A ten-hour inferno has destroyed the ancient Tibetan town which, according to the Chinese government, was the earthly incarnation of the lost paradise of Shangri-la.
The blaze, which began in the early hours of Saturday morning, swept through the narrow alleys of Duzekong, a 1,300-year-old village high up in the mountains of Tibet which was once a stop on the southern Silk Road.
Thousands of firefighters, soldiers and police were mobilised to fight the blaze, but were unable to save hundreds of the traditional wooden buildings that helped create a boom in tourism since 2001, when China officially renamed Duzekong - and the modern Chinese town that has sprung up around it - as Shangri-la.
“The fire was huge, the wind was blowing hard and the air was dry,” said He Yu, one of the town’s 3,000 or so residents, to the Associated Press. “It kept burning and the firefighters were there but there was little they could do because they could not get their fire engines into the narrow streets.”
Investigators said the fire began at the Ruyi Inn, and that it was unlikely to be arson. One tourist who visited in 2012 said that electrical wires in the old town were a chaotic tangle and that a shop had caught fire during her visit, causing a mini-blackout.
Source Credit: The Telegraph
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