China's trendy trekkers on new long
march By David Fullbrook
CHENGDU - Young, urban Chinese are shunning
tours, shouldering instead a backpack, clutching a train
ticket and heading into China's diverse hinterlands,
seeking adventure, varied cultures and other traditions
away from confining concrete jungles. The emergence of
Chinese backpackers is a symptom of China's rapid change
that carries significant implications for tourism within
China and beyond, especially in Southeast Asia.
Traveling independently, by bus, train, car,
four-wheel-drive vehicle and then on foot, most are
escaping the frenetic eastern boomtowns, for a few weeks
or more. Others hail from the richer provincial cities
such as Chengdu and Kunming, heading off for weekends in
nearby mountains.
"Young people, especially in
the very big cities, have the money to go backpacking,"
says Xia Chun Peng, 23, a Beijing-based entrepreneur
seeking to cash in on backpacking in China. "More and
more Chinese are backpacking. Many of my friends realize
it's a good way to relax, it's a growing trend."
For many their first trip is just the beginning.
"Most of them have just started, but already they're
thinking about their next trips," says Sim Kwan Wah, a
40-ish Singaporean, backpacking since 1983. He runs
Sim's Cozy Guest House in Chengdu, Sichuan province,
with his Japanese wife whom he met on the road in Lhasa,
Tibet.
Relative to China's 800 million or 900
million rural inhabitants living on a few dollars a day,
if that, backpackers are relatively comfortable. Their
diverse backgrounds resemble those of their European
counterparts, with few considered rich in their cities.
They share little in common with one another, save being
from the 1980s "little emperor" generation of spoiled
children from enforced one-child families; they have
time, often thanks to flexible jobs, and a desire to see
and experience what counts, for them, as unusual.
"Most of the backpackers in China are
self-employed," says Zhang Jie, 28, a Beijing resident
and Chinese-literature graduate who works overtime in
her telecommunications-service consulting job to earn
days off for travel. After 20 days traveling to Lhasa,
her most amazing experience, via Lanzhou and Golmud, she
awaits a train for Beijing in Chengdu.
Freedom is what they seek Whether
hopping on and off buses and trains, or exploring back
roads with a car or four-wheel-drive, freedom is what
trumps busy packaged tours. "So many people are starting
to go backpacking - they feel it's more free," says
Zhang, who often travels alone since her first trip with
friends six years ago. "Of course it's cheaper, but more
importantly it's flexible and free-spirited."
Shanghainese Xu Jing, 23, a job-hunting tourism
graduate, agrees and notes there is perhaps a natural
desire for the coddled "little emperors" to strike out
on their own. "It is definitely becoming more popular
because people get freedom and it's flexible. We also
learn how to be independent."
China's economy,
catching up on 30 years of stagnation under communist
economic policies, has lifted some cities' development
to that of eastern or southern Europe. Thus Chinese
hinterland travel, where living costs compare to those
of Indonesia or Thailand, is affordable to city dwellers
seeking fresh air and thrills.
"One thing is the
fast-developing economy, second the desire to escape the
big city for a while, and third fashion. But I don't
think it's a thing that will be 'in' just for a few
years. I think it will keep going up and up," says Sim,
who runs the Chengdu guesthouse. For six years he
traveled around villages in central China, buying
ingredients for Chinese medicine after quitting his job
in Singapore as a disk-drive production supervisor.
Sim is convinced a backpacking boom is imminent.
"This will become really big in three years, certainly
not more than five," says Sim. "It will undoubtedly
change the nature and experience of travel."
Such prospects are leading him to consider
establishing an inn in Southeast Asia catering to
Chinese backpackers. "I'm even thinking of having a
guesthouse in Thailand. Chinese tourists first take
tours to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. With
backpackers it will be the same. Why? Cheapest and
nearest."
With passenger ferries plying the
Mekong River between Jinghong in China's Yunnan and
Thailand's Chiang Rai, the door is open. Yunnan's
capital, Kunming, is a two-day train trip from Beijing
or Shanghai.
'No one will control
me' Xu, the tourism graduate from Shanghai, is
pointing the way, already traveling independently to
Singapore, Thailand and Germany. Next she plans a few
weeks in London in October. She has never been on a
package tour. "Independent travel is better than a tour
because it's more flexible. I can go anywhere I want to
and stay as long as I wish, and nobody will control me,"
she says.
For now though, most Chinese
backpackers are sticking to the mountains, deserts and
plateaus of central and western China, including Tibet
and Xinjiang, rich in picture-postcard villages and
towns passed over by modernization. "These areas retain
their original atmosphere and culture," says Zhang.
"Young people like to go to west China because
it is very mysterious and there are so many minority
people," says Xia.
Zhang, like Xia and Xu - all
of the majority Han Chinese - feels she returns to
Beijing with a deeper understanding of China's
minorities. She rates Lhasa the most amazing experience
so far. She and Xia also feel that backpacking is more
sustainable, placing less pressure on the environment,
the cultures and the lifestyles of other peoples.
Sim is not alone in betting on an emergent
backpacking boom. Xia, a trade graduate, quit his
import-export job to set up an inn in Beijing. He spent
a few weeks picking Sim's brain. "I plan to open a place
in Beijing because I know the city and my girlfriend has
a traditional courtyard house, which foreigners like
very much," Xia says. "Dreaming is one thing, but to run
a guesthouse is not so easy - you really have to put
your heart into it."
He estimates that opening
the courtyard guesthouse will require an investment of
at least 800,000 yuan ($96,650), which he is raising
from his savings and borrowing from family and friends.
"My friends believe this business has a big future in
China," says Xia.
Sim is expanding, despite just
opening his first inn in one of Chengdu's few remaining
old buildings last March. "My plan is not more than five
guesthouses in China. I'm not a true businessman - I
just want to earn enough to take care of my family, be
comfortable and have time to spend with guests," says
Sim.
Such guesthouse chains are becoming big
business in Thailand. China appears set to follow.
"There are not any big Chinese guesthouse groups, yet.
However, one big tour agency will open its second
guesthouse in Chengdu soon," says Sim.
Many
shops sell camping and trekking gear Internet
bookings and travel websites already play a big part in
the business. Chinese travelers prefer to book ahead.
Shops selling camping and traveling equipment now dot
such cities as Chengdu and Shanghai, signs of
backpacking's growing economic impact.
Zhang
estimates she has spent $500 on gear, much of it costing
as much as, if not more than, in the West, despite being
made in China. China has about 350 million young people,
and perhaps 50 million of them, like Zhang, can afford
independent travel.
Magazines about travel,
nature and the environment are mushrooming; they include
translations of popular foreign titles such as National
Geographic, and they fuel interest among urban Chinese
in the world around them. They also see how the the vast
majority of rural Chinese live, often suffering, largely
bypassed by China's breakneck economic growth focused in
urban areas.
Even the government is realizing
that things cannot go on as they are. A cascade of dams
planned for Yunnan's pristine Nu River was canceled this
year, apparently in no small part due to campaigning by
Chinese environmentalists. Pan Yue, the deputy director
of China's State Environmental Protection Agency, is a
well-known intellectual and environmentalist, regularly
calling for stronger environmental protection laws and
bigger budgets to protect nature, in his media
interviews.
China is leading the way in
developing a green gross domestic product (GDP), with
pilot projects now expanding to the provincial level, a
prelude to nationwide application. Officials failing to
protect the environment, reduce pollution and safeguard
historical sites will likely see their promotion
prospects blunted within a few years.
Backpackers, through their travels, are acutely
aware of the need to save China's environment and they
fuel the environmental protection campaigns. "Of course
we must keep things exactly as they are. If we make an
effort maybe the destruction can be minimized," says
Zhang. She points to the rubbish strewn across Anhui's
Yellow Mountain as an example of the negative
consequences of tourism.
Preservation and
protection are not simple, though. "Is it a good thing
for local people, who want to develop, who want higher
incomes? Who benefits? Can people afford to wait?
Striking a balance is very hard," says Xia.
Governments in western and central China take
their development cues from eastern China, Xia says,
whereas they should look at other places, such as
Europe, where medieval buildings and towns are often
well preserved.
While balance is often
strikingly absent from much of Southeast Asia's tourism,
China still has time to build a broader, deeper tourism
that avoids concentrating tourists on just a few spots,
instead luring them out into other equally delightful
areas, as happens in Europe.
"Already Chinese
tour groups swamp places in Malaysia, Singapore,
Thailand and Hong Kong. They swarm like ants and often,
but not all, behave rudely, leaving a bad impression.
Chinese backpackers are not so bad, but compared to
other nationalities, they could be better," says
innkeeper Sim.
Backpacking distributes tourists'
spending around poor rural areas, helping reduce the
migration to cities that is hollowing out rural
communities, while stoking pride in traditional
buildings and ways.
Independent tourism, whether
backpacking or road trips, thus has a significant role
to play in raising incomes in dirt-poor rural backwaters
while helping preserve communities, culture and
traditional buildings. But concerns persist that legions
of Chinese tourists, backpackers and foreign visitors,
may still prove too much, overwhelm some areas and spoil
their character.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
