Sichuan Earthquake tours opening up next month

Disaster tourism is nothing new, but we still cringe a little hearing news that some of the ruins left by last year's Sichuan earthquake will be opening up to visitors later this month.

Local officials created the tour in response to demand from people wanting to see the May 12 sites. Over 200,000 Chinese visited the area during the Spring Festival.

Things to do if you go there:

• Go boating and drink tea on the shore of the Tangjiashan quake lake, a new body of water created by quake-triggered flooding and landslides
• Head into a museum featuring an earthquake simulation
• A one-day tour around the area, including a visit to Beichuan High School, where hundreds of students were buried under the collapsed buildings.

Wow. We get that this is a prime opportunity to show the majority of rubber neckers what they want to see in the catastrophe-stricken area. But with many still suffering, relief money still unaccounted for and questions swirling over what caused the quake in the first place, isn't the whole incident still too raw to allow in the little patterings of tourist feet?