An
ecological park in southwest China has been stripped of its celebrated lotus
flowers by tourists breaking into the attraction.
Longqiao
Cultural and Ecological Park in Sichuan province’s Lu county has been forced to
close for the rest of the year due to the actions of hundreds of tourists.
The park had
been closed since late March for watercourse construction and was due to reopen
soon, however that is no longer possible.
Well known
for its endless fields of lotus flowers which cover around 250,000 square
metres, the eco park has been stripped bare in recent weeks, the South China
Morning Post reports.
Since the
start of the summer blossom season last month, hundreds of people have been
breaking into the park to pick the flowers, forcing park managers to keep it
closed for the remainder of the year.
Zhou, a
member of staff, said:
We cannot
control the tourists. We can just guarantee we’ve done our job well. We’ve put
notes on the park gate and near the flower field and we have security personnel
on patrol as well.
Zhou added
that despite the construction work in the park being nearly finished, there was
no point in reopening because there were virtually no flowers left.
Approximately
200 to 300 people are still believed to be breaking into the park each day,
forcing management to increase the number of security patrols.
A manager of
the park said, as per Shanghaiist:
Our fence
has been repaired for at least five times this year.
Photos and
videos of people stealing the celebrated flowers have since gone viral on
social media platforms such as Weibo, with many criticising the actions of the
tourists.
While one
person called for these ‘greedy people’ to face punishment, another wrote:
‘Even the highest fence cannot stop those without manners. It’s like you can
never wake up a person that pretends to sleep.’
Longqiao
Cultural and Ecological Park opened six years ago, and has since gained fame as
a scenic spot in Lu county, attracting thousands of tourists from other
provinces each year.
It’s not
known how long the park will be closed for or when indeed it will be open to
the public again, although it’s going to take some time to repair what has been
taken.
It’s such a
shame that the selfish actions of a few people have had such a detrimental
impact on the beauty spot. Hopefully it will be back to full health soon.
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