The recent forced closures of hotels and restaurants around Er Hai has created a nightmare for locals earning a living ...tourists are not there..the place is empty..

When Xi Jinping visited Erhai about 2 years ago, he took a photo of the lake water in front of him, and said something like he will be back and compare it to a photo later and see if the polluted water has been cleaned up. Very effective method indeed.

What caused the forced closure?

@mike4g_air
So, are you saying now's a good time to go visit Dali, cuz it's not too busy with the usual tourists?

What caused closure?
National Government turned away from using GDP growth as the main measure of performance for local governments. A general groundswell of opinion about pollution put environmental protection and remediation as a measure of government performance. Beijing has been auditing and acting, in support of this policy. Quite aggressively by the sound of things.

@mike4g,

Do you live in Dali or traveling there?

I guess great for the local area and bad for the local businesses, eh?

I wonder how much it affects local biz? I think I read it here that someone mentioned that a lot of the newer establishments were from out of towners?

Even businesses owned by out of towners will be staffed by locals, and will buy supplies locally.

It is a misconception to think cleaning up or abating pollution is bad for a locale or business.

Unabated, pollution will eventually kill tourist related businesses. It really doesn't matter who owns the businesses cleaning them up can only be good.

@ Geezer: True, but business folks have a tendency to take a short-term view, and so are not always concerned with the consequences. Bird in hand, etc.

10 years ago Beijing had given Dali government funds to create plans and build waste water treatment infrastructure..
Dali government did nothing for 10 years.
Now they are in a panic to get the lake clean. solution??? close everything(mostly illegal permits) to save our jobs.

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