Vertical Adventures' Blog::

6-1-2013 The world's highest national park at altitude opened on Friday in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Qomolangma National Park, located at the border of China and Nepal, covers six counties of the region's Xigaze Prefecture with a total area of 78,000 square kilometers.
It includes five mountain peaks with altitudes of more than 8,000 meters, such as Mount Qomolangma. More than 10 others are over 7,000 meters, according to Sun Yongping, deputy chief of the region's tourism bureau.
Ecological valleys and culture-themed zones, hot springs and snow-coated forests are also within the park.
"The national park will be focused on the protection of the ecology and biodiversity and prevention from illegal resource exploitation or land use," Sun said.
As the world's highest peak, 8,848-meter-high Mount Qomolangma is favored by tourists from all over the world. This year, the zone has received more than 73,000 tourists.
It is Tibet's third national park following the Namtso National Park, which opened ealier this week and the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon National Park, which opened in 2010.
The parks are part of Tibetan efforts to turn the region into "an important world destination," which is also a target of central government.
Tibet is situated on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, an area predominantly populated by ethnic Tibetans and prevailed by Buddhist culture. Apart from scenic sports, tourist destinations include Tibetan Buddhism heritage sites such as Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple and Zhaxi Lhunbo Monastery.
Nearly 300,000 people in the region are employed in the tourism sector with fixed assets exceeding 25 billion yuan, according to government figures.
Source:news.xinhuanet.com

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6/1/2013
Employees of the Chitwan National Park deployed to trace a rampaging elephant named ‘Dhurbe’ have started taking ill due to cold. “Two to four employees are falling ill every day due to cold,” Kantipur quoted conservation officer of the park, Maheshwor Dhakal, as saying. The victims are suffering from cold, cough and fever.
The employees are forced to sleep in tents as the park lacks human resources to help them in their search for the pachyderm, Dhakal said.
“We have been searching for the elephant for the past two weeks. We are carrying out our duties by taking medicines,” an employee said.
According to National Park source, although more than 150 employees, including technicians, are searching for the elephant, the whereabouts of the tusker are yet to be found.
Krishna Chandra Poudel, secretary at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, said search for the tusker has been intensified.
Source: www.nepalmountainnews.com



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2/1/2013 Kathmandu
Media Center Tourist arrivals to Nepal via air in 2012 increased by 9.8 percent, compared to arrivals figures of 2011. The year 2011, which was observed as Nepal Tourism Year (NTY), had posted 21.4 percent growth in the number of tourists.
According to statistics disseminated by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), the country welcomed 598,204 foreign tourists in 2012. Arrivals from South Asia, which had posted healthy growth last year, grew by only 10.4 percent in 2012.
Tourist arrivals were growing at a healthy rate until May. But arrivals started suffering with the dissolution of Constituent Assembly (CA)) in May. Though things improved a bit in November, the month posted meager growth of 2.2 percent.
The statistics shows total arrivals from Asia, other than South Asia, grew by 15.1 percent during the year. The number of Chinese tourists posted the highest growth rate of 17.6 percent. More than 53,000 Chinese tourists visited the country in 2012.
The European market saw nominal growth of 4.5 percent compared to last year. Nepal welcomed around 161,000 European tourists in 2012, according to the statistics.
Likewise, tourist arrivals from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and USA grew by 24 percent, 20.3 percent, 7.5 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively.

Source: TAAN


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KATHMANDU, 25 September, 2011
A small plane carrying foreign tourists crashed in a hill south of Kathmandu airport early on Sunday, killing 18 people. The accident site lies between Lamatar and Bisankhunarayan VDCs in Lalitpur, around 15 kilometers south of the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Eighteen dead bodies have been recovered from the site, according to SP Bhog Bahadur Thapa, who is overseeing rescue operations.

In all, there were 19 people—mostly foreigners including ten Indians—onboard the Buddha Air beechcraft. The ill-fated aircraft was approaching Kathmandu airport in cloudy weather after completing its mountain flight.

Some locals said the plane caught fire shortly before the crash. While others said it flew lower than its usual course before it crashed.

Buddha Air has suspended all its scheduled flights for Sunday following the accident. It is the first crash involving a Buddha Air plane. Police moved rescue team to the site after they got a call from the locals near the crash site around 8 a.m.

Source: ekantipur.com


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