4. Plan and manage the the Zagunao River Watershed as an integrated whole, and design it as a complete ecological tourist corridor, not as a collection of dispersed individual points. In order to avoid the channelization of the river, roadways should be limited in width; drawing on the experience of planning in Jiuzhaigou, restrict and reduce private motor vehicle traffic and use public transport to link up each attraction.

5. Consider establishing a regional management entity that would take current inter-village kinship-based relations as a model to ensure all residents obtain benefit from development and actively participate in it.

The county officials’ response to the studio’s principles and scenarios was non-committal, but instructive. The BE Lab group’s proposals conflicted with county-level interests in spending large sums of disaster (and economic) recovery funds as quickly as possible, primarily on infrastructure construction throughout the Zagunao valley. The County Party Secretary conceded that construction at this scale would have environmental impacts, but believed that these would be temporary. The model of economic development he envisioned for Taoping included “five-star international conference facilities”.