WildChina recently spoke to Veronique Terrier, a Switzerland-based teacher who has made the most of her China passion by dreaming up and coordinating trips once-in-a-lifetime trips to China. She most recently collaborated with Veronique d’Antras, WildChina’s Europe Director, to create her dream trip to Jiangxi province.

Veronique discussed her love for the Middle Kingdom, collaboration with WildChina, and the key to a unique China experience.

WildChina Travel: Tell us a little about yourself. What inspired you to become involved in travel? What brought you to creating this journey with WildChina?

Veronique Terrier: In the 1980s, I spent some time in China, where I studied Chinese qigong and taiji [martial arts]. I immediately loved this country, its people, its rhythm. Despite some trying moments, I love it still. China feeds my soul. As I aspire to share my love of China, I regularly organize trips for those who want to follow me, each time imagining a different route.

For months, I try a theme and carve a new path, just as an artisan would carve his work, until the trip takes body and life and reflects a unique relationship between nature and culture. To achieve a new project, I look to partner with the best specialist. In this case, WildChina superbly organized the logistics of this trip in Jiangxi province, a region that has not yet hosted many Western tourists.

WCT: Why Jiangxi province? What drew you to this area of China?

VT: For this trip, I wanted to return to a region with mountains and water, two basic elements of the Chinese imagination. Jiangxi proved an ideal setting: large lakes and rivers, land branched rivers, mountains with mysteries and stories. Adorable country towns preserve gems embedded in cultivated terraces. No wonder it is such a source of inspiration: Jiangxi was the birthplace of the works of painters, poets, philosophers, and mystics who have deeply influenced China throughout its history. Though somewhat forgotten today, it’s a truly beautiful and significant place.

WCT: You partnered with WildChina for this trip. Our mantra is ‘Experience China Differently’ – how do you think this trip enables travelers to see a different part of China?

VT: WildChina was the perfect partner in organizing this off the beaten path trip – I am always happy to use their services and resources for these projects. WildChina offers spirited and motivated guides, as well as unique activities related to tea or calligraphy; artisans, school or clinic visits; meetings with artists in a local operas, for example; and other small touches that make all the difference. WildChina made valuable suggestions that have really enhanced the route and the atmosphere of this project that I have  in which I had invested much time and effort. I am infinitely grateful their for their flexibility, understanding of a trip’s finesse, the quality of their thoughtful proposals, and professionalism.

WCT: What was your favorite part of the trip? Why?

VT: We were very impressed with our stay in Sanqing Mountains for a few days, during which we were in a continuous state of wonder.  We bathed in the pure magic of living the scene of a Chinese painting – think mist, the veiling and unveiling of pine trees twisted and clinging to cliffs, and rock formations – and thought of all those people who had also wandered happily in the middle of this fantasy. A great atmosphere.

We loved the delightful atmosphere of a quiet stay in a Hui village, still well preserved despite the appetites of developers. Walks in the countryside afforded us precious peace.

WCT: Do you have future plans to organize more trips in China? If so, what do you think your next destination will be? Why?

VT: I intend to continue to travel to China often, as she has many beautiful places to be rediscovered, that have been forgotten for some time. For example, I like to travel by waterways and canals, beyond the Yangtze cruises that so many travelers do.

WCT: What advice can you offer to travelers seeking a unique experience in China?

VT: If I have one suggestion, it is this: whatever route you choose, be sure to visit one of many sacred mountains of China. It is a truly unique experience. Just be aware that the paths can be quite steep with many steps. Still, it is very much worth it.

Thanksgiving is one of the few times in the year when Americans can celebrate family and tradition over a hearty, home-cooked meal. So what happens when you’re traveling in China, far away from home, during the holiday?

(Source: www.bargainblessings.com)

Even in Beijing, visitors can come quite close to the real Thanksgiving experience. After polling a few colleagues and reflecting on personal holiday experiences in China, I’ve come up with a list of a few options for visitors looking for an (almost) authentic Thanksgiving experience in China.

If you are looking for a large Thanksgiving spread… colleague Taylor recommends buffet-style feasts such as The Raffles Hotel Beijing. With a fine array of turkey, stuffing, and other holiday favorites, and the distinct setting of a top luxury hotel, the scene is set for a classic Thanksgiving meal.

She says, “Though stepping into the marble floored lobby at Raffles Beijing Hotel for Thanksgiving Dinner was far from the packed house of family and friends I’m used to, the excitement of Thanksgiving crushed the formalities and shyness that come with meeting new people. Surrounded by a group of Americans starved for family and tradition as much as we were starved for Turkey, I had a great time making new friends over delicious food.”

If you are traveling with a family and children… colleague Nellie suggests the Westin, either in Liangmaqiao or on Financial Street. With a delectable spread for the parents, and a spacious play area for the children, the Westin does family dinner right with options for all ages.

If you would like a meal specially prepared for you… I cast my vote for Culinary Capers, a Beijing-based catering company located in the capital’s 798 art district. I can attest from my own Thanksgiving dinner at Switch!, their new restaurant in the UCCA gallery, that the food is incredibly fresh, delicious, and provides the classics with a unique twist. If you stay somewhere such as the China World serviced apartments, Culinary Capers can deliver your ideal Thanksgiving meal right to your door.

Have you had a memorable Thanksgiving experience in Beijing, or in other Chinese cities? Let us know at info[at]wildchina[dot]com.



Huanghuacheng, or the “Yellow Flower” Great Wall, has long been a lesser-known section to visitors.  Often been referred to as the “Wild Wall,” Huanghuacheng‘s remote location and disrepair made it  mysterious to those looking to visit China’s architectural wonder.

This will all change when local government approves access to the Wild Wall that, the Global Times reports, recently underwent a (now complete) five-month repair project.

Huanghuacheng‘s appeal lies in its unique “lake and mountain scenery,” and of course, scores of yellow flora. However, the section has historically been plagued with issues ranging from “landslide-induced collapses, earthquakes and cracks,” which prompted its closure to the public from 2004 onward.

The impending re-opening of the section makes us contemplate the fate of the Wall’s wilder side. With increasing damage and commercialization of the other sections, it would be in the best interest of cultural preservation to limit the traffic and development in the area. (After all, the government allegedly took drastic measures to ensure historical authenticity.)

But, with the prevalence of mass / “fast” tourism in the area, and across China in general, this may not be an immediate concern. We hope that for the sake of the wall’s cultural integrity, and the preservation of Huanghuacheng‘s “wild” nature, local officials carefully and thoughtfully plan the re-introduction of the Wild Wall to the public.

Hiking in tea tree forests, watching rare local festivals, and meeting locals of the fabled Ancient Tea Horse Road: our press trip participants have been on the road in Guizhou and Yunnan for 9 days in a whirlwind of adventure.

(Photo: Kathy Dragon)

Wish you were here? The next best thing is following our journey. Here’s how:

– Read the WildChina blog for first-hand accounts of the trip

– Follow us on Twitter @WildChina to read to-the-minute tales from our adventure

– Check out our Guizhou and Yunnan Flickr albums with photos from the road

If you are interested in a future press trip, please send us an email to info [at] wildchina [dot] com with the subject line “Press Trips.”

“There are so many natural and beautiful, but backward villages here. It is my dream to help my people.”

There is something really touching about the simplicity with which our WildChina guide, Jacky Xu, explains to me his reason for working on rural education projects in Guizhou.

Villages in Guizhou, while beautiful, often lack infrastructure and educational facilities needed to foster learning communities.

Since 2008, Jacky has worked on various community service projects in his native Guizhou, where he grew up in a rural village. Fully aware of the challenges that children in these communities face, Jacky has focused on education projects to create a brighter future for them, both by leading student groups to work on rural infrastructure projects, and by being a community volunteer.

While he’s collaborated with students and villagers alike to improve countryside roads (giving children access to schools), and volunteers as an English teacher during the low season months of November and December, his biggest current project is to rebuild the elementary school in Nandao Village.

In Nandao, which is separated into Upper and Lower sections, a good education is challenging to obtain. Each day, children as young as 5 years old must all make the long walk to a decrepit school – essentially just an old house – that lacks heating and proper school equipment.

“I see so many children in school shivering all day,” Jacky says, “and I want to help them.”

This coming spring, the children of Nanduo will get a better schoolhouse – and hopefully, a better future with it. With the aid of Hong Kong charities, Jacky will coordinate the school’s reconstruction with generous donations of  materials and helping hands.

“This is my biggest wish,” Jacky says. He hopes that Nandao, and other rural villages in Guizhou, can become nurturing learning communities for the young children who inhabit them.

We can’t wait to see how Nandao transforms.

Yes, you read that headline correctly.

The China Post today reports, “Chinese tourists may be allowed free travel in Taiwan as early as next July, with residents of Beijing and Shanghai possibly first in line for the opportunity.”

Why the tag-free travel? According to reports, the system would act as a trial run for visitors traveling between Taiwan and Mainland China.

Perk up, Beijing and Shanghai: you’re on the priority list!

Read more about the Taiwan-Mainland travel trial system.

It’s been almost a year since we first spoke with Portrait of an LBX bikers and writers Andy Keller and Evan Villarrubia. We caught up with them this week to talk about their reflections on their trip, which ended on September 13, 2010.

LBX's spectacular campsite in Qinghai province, August 2010 (Photo: Portrait of an LBX)

WildChina Travel: Now that you’ve finished with the trip, how can you define laobaixing? How has your understanding of the term, and the people that define it, expanded, been flipped on its head, morphed, etc.?

Andy Keller: I think laobaixing boils down to a political term, as politics controls so much in China, although it has an economic aspect as well, since politics is so tied to money in China (as with anywhere else). China’s laobaixing make up the vast majority of Chinese people. It’s not just a synonym for “peasant” or “farmer” because it’s not just the people out in the countryside who are laobaixing. Basically, they are the people who have less power in the face of the government.

Evan Villarrubia: All the charm of China has come from individual people, the ones “doing their own thing” in accordance with traditions and their own values — the laobaixing. “New China” has come from outside of the laobaixing.

WCT: Do you still believe that the term laobaixing can define and encompass the people / socioeconomic group that you encountered and interacted with on your trip? Why or why not?

AK: Absolutely. With very few exceptions when we met relatives of friends working in the government or party or big business people, the people we interacted with on the trip were all laobaixing. The number of people without government connections in China is so large that really there’s no way the group of people we interacted with could not almost all be laobaixing.

WCT: What was your greatest surprise on the trip? Your biggest regret?

EV: For me, the biggest surprise was the Tibetan plateau. I had never seen skies like that before, and we never expected how different the people were from anything else we’d encountered. The biggest regret of the trip was not making it to either Hubei or Hunan, two quintessentially Chinese places right in the middle of the country, which our big loop didn’t permit time to visit. This will have to be rectified later.

AK: The biggest surprise for me was discovering just how development and modernity almost always trumped concern for culture, the environment, traditional society, etc. We went into the trip with the impression that with so much good stuff disappearing everyday, people would have to be up in arms about it once we sat down and had honest conversations. By and large though, the people we met were as single-mindedly focused on “development” as the government and were happy to leave tradition, culture and even the natural environment behind for the sake of their concept of modernity.

Despite what you see in the media, most laobaixing are not dowsing themselves in gasoline and lighting themselves on fire on the roofs of their homes as the demolition cranes move in. Most are content to take compensation and move out of their homes, away from the fields, away from their communities and into apartment complexes outside of the city, where the communities and social networks that made traditional China so unique no longer exist.

My biggest regret was definitely the places we didn’t get to see – Hubei, Hunan, Xinjiang, Tibet and pretty much all of Dongbei.

WCT: Which area(s) of China ended up being your favorite? Why?

EV: Yunnan, for natural beauty, colors, extreme cultural variations, food, and tea. You can spend days cruising chilly mountaintop villages above endless rice terraces with the Yi and Hani, and the next day drop into the Dai valleys full of pineapples, coconuts, and wooden stilt homes. As long as you stay off the tourist trail, there’s no end to the surprises.

AK: Ditto.

WCT: What is one piece of advice you would give to travelers who want to experience the ‘real’ side of China?

EV: Stick to the mountains, small roads, and small villages where real culture, real beauty and real people still exist.

Read more of Andy and Evan’s reflections and trip accounts at Portrait of an LBX.

Finding unique clothing that satisfies the needs of WildChina guides in China’s coldest areas, while allowing them to look the part when in remote boutique hotels, is not an easy task. When leading off-the-beaten-path tours to China’s most remote regions, how does a rugged, adventurous guide maintain a clean, professional look? Khunu to the rescue.

Khunu offers a new set of locally-sourced yak wool sweaters in the new Autumn/Winter collection.

We at WildChina are delighted to announce our partnership with Khunu, a premium clothing company focused on producing high-quality adventure wear from Tibetan and Mongolian yak wool. This season, Khunu will be clothing our Shangri-La region guides in Khunu Chimera tops – soft, lightweight and warm garments that are perfect for guiding bespoke trips with sophistication in colder weather. These guides are the perfect adventurers to sport the socially-conscious brand, as Shangri-La is known for its rich cultural diversity and notable population of yaks.

WildChina founder Mei Zhang is impressed by both quality and cultural significance of Khunu garments. “When I first heard about what Khunu was doing,” she says, “I was intrigued by the concept but unsure about what the products would be like. It was something of a surprise to feel how warm and soft their garments are.”  (Yak wool has a luxurious feel that can often be mistaken for cashmere, though it is warmer and notably more durable.) In addition to Khunu’s high level of quality, Mei notes, “the unique link [the garments] have to the regions to which we travel gives them additional relevance” to WildChina’s mission of enabling travelers to experience China differently.

To celebrate the WildChina-Khunu alliance, as well as a new womens line for the Autumn/Winter Collection, Khunu is offering WildChina supporters a limited time 15% discount on all new Khunu sweaters through November 11, 2010. Customers can use the code “wildchina” during checkout at the Khunu online store.

Visit the Khunu website for more information on their story, products, and adventurous ambassadors.

Our friend and writer/photographer/tour leader Annika Hipple alerted us on Facebook yesterday to an interesting new China travel/environment article on Ethical Traveler, an e-news portal that “[promotes] travel as diplomacy that can make a difference on environmental and human rights issues.”

China's Great Green Wall: a long-term solution for the country's environmental concerns? (Photo: Mark Wasyl / Wired.com)

In the November 2010 issue, Katia Savchuk’s article, “China’s Great Green Wall Tests the Limits of Reforestation” explores one of China’s greatest environmental challenges. Nationwide deforestation, in conjunction with global warming, poor regulations and overgrazing, has ” contributed to the rapid spread of deserts,” thereby “threatening the livelihoods of 400 million people.”

China’s 2,800-mile-long (4,506 kilometers)”Great Green Wall, ” officially termed the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, will provide 400-million hectares’ (988-million acres) worth of artificial forest to 13 northern Chinese provinces in 40 years, to counter such climate change and desertification.

But, will this initiative, started in 1978, be an effective long-term solution to China’s worsening environmental conditions? We wonder the same thing for how this will affect the landscape of Chinese tourism.

Read the arguments for and against this ambitious $6.3-billion undertaking in the article.