Chinese travel blogger angers netizens by taking visitors to ancient landform

Photo: Snapshot of Chinese tourism blogger's vlog clip

 
A Chinese tourism blogger sparked anger among netizens on Thursday for taking a foreign visitor and a Chinese photographer to walk on a Danxia landform, a unique type of petrographic geomorphology found in Jingbian county, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, when filming his travel vlog. Entry to the landform is forbidden.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" />

According to his vlog clip on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo, the blogger and the Ukrainian female visitor entered the Danxia landform scenic spot even though they saw a sign saying "No Entry" in Chinese.

Many Chinese netizens criticized the blogger's behavior and called for him to be punished.

The local police station said on Thursday that the blogger came to film in April and the scenic spot at that time was under development and had not yet either opened or allowed entry.

The police said three people involved have been criticized and educated, adding that they have made a public apology online. They left the police station on Wednesday evening, according to a report by Shaanxi-based Huashang News.

Photo: Xinhua

 The blogger made two apologies on his Weibo account, which has 1.47 million followers, on Tuesday and Wednesday, saying that as a public celebrity he should not set such a bad example. He also said he had no intention to damage the landscape.

After an investigation by the local authorities, it was decided that the visit had not caused damage to the scenic spot since the local geology is hard, according to his post on Wednesday.

The Danxia landform was formed after hundreds of millions of years of natural erosion by running water, and any damage to it takes a long time to repair. The Danxia landform in Jingbian county, Shaanxi Province is one of the most well-preserved Danxia landforms in China.