Low-carbon tourism on Moganshan Mountain, E. China

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A cleaning woman works at a resort of the Naked Retreats in Moganshan Town of Deqing County, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 1, 2012. In 2007, South African Grant Horsfield found Sanjiuwu, a farming hamlet on the bamboo clad Moganshan Mountain to the west of Shanghai, where he rented some underused farmhouses and converted them into guesthouses. Thus, the Naked Retreats were born, marking the rising of low-carbon tourist sites on the Moganshan Mountain, a national scenic spot in Zhejiang Province. In 2009, Grant invested 200 million yuan (31.5 million U.S. dollars) to build another resort not far from Sanjiuwu, while in 2011, French businessman Christophe Peres also built a resort, Le Passage Mohkan Shan. According to local tourism authorities, there are now 35 similar resorts in the Moganshan area, built by investors of over 10 foreign countries. These resorts were built with local natural materials, such as bamboo, wood and stone, and they advocated healthy, eco-friendly lifestyle, providing a rural refuge from the stresses and strains of city living and office work, thus attracting a large number of foreign businessmen and white-collar workers. In October 2010, Deqing County was awarded the "low-carbon tourism model county" at a tourism summit in Beijing, capital of China. [Xinhua/Tan Jin]