Homeless Lack Winter Clothing After Fire in Tibetan Town

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/homeless-01132014143008.html



Houses damaged by a fire which flattened two thirds of Gyalthang's old town centre in the popular Chinese tourist area of Shangri-La, Jan. 12, 2014.

Homeless Lack Winter Clothing After Fire in Tibetan Town
2014-01-13

Residents of an ancient Tibetan town whose cobbled winding streets and traditional wooden houses have become a favorite with tourists say they have been left in freezing temperatures without relief supplies after a fire that raged for 10 hours left more than 2,500 people homeless.

The fire ripped through the 1,300-year-old Tibetan village of Gyalthang, an area of China's Yunnan province believed to be the inspiration for James Hilton's mythical Shangri-La, on Saturday, destroying around two thirds of the town center, official Chinese media reported.

Just over 240 houses were burned down in the fire in Gyalthang (in Chinese, Shangri-la) county in the Dechen (Diqing) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Dozens more were demolished by firefighters in a bid to contain the blaze, which broke out at around 1.30 a.m.