Jiuzhaigou to reopen after 2017 quake

Jiuzhaigou, a scenic area in Sichuan province on the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list, will reopen on Friday after having fixed damage caused by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2017.

Tickets will only be sold online, and there is no ticket office at the entrance, according to the area's administrative bureau.

Up to 5,000 tickets will be sold each day. A ticket is priced at 169 yuan ($24) during the peak season from April 1 to Nov 15, and 80 yuan for the off season from Nov 16 to March 31, it said.

Jiuzhaigou, literally "nine-settlement valley", is named for nine Tibetan settlements in the mountain valley on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Visitors are drawn by its 108 transparent Alpine lakes, as well as Tibetan and Qiang culture.

Twenty-five people died in the quake on Aug 8, 2017, and 493 others were injured, according to data from the provincial government. Jiuzhaigou's scenic wonders also fell victim to the disaster.

Two days after the temblor, the Nuorilang Waterfalls collapsed. Nuorilang, which stood 24.5 meters tall, was China's widest waterfall at 270 m and had been chosen by netizens as one of the country's most spectacular sights.

After two years of reconstruction, 85 percent of the scenic areas of Jiuzhaigou can be reopened. The areas to be opened on Friday include the rebuilt Nuorilang, the bureau said.

Separately, seven panda cubs born in the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in 2019 made their debut on Tuesday.

It is a tradition of the base to show off its newborn cubs right before the National Day holiday, which generally runs from Oct 1 to 7 each year, and allow visitors to see the cubs until the holiday is over.

Unlike previous years, 2019 has witnessed the birth of the world's heaviest panda pigeon pair and the world's lightest panda, which visitors can see during the holiday.

Female cub Cheng Lang weighed only 42.8 grams when it was born on June 11, the weight of an average chicken egg.

Panda cubs usually weigh around 150 grams, according to the base's chief, Zhang Zhihe.

As it is demanding to raise particularly light cubs, the base established a panel of experts proficient in nursing cubs to attend to Cheng Lang.

She is healthy and now weighs more than 5 kilograms, Zhang said.