At WildChina we take pride in showing people unseen corners of the country, but sometimes we like to visit the places that everyone else goes, places that we typically don’t take clients, just to see what we might be missing.

One recent evening we hopped onto a Chinese cruise boat to head down the Yangtze through the Three Gorges, something we hadn’t done since the flooding of the formerly magnificent gorges a couple years back.

Unfortunately, the trip was as disappointing as we feared it would be.

We boarded in Wanzhou, a few hours down the road from Chongqing, and checked into our first-class cabin, which had two clean beds, a squatty toilet and a nonfunctional shower head.

Our first scenic spot to check out was Zhang Fei Temple, or actually, the new Zhang Fei Temple, as the original was submerged a couple of years ago. It was hard not to sigh when thinking back to what the temple had once looked like, much further down the side of the mountain upon which we were standing.

Back on board, we decided to head up to the top deck and were a bit surprised to be stopped by boat staff asking us to pay 40 yuan for a two-day pass, just for the top deck, which was the only place to sit and enjoy the outdoors. We paid and ascended the stairs, discovering a deck with people, chairs and little else.

After grabbing a high-backed dining chair, we propped our head up and looked at the moon and stars for a very relaxing hour or so before heading downstairs to sleep.

The following day featured a few nice sights, especially the Wu Gorge, but it was hard not to think about how much more spectacular it had been before the Three Gorges Dam had been built.

The second night, our boat was moored for the entire evening, the engine idling noisily, making it difficult to sleep soundly. In fact, we calculated that by the time the trip was over the following afternoon, our boat had been moored about 70 percent of the time.

It was less of a cruise and more of a series of stops where we were being encouraged to buy things. Especially when we got to the Three Gorges Dam, which, despite being an impressive engineering feat, felt a bit like it had been built primarily to sell tour packages and souvenirs.

Why go on a stale trip like this? Partly to keep our finger on the pulse of the development of tourism in China and to check up on what used to be one of our favorite China journeys, but mainly to reinforce why we exist: to offer an alternative to fast-food style tourism on the mainland.

After flying out of rapidly developing but the generally characterless city of Yichang, we were travel-weary, feeling like we had drained our batteries rather than recharge them. This, we realized, was the main difference between most travel in China and WildChina journeys: our trips are aimed at rejuvenating and inspiring, not controlling the client and squeezing every cent possible from their wallet.

2010 has been a busy year for WildChina – and for WildChina founder Mei Zhang, who will be an emcee at the 2010 Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS), which will take place October 4-7 in Aviemore, Scotland.

This year’s summit has attracted higher-than-anticipated early registrations, participants in its business-to-business marketplace, and record numbers of journalists and nations represented, eclipsing marks set at its prior six Summits.

ATWS is hosted by the Seattle-based Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), whose members include tour operators, destination marketing organizations, tourism boards, specialty travel agents, guides, accommodations, media and service providers from around the world.

In addition to her upcoming emcee duties, Zhang also became a member of ATTA’s advisory board earlier this year. Looking forward to the ATWS in Scotland , she said, “It is extremely energizing to know that the adventure travel industry is getting together again to make a difference.”

Mei Zhang has also recently joined the Board of Directors of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), an international partnership dedicated to promoting sustainable tourism practices around the world.

Founded in partnership by the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the UN Foundation, Rainforest Alliance, Sabre/Travelocity and others, the GSTC is open to any member of the travel and tourism industries.

“We are pleased that Mei Zhang is joining our Board of Directors. The tourism industry is growing and we have a responsibility to that growth is done in a responsible way,” said Erika Harms, Executive Director of the GSTC.

“We look forward to working with Mei to help lead our organization’s efforts to implement and explain sustainable tourism so that it becomes as ubiquitous as travel itself.”

The GSTC is made up of members of the tourism and travel industry, including UN agencies, tour operators, travel companies, individual hotels and government tourism councils. Members include: Adventure Travel and Trade Association; American Society of Travel Agents; Audubon International and many, many more respected organizations and bodies.

WildChina is proud to be working with the ATTA and GSTC and looks forward to cooperating on our common goal of sustainable tourism in China and around the world.

When walking around the hutongs of Beijing or the French Concession in Shanghai, it’s hard not to think about the way things were in China before its modernization drive.

Shanghai-based media executive and old China hand Graham Earnshaw first visited China more than 30 years ago and has borne witness to many of the changes that have shaped the country’s recent meteoric rise.

One of Earnshaw’s newest projects is Earnshaw Books, a publishing venture with an extensive catalogue of books about China as it once was, including Tales of Old Peking and Tales of Old Shanghai. WildChina spoke with Earnshaw about his experiences exploring China’s past:

WildChina: How did Earnshaw Books come into being?

Graham Earnshaw: There is something special about books – by which I mean the package of ideas and experiences, not the physical artifact. I also have a lifelong fascination with China. The idea was to create a publishing imprint to provide a view on China’s history and culture, to create a independent China-related publishing house with worldwide visibility and credibility. We’re a short way up the hockey stick at this point.

WC: When you first visited Beijing and Shanghai, how palpable were their pre-PRC histories?

Earnshaw: I first visited Beijing and Shanghai in 1979, and the pre-1949 past was very much visible in both. Most of Beijing was as it had been. The big exceptions were the Tiananmen Square area, which involved the destruction of Qing dynasty palace buildings in the late 1950s and the desperately tragic demolition of the city wall in the early 1970s. But the hutongs and the feel of the streets were, I am sure, very similar to what it would have been like in the past.

Shanghai in 1979 I hated, because it was a city with a magnificent past, clearly visible in its buildings, all of which were slowly disintegrating. Shanghai was full of ghosts of the past. They dominated.

WC: What are some of your favorite tales from old Beijing and Shanghai?

Earnshaw: There are so many great stories from both cities. I am particularly fascinated by the interaction of Chinese and westerners, so the whole Boxer incident in 1900 is fundamental to understanding Beijing. As for Shanghai, there is a memoir from the English writer Aldous Huxley who visited the city in 1926, which for me sums up my of my feelings about China:

“I have seen places that were, no doubt, as busy and as thickly populous as the Chinese city in Shanghai, but none that so overwhelmingly impressed me with its business and populousness. In no city, West or East, have I ever had such an impression of dense, rank richly clotted life.”

WC: What hasn’t changed about these two cities over the years?

Earnshaw: The basic psychology of the people has not changed. And also the feel of the air.

WC: Where are your favorite places in Beijing and Shanghai to connect with history?

Earnshaw: In Beijing I like to walk through Tiantan [Temple of Heaven], starting always at the south gate so the sun is not in your eyes. In Shanghai any back street will do.

WC: Widespread demolition and rebuilding have dramatically changed the faces of these two cities, which one do you think has done a better job of preserving its historical legacy?

Earnshaw: Shanghai for sure. Beijing was a lost cause the moment the wall was gone.

WC: What plans does Earnshaw Books have planned for the coming months?

Earnshaw: We have a number of really interesting books coming up, including two novels, a previously unpublished memoir by English eccentric Edmund Backhouse and a reprint of a fantastic book called Willow Pattern Walkabout, which features drawings by the late Australian cartoonist Paul Rigby from 1958.

WC: What’s the coolest thing about running Earnshaw Books?

Earnshaw: Getting requests to do Q&As like this. Books resonate with people. It is good to bask in the resonance.

For more information about WildChina’s journeys through old Beijing and Shanghai, contact us today.

WildChina prides itself in taking its clients to unspoiled, unseen corners of the country, but we also recognize that we wouldn’t know about these places had it not been for the efforts of the old-school explorers that came before us.

One of those explorers is Joseph F. Rock, an Austrian-born American botanist who worked at different times for the US Department of Agriculture, Harvard University and National Geographic magazine from the 1920s through the 1940s while based in western China, primarily Lijiang.

We were reminded of Rock today when we stumbled upon a review of the book Joseph F. Rock and His Shangri-La by Jim Goodman. We read the book a couple years ago and found it fascinating, despite already having been familiar with Rock’s story.

Rock’s story is the stuff of movies. He traveled in a large caravan of men and mules across rugged inhospitable terrain and was often the first white man who had set foot in many of the places he visited. Rock hobnobbed with the local elite wherever he went, but preferred to dine alone, eating European food prepared especially for him by his private chef.

Rock wrote extensively in his diary about his adventures in Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Tibet, and Goodman adds good background to his story with his thorough knowledge of the people and places of western China. Rock’s photos of these regions are an invaluable archive of this area as it once was.

One of our favorite parts of the book is when Rock first comes across Minya Konka the spectacular mountain in western Sichuan known in Chinese as Mount Gongga. Astounded by its massive size, Rock miscalculates the mountain’s height and reports to his editors at National Geographic that it is higher than Everest.

His doubtful editors prove him wrong, and the proud explorer and scientist is humbled, never again to let his emotions get the best of him in his work.

It may not be taller than Everest, but Minya Konka – and nearby places such as Kangding, Yading and Shangri-La – are awe-inspiring nonetheless. Our Western Sichuan to Yunnan journey takes in all of these unforgettable destinations. As the seasons prepare to change, this part of China is at its most spellbinding.

To find out how to find your own Shangri-La in Western Sichuan and Yunnan, contact us today.

Although many Chinese travelers will be leaving the country next week for this year’s October Holiday, a national week of celebration for China’s National Day (October 1st), there will still be plenty of locals who prefer in-bound travel for the break.

Back to the Bund: consider in-city entertainment for this October Holiday.

For those tourists – or expat residents – not willing to brave the crowds during this Golden Week, it may be the best time to do in-city exploration.

If you live in Beijing or Shanghai, and haven’t had time to step out of your office or school to truly experience your home-away-from-home, take this week to explore. For October visitors to China, skip the stress of holiday travel and spend a few extra days in these diverse metropolitan areas before venturing to other areas of the country.

Beyond the historic sites (see them if you haven’t), we’ve compiled a short list of suggestions from the web for the holiday:

Beijing

• For all its new glitzy nightlife, Beijing doesn’t get enough credit for good, old-fashioned fun. Jessica Marsden suggests you try retro roller-skating in Xizhimen – for only 5 RMB. (from To China… And Beyond!)
• If you want to relive the days of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, head to the Olympic Green, where monitors will keep crowds in check as you explore the Green’s cutting-edge architecture. (from Global Times)

Shanghai

• Split Works Marketing Director and Shanghai resident Abby Lavin has co-compiled a comprehensive Shanghai to-do list for the holiday, complete with a cornucopia of sights, sounds, and activities. (from CNNGo)
• Not previously enticed by the Expo? Reconsider, since new ticket deals are now being offered, boasting more visit time and cheaper prices. (from Shanghaiist)

Still want to be outside of a metropolitan marvel during your October break? Sara Naumann, author of About.com’s China Travel Guide, tells you when to travel and how to book to avoid the worst of October Holiday season.

Over the last decade of bringing our clients to some of China’s wildest destinations, one of the biggest changes we’ve seen has been the large amounts of demolition of swathes of the older parts of town in most cities.

Much of China’s current modernization drive has been based upon the construction of modern residences for its people. But in order to make way for the new, much of the old has had to go.

Recent travels around the country suggest that the wave of demolition taking place in pretty much every city is actually accelerating.

China’s astounding natural beauty and vibrant, dynamic cities will always be a reason to come visit the Middle Kingdom. But if you’ve been putting off your first trip to China and would like to see the charming, historically rich, but somewhat dilapidated older parts of the cities – this is your time.

Whether you want to stroll through the storied hutongs of Beijing or Shanghai’s unique longtangs, we can help you tailor a trip that allows you to enjoy the perks of modernization while still taking a fascinating look into how people used to live in these world cities.

We also take clients to other unique cities including Chengdu, Xiamen, Guiyang, Guilin, Lhasa and Kunming. Contact us today to find out how we can help you experience this intriguing but disappearing part of China.

In eastern China, it’s easy to think that the country’s provinces to the West – namely Tibet, Xinjiang, and Qinghai – are a world away.

But, recent developments at the Shanghai Expo are bringing these two regions of China closer than ever. During Tibet Week at the Expo, a new tourism agreement signed between Shanghai and Lhasa, Tibet’s capital city, confirmed that visitors will soon be able to enjoy “luxury train travel and short-stay trips” between the two cities.

To accommodate increasing visits to the plateau province, government officials, local tourism bureaux and travel agencies will collaborate on increased Tibet-bound tourism. Officials are discussing more efficient train stops and connections, airlines are developing more routes from Shanghai, Xi’an and Xining, and travel agencies are in talks to promote more 3-5 day trips to the area.

Shanghai, a perennial tourist favorite, will also share its tourism knowledge and expertise. As Tibet is one of our favorite fall destinations, we are excited to see what this agreement will mean for western-bound tourism here.

China travelers, stay tuned for developments pending the outcome of this cross-country travel agreement.

If you have been receiving box upon box of mooncakes, or yuebing, these past few weeks like us at WildChina, you are surely thrilled that Mid-Autumn Festival – the  raison d’être for these egg-and-bean-filled confections – is right around the corner.

Zhongqiujie, as it is known in Chinese, is a celebration of the end of the summer harvesting season and the round, full moon of the autumnal equinox. During this holiday period (Wednesday, September 22 to Friday, September 24), family and friends gather to hang festive lanterns, admire the moon, and of course, dine on mooncakes.

How will you celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival? San Francisco’s Chinatown, the largest in the United States, puts on an annual Autumn Moon Festival Street Fair, which features food stalls, performances, and other events to commemorate the occasion. There are also other events and gatherings in local Chinatowns across the country – check your regional event listings in magazines and online for details.

For those in Asia, evening jubilation is a must. CNNGo has a comprehensive list of where to moon gaze in Hong Kong during the festival, whether it be a population metropolitan hangout or quiet nature spot. Our top choice for Beijing? Houhai Lake in Dongcheng district, where the water displays a dynamic, shimmering image of the moon’s reflection. That being said, any cafes or bars with rooftops will provide the right ambiance, and necessary view, for the Festival. People all over China will be spending outdoor time at parks, beaches, lakes, and other areas to celebrate, so find one nearest to you and come prepared with a few lanterns and yuebing.

Revelry aside, travelers to Beijing, and other crowded metropolitan areas, this holiday should be prepared for increased traffic this week before the 3-day break. In light of recent traffic issues plaguing the area, we suggest that you use public transportation and commute at off-peak hours.

WildChina’s Beijing office will be closed on Wednesday, September 22 for Mid-Autumn Festival. Please call 1-888-902-8808 or email info@wildchina.com for assistance at this time. The US office will be open as usual.

(Photo: Jimmyspa.com)

To all of our friends and fellow travelers in China: have a great holiday!