A north China nature reserve is losing 3 million yuan (US$375,000) a year because it is pressured into providing free admission to 30,000 friends and family members of local officials, said a source with the reserve.

"Many local cadres either demand tickets without paying for them or ask the nature reserve to let their friends in for free," said Ma Yupo, head of the Wulingshan State Nature Reserve in north China's Hebei Province.

The nature reserve is a scenic spot located at border areas between Miyun County of Beijing and Xinglong and Chengde counties of Hebei Province. It attracts about 120,000 tourists a year.

Ma called the free admission to cadres "relationship tickets." The term "relationship", or guanxi in Chinese, usually means the building of personal connections so others will reciprocate with financial favors in return.

Each ticket is priced at 91 yuan (US$11.3), said Ma. The "relationship tickets" account for a quarter of the total number of tickets of the nature reserve issues each year.

Some local cadres from environmental protection, tourism or fire fighting departments come to the nature reserve under the pretext they are working and demand free admission, Ma said.

The nature reserve has established some regulations to restrict free admission but received little results as the reserve has to deal with its own "relationships" with local cadres, he said.

Citing an example, Ma said, the reserve once denied free admission to a worker from a local electricity company and he cut the reserve's power out of revenge.

Freeloading tourists have become a heavy financial burden for many scenic spots in China, said sources with other scenic spots.

Ma equates the practice with corruption while local government officials think free admission to scenic spots is a perk that comes with the job, said Ma.

"Free tourism is a problem for management of scenic spots, which are usually supervised by a number of local government departments," said Xu Xianglin, an associate professor of public administration with Beijing University.

"Stricter regulations are needed to clarify the relationship between scenic spots and their supervisors," said Xu.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2006)