China's Kunming to set up Indian vegetarian restaurants

Civic agencies in China's Kunming city are planning to set up more Indian vegetarian restaurants in a bid to market the region adequately for Indian tourists, an official said.

Two leading tourism agencies from Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, Wednesday inked a deal here with the Centre for Promotion of India-China Cooperation that will result in better tourism and cultural linkages between the regions, particularly West Bengal, which is just a two-hour flight from Kunming.

According to Li Jin Die of the Kunming Municipal Tourism Development Commission, the USP of Kunming is that its weather remains pleasant all the year round.

Die, a marketing development officer, said the department was keen to advertise the Stone Forest, a UNESCO world heritage site.

"However, the problem is we do not have many Indian restaurants. We have only three or four Indian eating places and they do not serve proper vegetarian meals. There are 20 to 30 Chinese eateries. To serve more Indian tourists, we will set up proper Indian vegetarian restaurants as part of the follow-up to the MoU," Die told IANS here Wednesday.

Die said the department is trying to peg Kunming as a weekend getaway. Nestled between aromatic cherry, peach blossoms gardens, picturesque wetlands and gigantic but alluring rocky structures, China's Kunming is also known as the 'City Of Eternal Spring'.