LANZHOU, May 12 (Xinhua) — On the shore of Yueya Spring, a crescent-shaped lake surrounded by desert, which is legendary as an oasis adjoining to the Mogao Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, villager Cao Wenhua brushes the hair of 18 camels earlier than herding them to start out a day of labor.
During the latest May Day vacation, a 4-km camel experience from the oasis to close by sand dunes on Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang City, northwest China’s Gansu Province, was among the many nation’s high vacationer sights.
“Camels are timid animals, and they must be trained to adapt to getting along with people,” Cao mentioned, explaining that brushing is a soothing therapeutic massage for camels which helps them get accustomed to human contact.
During the journey peak interval, Cao needed to stroll the camels on the vacationer route, shuttling thrice a day.
Camel experience excursions remind folks of the scene of camel caravans traversing the dry sands alongside the traditional Silk Road, exchanging items between the East and the West, which makes a camel experience expertise a lovely exercise for contemporary vacationers.
The village by the lake has earned a status as a camel village, as every of the 200-plus households relies on the success of the camel experience service, which is without doubt one of the most important sources of earnings for villagers.
Cao, 51, mentioned camels was once raised within the village for plowing at a time when locals made a residing by farming within the desert oasis.
Tourism improvement within the scenic lake space solely began within the Nineteen Eighties. Some villagers took camels to the lakeside for vacationers to experience. Since then, the camel staff has grown, and camels have turn into an important a part of the booming vacationer trade.
Driven by rising vacationer demand, the variety of camels within the village has elevated from round 900 in 2012 to some 2,400 now, and the worth of a camel has additionally elevated to about 10,000 yuan (about 1,442 U.S. {dollars}).
Cao mentioned he was reluctant to take over the camel enterprise on the age of 25, when his father was too previous to proceed the work.
“The sunshine in the desert is scorching,” he mentioned, including that his former job as a migrant employee earned him extra money than the camel experience enterprise at the moment.
Now with the vacationer growth, he considers the camel driving work rewarding. “I also enjoy chatting with tourists along the camel ride,” he mentioned.
Since the beginning of this yr, the scenic spot has acquired greater than 300,000 vacationers, a rise of over 40 % in contrast with the identical interval of 2019.
The vacationer growth even prompted occasional “camel traffic jams” within the scenic space, the place camel site visitors lights have been arrange alongside the route.
Zhao Fuyun, deputy Party chief of the village, mentioned that tourism improvement has additionally generated different enterprise alternatives. In addition to the camel experience service, there are companies corresponding to mattress and breakfasts (B&Bs), native specialty gross sales and catering companies.
The common family earnings within the village reaches 100,000 to 200,000 yuan per yr, and the village’s collective earnings is about 1 million yuan per yr.
Zhao mentioned these days villagers voluntarily preserve the atmosphere tidy, whereas some are studying English and Japanese to higher seize enterprise alternatives.