Tourists are still visiting an endangered glacier despite a ban imposed last year aimed at halting the shrinking of Glacier No. 1 in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to a report in yesterday's Urban Consumption Morning Post.

Glacier No. 1 in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is shrinking. [File photo/China.org.cn]

The regional government marked out a protection zone covering 948 square kilometers in the Tianshan Mountains on April 23 last year in a bid to reduce the impact of human activities on the glacier.

Travel agencies canceled glacier tours, but that didn’t stop the tourists coming and a group of herdsmen saw an opportunity to supplement their incomes, the newspaper said.

"On average, we accept at least 20 to 30 vehicles of people every day, which can bring up to 3,000 yuan (US$483)," one herdsman said, adding that they also sold medicinal herbs.

According to Xinhua news agency, the 4.8-million-year-old glacier has shrunk from 1.95 square kilometers in 1962 to 1.62 square kilometers in 2014 and is retreating by up to eight meters a year.

Li Weidong, vice secretary general of the Xinjiang Ecological Society, said tourism was also threatening the existence of Ili pika, an endangered mammal.

Melting glaciers were driving the animal to live at higher altitudes and over-digging of herbs had deprived them of food, Xinhua said.