According to Watching Eastern Weekly’s report, the international renowned Li River that extends from Guilin to Yangshuo, which is approximately 85 kilometers long, can only be toured for a stretch of ten kilometers, which is causing jitters in the tourist industry.

The report said that Li River’s flow stoppage is not just a natural disaster, but is considered a man-made problem and is blamed on the decrease in forest areas; increase is the production of forest machinery and exploitation of land by tourists, especially in the coastline areas.

According to the statistics by the Forest Department in China, Maoer Mountain, the highest of Lijiang, has seen a serious deforestation of the area from the last 50 years. In 1958, the fountain forest area had more than 40,000 hectare but by 1980, it decreased to 17,700 hectare. It recouped some losses and is currently at 30,800 hectare, but with still a decrease of 25% since 1958.

Recently along the Coast of Li River, farm tourist restaurants have popped up adding to the thousands of tourist sites in the area. Large numbers of people gather at these sites getting drinking water and, at the same time, pollute the water with garbage.

A merchant, Tang, who sells film at a dock along the river said that from Nov. 6, 2003, the tour route along Li River changed docks from the Mopan dock to the Yang dock. Luxury yachts and traveling buses stop close to the banks of the Li River casing severe erosion of the sandbank.
According to a 2003 report from Hydrology Station, Guilin has been plagued with high temperatures and lack of rainfall for more than 50 years; it was reported that there was 79.6% decrease in rainfall from last year.

According to Huang Shen’an, of Guilin City Hydrology Station, Li River’s water level decreased to 140.35 meters with flow volume maintained at around 11 seconds, which is well below average compared to the 1950s. On Jan. 9th, 2004, Li River’s water level decreased to 140.45 meters with a flow volume of only 8.5 seconds.

Hydrology experts agree that Li River’s water levels are a clear indication that the flow of the water is problematic to the vitality of the river.