Source: China News Weekly
Billions of years of natural beauty
Is it necessary to "install escalators"?
Recently, a super-long escalator with a total investment of 127 million yuan in Lingshan Scenic Area, Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, has caused widespread heated discussion because of whether it should be built or not.
The 753.2-meter-long escalator that weaves over the bizarre cliffs can quickly transport tourists to the peak equivalent of an 88-storey building, providing a new option for easy climbing. However, the gimmick of the "longest" climbing escalator in Asia also raises questions that it "may destroy the original appearance of the natural landscape and drain public finances".
The scale of the Jiangxi mountain scale.
Source: Canli Elevator Public Account
In fact, Lingshan is not the first natural scenic spot to try to build an elevator. Supporters believe that such facilities have greatly improved the level of barrier-free tourism in the scenic spot, especially for the elderly and special groups to climb the mountain. However, from the actual operation point of view, such infrastructure often requires huge investment. After completion, it also faces high operation and maintenance costs and long return cycle, and long-term benefits are questionable.
How to compare "comfort tours" and "protection of the ecology"? huge investment and maintenance costs, who will bear the "pocket travel" popular era, the natural landscape has existed for billions of years to "lay the ladder"?
Painless mountain climbing?
The idea of repairing escalators for Lingshan Scenic Area in Shangrao City began to brew as early as five years ago.
Lingshan Scenic Spot is located in the north of Guangxin District, Shangrao City. In 2020, the work report of the district government proposed to speed up the establishment of Lingshan 5A-level scenic spot and do a good job in the "Five Ones" project of Lingshan core scenic spot, including the construction of a number of interactive experiential projects, such as water slides and rapid tourist transportation systems, the latter including escalators.
Regarding the reasons for the construction, China News Weekly called the deputy director of the Lingshan Scenic Area Management Committee, but the other party said that it was not convenient to respond. Previously, the relevant person in charge of the Lingshan Scenic Area Management Committee once told the media: "Lingshan Mountain is relatively steep, and we hope to make it easier for tourists to climb mountains."
At sea altitude 1000 to 1400 meters, the highest peak is 1496 meters, the terrain is dangerous and famous for stone scenery.In the past, tourists chose the traditional way to climb the mountain for 3 to 4 hours.
How to build the so-called "rapid tourist transportation system"? In January 2022, the Guangxin District Development and Reform Commission issued the "Reply on the Feasibility Study Report of the Lingshan Scenic Spot Plank Road Small Circulation Project (Dongtaifeng Small Circulation Project)", which included the preliminary construction plan for the rapid tourist transportation system (including wind and rain sheds). The escalator is divided into 4 sections, each section of escalator has a height of 30 meters, a span of 52 meters, a slope length of 60 meters, and an angle of 30 degrees, with a total height of 120 meters.
But this obviously failed to meet the needs of "future planning". In April 2023, Shangrao Lingshan Tourism Development Co., Ltd. issued an invite tenders announcement to purchase the scenic spot "emergency evacuation and rescue channel (tourist rapid transportation system) design (including geological exploration, structural design, etc.) services". The final transaction was Fanhua Construction Group Co., Ltd., with a transaction amount of 2.70 million yuan.
According to the "Publication after the approval of the construction project planning permission" of Lingshan Scenic Area announced by the Guangxin District Natural Resources Bureau in May 2024, the total length of the construction route of the emergency evacuation and rescue channel (tourist rapid transportation system) in the Pan-China construction design plan is 684 meters, and the total vertical height is increased to 267.5 meters. It consists of 5 sets of escalators and 3 sections of walking paths.
Subsequently, Shenzhen Tourism Development Co., Ltd. began the public tender for the construction project "goods", the initial budget amount of approximately 1.3 billion yuan. according to the publication of the results of the tender, the same day on the site submitted the tender documents, reviewed and opened the tender, the final bidder was Jiangxi Yongchang Electric Equipment Engineering Co., Ltd., the transaction amount of approximately 1.279 billion yuan.
According to Tianyancha, Jiangxi Yongchang Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Engineering Co., Ltd. was established in 2014 and its business scope includes special equipment installation, renovation and repair, inspection and testing, and sales of mechanical and electrical equipment. Regarding the specific procurement of elevators, the company's directors and managers responded to China News Weekly: "Ask the user, we can't say anything."
All funds come from special bonds
Public information shows that on the morning of July 8, 2024, the Kangli Elevator delivered the first staircase from Suzhou headquarters industrial park to the "Jiangxi Yongqing Mountain National Scenic Area".According to the company's official disclosure, the Dongqing project will start from October 17, 2022, the plan will be determined in May 2023, and the first one will be delivered in July 2024.
Regarding the plan for the installation of lifts, China News Weekly called the company, the other responded: as an elevator supplier, the product design, transportation and hanging, installation and other work under the premise of environmental protection (requirements) are strictly based on and in accordance with the scenic area (the company's previous technical argument is concentrated on the product itself (the subsequent construction) and the related environmental protection part involves less.
The "key construction project plans" for 2023 and 2024 released by Guangxin District of Shangrao City have been included in the "Lingshan National Scenic Spot Tourism Infrastructure and Public Service Facilities Construction Project", including the "Scenic Spot Tourist Rapid Transportation System", with a total investment of 985 million yuan. By the end of 2023, the investment has been completed 118 million yuan, and the investment is planned to be 300 million yuan in 2024. The source of funds is "self-raised by enterprises (state-owned enterprises) ". The service unit of this project is Lingshan Management Committee, and the project unit is Shangrao Lingshan Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
Tianyancha information shows that Shangrao Lingshan Tourism Development Co., Ltd. was established in 2002 and is a wholly-owned holding company of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Office of Guangxin District, Shangrao City. Regarding where the funds for escalator procurement and construction come from, the director of the travel company replied to China News Weekly: "Ask the management committee for details."
According to the government budget for 2025, as of the end of 2023, the signing of the contract for the rapid transportation system for tourists in the Shinjuku region amounted to approximately 1.3 billion yuan, has been paid 4,247,36 million yuan, and there are still more than 90 million yuan to be paid.
At the end of 2024, the Finance Bureau of Guangxin District of Shangrao City commissioned an accounting firm to evaluate the performance of the construction projects carried out by Shangrao Lingshan Tourism Development Co., Ltd. The relevant report shows that in the construction project of tourism infrastructure and public service facilities in Lingshan National Scenic Area, the "rapid transportation system for tourists in scenic spots" has been completed. The source of funds in the announcement and contract of the project invite tenders is "self-raised funds and special project bond funds", but as of the end of 2023, the actual self-raised funds in place are 0 yuan, and the actual payment of funds is made using special project bond funds, which is inconsistent with the source of funds in the project approval and bond issuance implementation plan.
In addition, the aforementioned performance evaluation report also suggests that the actual funds in place for the project are only 400 million yuan, all of which are special debt funds, and are lower than the total contract amount signed for the project (approximately 446 million yuan), and there is a risk of default on actual payment.
How to pay back the huge investment in building escalators? Will the scenic spot charge extra for escalators? The staff of the scenic spot replied: "The charging standard is still under study."
However, escalator charges have clearly been taken into account. According to the invite tenders announcement issued by Shangrao Guangxin Cultural Tourism Management Co., Ltd. in August last year, the "Infrastructure Improvement and Renovation Project in the Huanling Mountain Area" planned to invest 200 million yuan in construction includes the construction of "7 service points of Tianti Peak in Lingshan Scenic Area", which mainly provides services for tourists visiting the scenic area, taking into account the sales of escalator tickets in the scenic area. After the heated discussion on the Internet, the ultra-long escalator in Lingshan was only measured for a week, so it was announced that it was suspended on August 13. "The specific opening time is subject to the official announcement," said the staff of the scenic spot.
In recent years, many mountainous landscapes have installed automatic ladder, such as Zhejiang, Zhejiang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Hangzhou and Nanjing, have opened automatic ladder for tourists to "painlessly climb the mountain."
The popularity of elevators in scenic spots is also inseparable from the active promotion of enterprises. A domestic elevator company previously revealed in an interview with China News Weekly that due to the real estate downturn, the company began to expand its scenic spot business many years ago, and now scenic spot elevators have become one of its main sources of revenue.
Huang Huang, associate researcher at the Institute of Planning and Leisure of China Tourism Research Institute, told China News Weekly that during a nationwide survey, he found that in order to increase the ticket sales revenue of new elevators, some scenic spots closed the trails in the name of "maintenance." "In fact, tourists are extremely resistant to forced consumption behavior, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the scenic spot."
In his view, if the landscape is still increasing the revenue with new elevator sales, or increasing the ticket revenue through the elevator, it is still deep in the business model of the "ticket economy". he believes that a sustainable transformation of the natural landscape area to increase the load rate should be by lowering the threshold or gradual reduction to attract the passenger flow to diversify consumption in the landscape.
Reporter: Li Mingzi (limingzi@chinanews.com.cn)