Experience China Differently…
In honor of Labor Day, WildChina’s US office will be closed on Monday, September 6. We wish our friends, family and travelers a happy holiday.
Source: www.stanford.edu
WildChina’s Beijing office will be open at this time. For inquiries, please send an email to info[at]wildchina[dot]com or visit our website.
Exclusive access to USA Pavilion content plus an interactive tour all in the palm of your hand. Sound appealing?
It’s here! We’re excited to announce that we have partnered with the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo to offer users of the iPhone and iPod Touch our Expo Guide Shanghai application, which features exclusive USA Pavilion content that you can’t find anywhere else.
Through the mobile Expo Guide Shanghai application, users can listen to facts about the pavilion, view a video sneak peek of the venue and submit their favorite USA Pavilion photos to the official USA photo contest.
The application uses colorful 3D graphics and GPS navigation to guide visitors through a three-day, customizable tour of the entire Expo site. Navigation features enable visitors to locate themselves on an interactive map, look up bus routes and even call a cab from inside the Expo grounds.
Want to see more? The Expo Guide Shanghai is available for download for US$1.99 from the iTunes store. You can also find more details on our WildChina Touch page.
Is China becoming a ‘Fast Food Nation’?
Just two decades ago, most people in China ate relatively low-fat meals and regularly rode their bicycles to get around. Obesity was extremely rare.
Fast forward to today: more and more people eat greasy street food or fast food such as KFC and McDonald’s and fewer have the time or energy to get some exercise. The result: China now has 19 million clinically obese citizens, with that number growing by 30 to 50 percent each year, according to a recent PBS report (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/06/reporters-notebook-obesity-rising-in-china.html).
Photo: Xinhua / Sadat
A group of food-conscious individuals is hoping to promote the idea of healthier eating habits this weekend in Beijing, with Slow Food Saturday at The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu.
“Slow Food is about the heritage of food, about its tradition and culture, and about connecting with friends over delicious tastes. The Slow Food movement advocates preserving cultural cuisine, and in doing so preserving local foods, farming and ways of life. Slow Food is the antithesis to large-scale commercial food production and today’s fast-food culture. Slow Food brings back the joy in eating, and encourages us to connect over food.”
The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu, one of our preferred hotels in Beijing and a winner of our Best of China Awards 2010, has been a local pioneer in championing Slow Food for its clients and local community residents. As a sustainable tourism enterprise that offers dining, lodging, and meeting solutions in unique settings just an hour from downtown Beijing, the boutique hotel has redeployed existing buildings to new uses, created local jobs, supported other local businesses, grown their own vegetables and fruits while procuring other foods locally and made almost everything fresh and homemade on their premises.
This Saturday, September 4, in conjunction with the Slow Food Beijing Convivium, The Schoolhouse will put on a day of food, cooking, biking and more in the neighboring Great Wall International Cultural Villages of Mutianyu, Beigou, Xinying, and Tianxianyu to celebrate cooking, sustainable practices, and local communities. For a full schedule and activities, visit their website (http://www.slowfoodsaturday.org).
Event details:
Slow Food Saturday
Saturday, September 4th, 2010 from 10:30 am onward
Mutianyu, Beigou, Xinying, and Tianxianyu Villages
Starting from The Roadhouse (restaurant at The Schoolhouse), just north of the Mutianyu roundabout
For more information, contact info[at]slowfoodsaturday[dot]org.
If you’ve been thinking about an autumn getaway in China, now is the time to make plans for an unforgettable trip. Not too hot and not too cold, fall provides ideal weather conditions to see almost every part of the country. We’ve compiled a shortlist of our favorite fall spots in which to enjoy the lesser-known travel gems that China has to offer.
Our first pick is Xinjiang Autonomous Region, a perennial favorite known for its diverse landscapes and rich Uighur culture, which is closer to Turkic culture than Han Chinese culture. Xinjiang is home to a diverse array of lakes, mountains and deserts offering incredible sights, sounds, and a comfortable climate to boot.
No trip to Xinjiang is complete without sampling the region’s remarkable cuisine, which features rich stews, tasty breads and a mind-boggling variety of noodles from flat and wide to easily spoonable diced noodles if you’re still working on your chopstick skills.
Mutton is the meat of choice in Xinjiang, where it is generally barbecued or stewed. ‘Big plate chicken’ is one dish not to be missed – it is a mountain of tender chunks of chicken with potatoes, peppers and garlic cloves in a fragrant curry-like sauce, all served on – you guessed it – a very large plate. There are also plenty of delicious vegetarian options not found in Chinese cuisine – our favorite is the spicy Tiger Salad, which is typically made with fresh slices of tomato, bell pepper, purple onion and cucumber, all in a spicy vinegar sauce with sprigs of coriander. Wash it all down with the non-caffeinated tea drunk by the Uighurs, a local beer or a delicious glass of fresh cherry or pomegranate juice.
Most people living in Xinjiang follow a very moderate strain of Islam and are very open to visitors from afar. Their physical appearance is also quite different from what you might be expecting – don’t be surprised to meet locals with blonde hair and blue eyes. At the crossroads of Asia and Europe, Xinjiang never fails to provide a bit of the unexpected.
In early autumn, Xinjiang’s sky is deep blue and the cooler breezes blow the scorching summer away. Kashgar itself has a desert climate with long periods of sunshine and little rainfall. It also has sunshine much later into the day than the rest of China, a result of the entire country running on Beijing time. Although you haven’t left the country, a trip to Xinjiang can often make the rest of the country feel very far away.
Destinations
Very hot in the summer and bone-chilling cold in the winter, Xinjiang is at its most pleasant in the autumn. During the fall months, we suggest that you venture to the Taklamakan Desert for an overnight outdoor adventure. Don’t forget Xinjiang’s current must-visit destination – Kashgar’s historic old town, which was once a vibrant outpost on the Silk Road. Sadly, 85 percent of the old town is slated for demolition, so if you’ve ever considered visiting this storied Central Asian trading town, this may be your last chance.
Activities
While soaking in the rhythmic and passion-filled music of the Uighurs, enjoy the immense vastness of the Taklamakan at dusk and watch the clear sky gradually fill with stars. For the complete experience, ride a camel there and back. In Kashgar’s old town, be sure to visit Id Kah Mosque, Abakh Khoja Mausoleum and the city’s old handicrafts street, as well as the Sunday livestock market and bazaar.
After the failure of last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to deliver a legally binding global agreement on carbon emissions, the world’s countries have been left to come up with their own plans to reduce carbon emissions as much as they want (or don’t want).
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which creates the economic and social policies guiding China’s rapid development, recently announced the launch of an experimental low-carbon program aimed at five provinces and eight cities.
The provinces – Shaanxi, Yunnan, Guangdong, Liaoning and Hubei – and cities – Chongqing, Hangzhou, Guiyang, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Nanchang and Baoding – will research and develop their own low-carbon plans with an emphasis on moving toward lower-carbon industry. The plan will reportedly also focus on promoting low-carbon consumption.
It’s encouraging to see real attention being paid to reducing carbon emissions, but it is impossible to tell at this point what impact this program may have on China’s greenhouse gas emissions.
While China – and the rest of the world – figures out how to deal with its carbon issues, WildChina already offers a way for clients to offset their carbon footprint via our partnership with Climate Action. To learn more about how to make your travel in China more sustainable by funding clean energy, please visit our introduction to carbon footprint offsets.
Image: Responsible Investor
Throughout WildChina’s years of pioneering sustainable off-the-beaten path travel in China, we have been impressed and encouraged by our encounters with visionary individuals who are trying to push the boundaries of traveling in China, creating unique boutique hotels integrated into local communities in the most remote and beautiful regions.
They care passionately about revealing the depth and breadth of natural and cultural beauties to their visitors in a way that is respectful of local traditions, and thus inevitably find themselves spending a lot of time acting personally as travel guides for their guests, and/or dealing with the minutiae of logistics planning in regions where travel infrastructure is patchy or non-existent.
Over time, many of these individuals began to feel that the original impetus which propelled them into the travel industry – whether it was creating eco-lodges from sustainable materials, transforming and restoring ancient landmarks into museum-hotels or creating opportunities for local communities – was becoming bogged down in the exhausting details of operations management.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, we heard over and over again, if someone could train trekking guides, bring in anthropologists and historians to act as cultural guides, and take over logistics management? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to create alliances with other like-minded hotels in the region, passing guests along a circuit, thus exponentially expanding their appeal to travelers interested in exploring an entire province? Wouldn’t it be wonderful, they started to ask us, if you at WildChina could address these issues to free us up to pioneer new boutique hotels in the untouched hinterlands?
The WildChina Collection is the result.
The WildChina Collection is a unique alliance of boutique hotels in the most beautiful, un-spoilt and remote regions of China. Passionately committed to heritage conservation and ecological and sustainable lifestyles, our independent partners are not just hoteliers but enablers of a truly immersive experience in their local environs. The Collection is designed to allow our guests to share in this passion and the unique experiences it offers.
Curious? Learn more by browsing the WildChina Collection hotels and circuits on our website. For more information, send us an email at collection[at]wildchina[dot]com.
As another summer draws to a close, we find our mind drifting to one of our favorite places to enjoy fall scenery in China – Shangri-La and the surrounding Tibetan areas. Although it is doubtful that it is actually the place James Hilton described in his novel Lost Horizon, Shangri-La taps into many of the themes that have enchanted readers of the book since it was first published in 1933.
Every autumn, we are drawn to this corner of Yunnan near the Tibetan border, where the Songzanlin Monastery looks down upon a valley where yaks graze in meadows crisscrossed with crystal-clear streams and the leaves of the trees in surrounding hills are ablaze with color.
Songzanlin is only the beginning of what this area has to offer. Towering snowcapped mountains, the headwaters of the Mekong River, alpine forests and massive glaciers combine to make this one of the most breathtaking areas in one of China’s most scenic provinces. Bringing it all together is the otherworldly holy mountain known to Han Chinese as Meili Snow Mountain and Tibetans as Mt. Kawagebo.
Just as with Hilton’s Shangri-La, this sacred geography is removed from the trappings of modern life, with time moving at its own pace. The days are characterized by warm sunshine and cool breezes while the nights are crisp and intoxicating.
Regardless of which of our journeys we’re on, this corner of the “roof of the world” never fails to invigorate and rejuvenate.
Brian Linden interacting with local children in Xizhou
Sometimes the most unlikely partnerships can lead to fantastic results. Such is the story of the Linden Centre, a one-of-a-kind boutique hotel set in the small town of Xizhou, about 20 miles north of Dali in southwest China’s Yunnan province.
The Linden Centre itself is a meticulously restored traditional Bai courtyard home dating back to another era, but it is the cooperation between a visionary American couple and the local government that is the foundation for the Centre’s success – it has already been named one of the top boutique hotels in China by publications around the country. With full support from the Xizhou government and protected status on par with the Great Wall, the Linden Centre is the brainchild of Brian and Jeanee Linden, who had previously been coming to China to find unique crafts and artwork for their gallery in Door County, Wisconsin.
Brian Linden is a true ‘old China hand’ – he first came here in 1984 to study Chinese and later worked as a cameraman and translator for CBS. He and Jeanee have poured time, effort and money into making the Linden Centre what it is today: an example of how cultural heritage can be preserved while creating a platform for cultural exchange. WildChina spoke with Brian Linden about the Centre’s achievements and its vision for the future:
WildChina: What makes Xizhou a unique travel destination?
Brian Linden: Xizhou is unique because it is a functioning village full of historical complexes. The Xizhou merchants of the 19th and early 20th centuries built over 100 stone and wood courtyard homes, most in the san fang yi zhao bi style [three sides of the courtyard dedicated to living quarters and one side highlighting a work of art]. These structures exist and currently function as homes and local businesses. They have not been gentrified nor sold to outsiders to open t-shirt shops. In this regard, it allows visitors to see a slice of traditional Bai village life – made all the more interesting because of the stunning architectural legacy. Most of our guests stay 4-5 days, and we have yet to have any complaints about Xizhou.
The Linden Centre frequently hosts cultural events and performances
WildChina: What are the goals of the Linden Centre?
Linden: To develop a new travel paradigm that focuses on learning and cultural immersion. This model’s uniqueness is that we are targeting adults, who want an indigenous experience but can also recognize elegance in art and antiques and culinary options. The Centre is completely different from any other hotel in China. We have as many staff as guests usually, and it our staff’s job to help our discerning guests to go beyond the contemporary facades of China.
WildChina: What have the highlights of the Centre’s existence been so far?
Linden: While Jeanee and I did not set out to establish a hotel but rather an intellectual retreat in the Aspen Institute tradition, we are proud to have been selected as the Best Boutique Hotel in China by Sina.com and the most interesting hotel in SW China by Xinzhoukan. We are also the top rated hotel in all of China among over 32,000 other properties on Tripadvisor. We have stories about us in Travel+Leisure, Atlantic Monthly, Food and Wine, dozens of Chinese and Asian magazines and newspapers, and have recently hosted renowned writer Amitav Ghosh who is doing an article about the Centre and region for Condé Nast India.
WildChina: The Centre is obviously a labor of love, what do you find most rewarding about it?
Linden: Because of the CCTV documentaries about us, we have had a constant flow of Chinese visitors from around the country, many of whom have traveled from north and south China to express their support for our efforts. This has been very touching. We also have been moved by our guests’ responses to the local immersions. We consistently have visitors with tears in their eyes when it comes time to leave the Centre. This is a wonderful feeling, especially when we know that we have helped expand our guests’ views of China. Most guests feel like they never truly felt China or knew the non-urban Chinese until they spent time with us. We are hoping that this expanded view will help lead to greater understanding between East and West.
Visitors to the Linden Centre take part in a variety of cultural immersion activities
WildChina: How is Bai architecture different from traditional Han Chinese architecture?
Linden: One of the first things that our guests comment on is the Bai tradition of painting on their homes. Most houses in Xizhou have series of paintings lining their upper walls, just below the roofline. These paintings, which are still being created on new buildings in Xizhou, depict flowers, animals and even city scenes from 1920s Shanghai and England! The pleasant weather in Dali also has allowed the Bai people to truly incorporate the courtyard space into a year-round functioning living area. These courtyards often serve as open air dining areas for the family, homework space for the children, and weaving areas for the women. Time is spent mainly in these open courtyards, thus greatly expanding the living space for the typical Bai family.
WildChina: How does the Linden Centre interact with the local community in Xizhou?
Linden: We offer weekly language interaction classes with local kindergartens and spend Saturday evenings at our village activity center teaching English to the local community. We are working with the local government to help place visiting doctors, teachers and carpenters in village facilities. We plan to establish a program to help rebuild old temples. We also will be developing a museum in Xizhou.
WildChina: What are your plans for the future?
Linden: We have been inundated with requests to expand our sites to other locations. These often come from local governments who feel that we would be a great asset for their communities. We are seriously looking into Weishan and Kunming as future sites. We also hope to develop our second complex in Xizhou, the former town hall, into an artist-in-residence center and a daytime cooking school.
WildChina is pleased to include the Linden Centre in the WildChina Collection – watch this space for more info!
The buzzing metropolis of Chengdu may be most famous for being the capital of Sichuan cuisine, but its identity is not linked to food alone – is also arguably the Chinese city with the most pervasive teahouse culture.
Home to somewhere between four and five thousand teahouses, Chengdu is known throughout China for being a laid-back city where everywhere you go, you’ll find a busy teahouse full of people chatting, talking business or playing majiang (mahjong) – all while sipping on small cups of their favorite cha.
We recently stumbled upon an interview on Chengdu website GoChengdoo with Texas A&M associate professor of history Wang Di, who is researching the role of the teahouse in China during the 20th Century.
The Chengdu native authored the book The Teahouse: Small Business, Everyday Culture and Public Politics in Chengdu, 1900-1950, a look at Chengdu’s teahouse culture in old Chengdu, making several interesting arguments about what led to the popularity of teahouses in Chengdu and its reputation for leisurely locals.
In the early 20th Century, many Chengdu residents lacked access to running water, and water in many of the wells around the city had a bitter alkaline taste, so a stop by the teahouse was important for many people. So important, that being located near a teahouse could push an apartment’s rent up significantly.
In addition to generating plenty of local wealth, the agricultural abundance of Chengdu and the fertile Chengdu Plain also translated to people spending less time in the fields to ensure a good harvest than in other parts of China. No wonder why drinking tea and catching up on the latest news and gossip was the activity of choice for people of all backgrounds in Chengdu.
Whenever we’re passing through Chengdu we always try to squeeze in a visit to open-air teahouse at People’s Park. Undoubtedly the city’s most famous teahouse, it is the perfect place to experience teahouses as they used to be in Chengdu. After a few hot cups of green tea, the tea-fuelled chatter around us fades into the background and we think about how far those little leaves traveled to get there.
Perrin not only describes each selected travel agent, but also provides guidance on how to use the interactive listing on the CNT website, and features sport-and-adventure-themed agent recommendations.
Our favorite feature is her 6 Travel Agent Tips – found exclusively in print – which empower travelers to craft the perfect trip with their specialist. Smart and useful, these hints can be applied anywhere in the world. So, we’re showing you how to use them to create a memorable journey in China.
Perrin says: Define trip goals: “The better you are at articulating your needs, the better the travel specialist can meet them.”
We say: Perrin is right on the mark with this first tip. There are many angles from which to experience China, so it is important to know where your preferences and priorities lie. Ask yourself what kind of trip you want to create. To jumpstart your thinking process, here are a few key words to consider: luxury, adventure, local, modern, traditional, cuisine, monument, history, hands-on, expert.
Perrin says: Get personal: “The more information you share, the more potentially spectacular the results.”
We say: Information = customization, and customization = the trip of a lifetime tailored specifically to you. Do you love birds? Try our Winter Birding trip. Are you a self-professed gourmet? We’ll expose you to China’s many local cuisines and flavors. Can’t live without your morning cup of joe? Maybe a trip to get a taste of Yunnan‘s locally-produced coffee is in order. Travel specialists can use your personal interests and preferences to make the trip all the more special.
Perrin says: Be a collaborator: “The best trips spring from a team effort between you and the specialist.”
We say: The relationship between traveler and specialist is incredibly important, to develop mutual understanding and ultimately, an unforgettable journey. We like frequent email communication and phone conversations to build the rapport. These interactions not only give us facts for trip-planning, but help us to understand how the client thinks and interacts. We adapt to their style so that they can trust us – and from trust springs successful collaboration.
Perrin says: Establish a budget: “State up front how much you want to spend.”
We say: This is particularly important with customized travel. China can be explored at all levels, so it’s important to gauge how specialized and unique you want your trip to be. You might want to visit a remote village in Yunnan, but skip on the private visit with the local shaman. Alternately, maybe it’s important to you to try the very best roast duck in Beijing. Whatever your spending preferences, make them known early.
Perrin says: Expect to pay a fee: “A travel specialist’s fee is either a deposit applied to the cost of the trip… or a markup built into the total cost.”
We say: At WildChina, creating customized trips that are perfectly suited to our clients’ interests and needs is of utmost importance. As such, we do not require a fee for your initial consultation. When a client is ready to confirm the trip, we ask for a deposit.
Perrin says: Guide the guide: “It’s your job to communicate your interest directly to the guide.”
We say: We take guide training very seriously, making sure that our guides’ English level, local knowledge, problem-solving skills and flexibility are all up to snuff. They know to observe and adapt to clients’ needs and wants, but you should also never hesitate to let them know what you want. If you prefer your guide to discuss architecture instead of history, describe personal anecdotes on life in China, or just let you roam in peace, let them know.