visited the Olkhonsky district - despite the fact that the entire population of Irkutsk is 640 thousand people. The vast majority of tourists are Chinese. Chinese citizens come to Baikal to rest, and in such a quantity that they occupy all hotels. Since the Chinese reserve seats in advance, when the Russians want to relax on the lake, it turns out that they simply have nowhere to stay.
Travel agencies themselves offer - close the lake for foreign tourists for three summer months, when there is a main flow of Russian tourists. A more gentle proposal is to introduce certain quotas for the rest of Chinese citizens. It would seem, why do bigwigs of the tourism business offer such initiatives? Tourists are coming - and fine, because the profit is coming. But it turns out that most Chinese tourists come bypassing official tour operators. The Chinese have their own tourist service, which practically does not intersect with the Russian one and, moreover, does not pay taxes and does not bring profit to the Olkhonsky district.
A smaller part of Chinese visitors stay at Russian legal hotels, but this is enough to prevent Russians from finding free places, wanting to relax on Lake Baikal. But not even this circumstance is alarming. When Chinese guides meet fellow tribesmen, they openly tell them that Baikal belongs to Russia temporarily, and in fact it is the Chinese "northern sea".
A huge flow of tourists entails a danger to the unique ecological system of Lake Baikal. Nearly a million Chinese tourists around the lake are a serious environmental stress. Moreover, they wash their things using powders and other means, they are there - in the lake. Water is polluted, the coast is being trampled down, huge damage is being done to the flora and fauna of Lake Baikal. Entrepreneurial businessmen also distinguished themselves, primarily Muscovites - they built small hotels right on the coast, in the water protection zone. Entrepreneurs - both Chinese and Russian - are interested in quick and easy money, and they don’t give a damn about environmental problems.
If the state can restore order in the tourism industry on Lake Baikal, it will be possible not only to regulate the flow of Chinese tourists and protect the right of Russians to relax in their own state, but also significantly replenish the region’s budget. By the way, this is a very important task and a good way out of the situation of poverty and economic backwardness, in which Transbaikalia and the Irkutsk region have long been.
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