Hotel and restaurant owners told the newspaper that there were nearly 2,000 establishments restaurants and hotels close to the lake, but only about 10 per cent had obtained the necessary permits because the government suspended approvals last year.

They estimated that about 1,000 hotels and restaurants will have to shut down because of the requirements, but those located close to the ancient town of Dali were exempt.


Most hotel owners supported the move, saying that a clean lake was essential for their business. One hotel owner, who sold his home in Tianjin to open a business in Dali, said he would have to shut the hotel five months after opening, but did not seem to mind. “I can take the loss for the protection of Erhai Lake. It’s not a big deal. I can do something else,” he told the newspaper.

Men sit outside the a hotel that has already closed in Dali. Photo: handout

But others face huge losses. An owner from Guangdong province said he and several friends invested 7 million yuan (HK$7.9 million) to build a hotel with a lake view, but would have to shut down even before it opened for business. Meanwhile, he will still have to pay rent and a cleaner to maintain the hotel.

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The owner said it had grown increasingly expensive to open a hotel along the lake, from 2 to 3 million yuan a few years ago to 7 million yuan last year and more than 10 million yuan this year.

It would take three to five years to recover the cost of a hotel, and suspending business for a year would cost the owners about 500,000 yuan.

The Dali Hotel Association, a non-government body with more than 1,000 members, complained that the government did not hold a comprehensive consultation in advance.