The city of Dali, Yunnan province, is considering special tourist fees to help protect and maintain its ancient towns, Yunnan Daily reported.

Liang Zhimin, the Party chief of Dali prefecture, said the protection and maintenance funds from the government are not enough to cover annual protection and maintenance of the ancient towns in Dali.

"Collecting fees from tourists will help build and upgrade Dali to a new, high-end tourist city in the future," Liang said.

There was no timetable given for when fees would be collected.

Dali, one of the major tourist destinations in Yunnan, has many ancient towns and villages with a large number of old wooden frame houses.

However, the city lacks the funds to protect and maintain the ancient architecture or even upgrade its fire protection facilities, Liang said.

Dali proposed collecting maintenance fees of 30 yuan ($5) from each tourist in 2009.

Such fees were never put in place because of objections from locals and tourist agencies, which feared a noticeable reduction in tourist numbers.