The transformation of Shangri-la, this once remote community into a (47) is part of a new phase of China’s economic expansion. It is taking the modernization drive into some of the most remote places on earth, reducing (48) but mining the environment. Shangri-la was once named as Zhongdian, a county in the north-west Yunnan Province. In 2001, Zhongdian county was renamed as Xiang-ge-ri-la. In the year before the name-change, Shangri-la received 20,000 visitors. Last year, the number (49) to 2.6 million. Formerly unreachable except by a mountain road, the town can now be reached by flights to the new Zhongdian airport, which is being expanded in the (50) of a tripling of visitors over the next 15 years. This is putting (51) pressure on the environment. Tour buses now speed through the grasslands. Cable cars have been built on the hillsides and new hotels are under (52) . According to the Shangri-la government, (53) have risen six times in the past 10 years. But they (54) that the 60 % annual increase in tourist numbers is putting huge pressure on the fragile environment. "Ideally, a growth rate of about 10% a year would be easier to manage, but our (55) is to promote economic development and to boost the incomes of local people," said A Wa, the head of the Shangri-la tourism bureau. "So we must try to reduce the (56) on the environment."