Strictly prohibit peeping at the beautiful mountains and rivers? What exactly is "fence blocking the scenery" blocking? | Scenic Area | Fence

Why should the beautiful scenery of our motherland's beautiful rivers and mountains be blocked? Recently, there has been a phenomenon of "fence blocking scenery" in many scenic spots, which has sparked controversy. At present, some scenic spots have removed obstructions, but the issues of tourism rights and interests behind them still need to be clarified.

Why set up fences for the scenery?

In May of this year, the "wall blocking" incident along the road in the Hukou Waterfall Scenic Area of the Yellow River attracted widespread attention. The scenic area has previously responded that the wall construction was mainly due to the large height difference of the cliffs on this section, which is prone to falling rocks, and there have been several traffic accidents caused by vehicles obstructing traffic.

In addition, some netizens recently posted that the Jiulong Waterfall Scenic Area in Luoping County, Qujing City, Yunnan Province has also used fences to block the scenery along the road. Regarding this, the relevant staff of the scenic area responded that the scenic area belongs to a natural scenic area and has been under closed management since its development. The area below the road belongs to the scenic area, and the fence does not occupy the road. This is for the safety of tourists.

"Scenic area managers are also concerned about objective facts, but it should be possible to achieve this by strengthening management." Professor Zhang Chaozhi from the School of Tourism at Sun Yat sen University told China News Network that there are indeed safety hazards in scenic roads near core scenic areas, but they can be addressed through targeted methods such as warning messages, speed limit monitoring, and speed bumps. At the same time, some planning concepts of scenic roads at home and abroad can also be borrowed, and specialized parking and observation platforms can be set up in suitable areas of scenic roads.

According to the latest news, the barriers blocking the view of the two scenic spots mentioned above have been removed. The staff of Jiulong Waterfall Scenic Area also stated that they will take measures such as adding speed bumps, relevant signs, strengthening traffic safety management, and increasing traffic police patrols on this road section to ensure road traffic safety, smoothness, and orderliness, and continuously improve the quality of tourism services.

In fact, besides safety issues, the controversy surrounding the fence lies in the reliance of scenic area operations on the "ticket economy".

Not long ago, a fence was also discovered by netizens near National Highway 214 near Meili Snow Mountain National Park in Deqin County, Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The staff of Deqin County Cultural and Tourism Bureau responded to the media with explanations such as "supporting villagers" and "tourism feedback". Due to poor local economic conditions, Deqin Meili Snow Mountain National Park Development and Operation Co., Ltd. was entrusted to carry out daily operation and maintenance of the scenic spot, and the tourism revenue was distributed to the villagers.

The staff member stated that with the development of local tourism, scenic spots may "expand" and barriers will gradually be lifted. In the future, tourists may not need to pay to go to the viewing platform to enjoy the scenery.

What are the rights disputes behind fence landscaping?

In Zhang Chaozhi's view, the fundamental issue behind the obstruction of tourist attractions is actually related to the property rights of tourism attraction. "There has been a similar debate internationally for a long time, such as whether coastal hotels can enclose beaches for private use." He said that the international community has already given the answer, "The beaches in coastal tourist areas are public resources, and landscape appreciation rights should be given back to the public.".

However, the ownership of tourism resources has always been controversial. Ten years ago, Professor Bao Jigang from the School of Tourism at Sun Yat sen University published an article in the Journal of Tourism calling for legislation on "tourism attraction property rights". He found in his investigation that tourism development in some rural areas often involves conflicts of interest among villagers, scenic area developers, and other parties. Therefore, he suggests that the land differential income and its rights derived from the tourism attraction value of land and its attachments should be subject to property rights confirmation.

China News Network has noticed that in recent years, there have been many discussions in the academic community about the construction of tourism attractions and the allocation of rights and interests. Professor Pu Yongjian from Chongqing University mentioned in a media interview this year that sustainable regional tourism development is determined by the scarcity of tourist attractions and the service level of tourist attractions, which come from efficient and professional tourism management and operation teams.

Wu Bihu, Director of the Tourism Research and Planning Center at the School of City and Environment, Peking University, and member of the 14th Five Year Plan Expert Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, believes that tourism attraction property rights have exclusivity and can become the subject of other transactions. The concept of tourism attractions only emphasizes the tourism attraction value of objects and does not change the property rights of objects. In this sense, attracting property rights is the legal basis for farmers to enjoy the right to distribute rural tourism profits.

How to balance the development of tourism with "returning scenery to the people"?

During this year's National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Dai Bin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and President of the China Tourism Research Institute, proposed that "scenic spots should be surrounded, and state-owned key scenic spots with conditions should be free of charge.".

The Sanya Municipal Government announced at a press conference in May that the Sanya Tianya Haijiao Tourist Area will be open for free from June 1, 2023. This is another state-owned scenic spot in Sanya that has demolished its "ticket wall" after the Luhuitou Scenic Area and the Xiaodongtian Tourist Area.

Dai Bin stated in an interview with China News Service that in the new era of comprehensive development of mass tourism, we should adhere to the people-centered tourism development guiding ideology and "return the scenery to the people.".

He believes that currently, tourist attractions are classified into 5A level scenic spots, 4A level scenic spots, etc. based on their quality level, but there is no clear classification for commercial scenic spots and public welfare scenic spots. He suggested that tourist attractions should be classified and managed. For example, market-oriented scenic spots such as Disney should be charged according to commercial operations, and the government should implement price regulation. For scenic spots developed by utilizing public resources, such as natural resources, historical and cultural resources, they should be open to the public for free as public welfare scenic spots.

Dai Bin stated that developing the tourism economy is not contradictory to safeguarding people's right to view the scenery. In this regard, Hangzhou West Lake and Mount Huangshan Mountain in Anhui are examples. He mentioned that in addition to tickets, scenic area operations should also boost secondary consumption such as catering and shopping. He said, "To the greatest extent possible, if the people can afford and swim well, they will not worry about not being able to develop.".