Travel & Holidays

Avalanches Leave 1,000 Tourists Stranded in a Remote China Village

By - 16 Jan 2024 04:11 PM

Following avalanches in China's northwest Xinjiang region, about 1,000 tourists are still stuck in a secluded vacation village. Evacuation is complicated by unstable weather and meters-high snow, according to a state TV report on Tuesday.

For a number of days, avalanches have blocked road access to Hemu village, a picturesque location close to the borders of Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia, where the tourists were stranded. The village is in the Altay Prefecture of Xinjiang, where there has been constant snowfall for the past ten days in some places, according to the report.

Chinese state media outlets reported over the weekend that the heavy snowfall caused dozens of avalanches along long stretches of highways in the Altay mountains leading to the Kanas scenic area. Some tourists were rescued by helicopter.According to CCTV, the snowfall caused by the avalanches was as high as seven meters in certain areas and higher than snow removal machinery in many others.

The 50-kilometer (31-mile) section of buried road is being cleared, and work began a week ago.