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WildChina’s 2009 Newcomer Guide of the Year: Fran

February 11, 2010 in Uncategorized by Alex G | No comments

Introducing WildChina’s first Newcomer Guide of the Year award!

Organized by WildChina’s Operations team member Nellie Connolly, the Newcomer Guide of the Year award is designed to award outstanding new guides who have demonstrated expertise, passion, flexibility, and a positive attitude in their guiding work with WildChina’s travelers.

Our first award for new guides in 2009 goes to Fran from southern China’s Guilin Province. Nellie spoke with Fran on her career as a tour guide, her English skills, making kids happy on a trip, and why she enjoys working for WildChina.

Our first Newcomer Guide of the Year, Fran

Nellie Connolly: Why did you go into guiding?
Fran: I knew I wanted to be a tour guide as this job allowed me to take leadership, share my life experience with others, meet other people and to be knowledgeable about Chinese culture and politics. I am very friendly and love showing off my beautiful hometown, Guilin.

NC: How do you prepare for a tour?
F: For me, preparing is very important! I begin with looking at the client’s name to figure out if they are Chinese-American, European etc. to begin customizing their trip. I also think it is very important to learn the client’s profession and hobbies so I can teach them about their interests in China.

I am usually a bit nervous before I start a tour, but I think that is a good thing. I think if I was not nervous before every trip, it would mean that I did not really care about the client. I always try to remind myself to be confident and that I am a strong guide.

NC: How do you maintain and improve your excellent English?
F: For me, I feel a very strong link with English. I am very passionate about studying and improving on my language skills which has helped me become a strong English speaker. If I ever feel like my language skills are rusty, I watch English-speaking television programs, buy an English book and read it during my down time. Getting better at English is not an overnight process and I work daily to maintain my skills. In many daily situations, I make myself think through situations in English to keep my language skills very strong.

NC: How do you improve on your guiding skills?
F: Last year, I had several clients ask me questions about the Cultural Revolution and did not feel I had the expertise and knowledge that a top guide should have. As such, I set out to really study up and learn about this period of time in Chinese history and now feel very confident when WildChina’s travelers ask me questions!

NC: How do you make “wow” moments on a trip?
F: For me, when I am leading a family trip, the easiest way to create “wow” moments is to create a really special moment for the children of the family. I know that when the kids are happy, learning and engaged, the parents are also happy!

NC: Why do you like working with WildChina?
F: For me, working for WildChina is a true highlight. I really love WildChina’s clientele – very well-educated, passionate about learning and excited to visit my hometown. I love that all my clients are excited about everything and trying new things.

Spending some time with a Giant Panda in the wild!

January 27, 2010 in Uncategorized, WildChina Experts by Heather.Graham | No comments


Bamboo newly broken by a Giant Panda, Changqing Reserve

Bamboo newly broken by a Giant Panda, Changqing Reserve

It’s happened!! After months of learning about Giant Pandas, seeing videos about them, writing blogs about them, and constructing an Action Plan to minimise the impact of tourism to them – I have seen a Giant Panda in the wild!!!  Even now, nine days after this experience, I am still smiling when I think about it. Being winter and therefore having an increased opportunity to see them, my former manager, Mr Shi Jian, organised a car for me to spend a few days with one of our best trackers, Zhang Yongwen, in Changqing Reserve.

It is estimated that Changqing National Nature Reserve has approximately 100 pandas within our reserve boundaries. During June to September each year, the majority of these live in the high mountains, descending to the valleys for the colder months. According to Zhang Yongwen, due to their need to conserve energy, Pandas in Changqing often meander around existing tracks such as former logging roads, and Takin tracks. This means, that when tracking pandas in Changqing you walk along these valley tracks, and alongside rivers in search of signs that pandas have been nearby recently. Signs include freshly broken bamboo, a trail of fresh scats and if you’re really lucky the sound of bamboo breaking in the distance. However, as pandas meander off the tracks to find nice places to sit, chew bamboo and sleep – once you think you’re close to one, you often find yourself scrambling hand and foot up steep bamboo covered hills. Some may not like this side of tracking, but not me, I love it! It makes me feel alive, every scratch and bruise making me more determined, heart pumping loudly (‘will I see a panda this time’), it makes me feel like David Attenborough or a BBC cameraman!

Fresh Panda scat, Changqing Reserve

Fresh Panda scat, Changqing Reserve

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Xi’an: Shaanxi’s Global Leadership in Solar Research & Development

January 26, 2010 in Uncategorized by Alex G | 1 comment

This post is the third in a series by guest blogger Abby Poats. Abby Poats is a Research Associate based in Beijing with the Washington DC-based American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) US-China Program (USCP). She also teaches English at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing through the Princeton in Asia (PiA) fellowship program. Her blog entries contain her personal reflections and do not reflect the views of ACORE USCP.

 

 

Source: www.shanghaifocus.com

 

One of China’s staple travel destinations, Xi’an—the present-day capital of Shaanxi Province and one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China—is world-renowned for its 8,000-strong subterranean army of Terracotta Warriors. Each year, tens of millions of Chinese and foreign tourists make their pilgrimage to Xi’an to behold these imposing forces commissioned in 210 BCE by Qin Shi Huang, the fierce first emperor of China, to be entombed with him to help him maintain his imperial dominance in the afterlife.

Glossing over 3,100 years of rich, tumultuous history brings us to the present day, as Xi’an adds to its subterranean Terracotta forces a new set of warriors taking on the paramount task of driving innovation up and cost down in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry.

In order for this development to even be possible, however, the regional economic development strategies of the 1990s first had to catalyze capital investment in poorer regions that had not benefitted as much as cities in the east during the 1970s and 1980s. Xi’an, like several other western cities, soon became home to strategic industrial development zones, which today host research, engineering and manufacturing facilities for the software, telecommunications, and aerospace industries. Today, Xi’an’s 40 universities and over 10,000 annual graduates provide Xi’an’s industrial zones with world-class research capacity.

Hosted by the Xi’an High-tech Industries Development Zone, U.S.-based Applied Materials, the world’s leading provider of solar PV equipment, opened the Applied Materials’ Solar Technology Center in October 2009. As the largest non-government solar energy research center in the world, the facility, according to Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter, “represents a critical breakthrough for the photovoltaic industry and China” and the “industrialization of the global solar industry.”

 

 

Source: www.appliedmaterials.com

 

The facility will focus on research, development and demonstration as well as testing and training for both crystalline silicon and thin film module manufacturing processes. Furthermore, the center will allow local technology suppliers to work with Applied Materials engineers on testing and enhancing the efficiency of their current materials and systems.  

Former capital of thirteen ancient dynasties, Xi’an is working today to distinguish itself as China’s capital of solar research and development. While the city marked the terminus of the Silk Road in the distant past, Xi’an seems poised to become a key origin of solar innovation in the near future.

 by Abby Poats

Infrared Cameras in Changqing Reserve

January 20, 2010 in Uncategorized, WildChina Experts by Heather.Graham | No comments

Photo of Giant Panda taken in Changqing Reserve by one of the infrared cameras

Photo of Giant Panda taken in Changqing Reserve by one of the infrared cameras

Over the Christmas and New Years period I was blessed to have two of my good friends from back home come to China to visit me, and also see what it was about this country that had me raving. Not surprisingly, as part of the visit, they both wanted to see where I had been living and working for the previous 10 months. I was also keen to share with them a glimpse of rural China, and a chance for them to see the nature reserve. So two days of animal tracking in Changqing National Nature Reserve was included in the itinerary!

We had a fabulous time following one of our most experienced guides here Mr Xiang, a known panda expert – who has eyes like a hawk. As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, while very cold, winter here is also a great time to visit our reserve due to an increased chance to see some animals who have come further down the mountain for the cold weather. Mr Xiang picked up the slightest movements from hundreds of meters away, and through following animal scats, footprints in the snow, sound and movements we ended up seeing numerous animals, including two Internationally Endangered animals: the Golden Takin (Budorcas taxicolor bedfordi) and Golden Monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana qinlingenis) and one Internationally Critically Endangered bird, the Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon).

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What’s so “wild” about WildChina?

November 22, 2009 in Uncategorized by Mei | No comments

At Pure Life Experience luxury travel tradeshow in Marrakech, Morocco, I met about 60 travel agents and tour operators from around the world. The most asked question was “So, tell me what’s so wild about WildChina?”

Here’s my answer for the record: By naming it “wild”, I want to push the boundary of people’s imagination of China, both in the sense of nature and culture.

China has so much to beyond Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai, and even in those familiar sites, there is so much more to explore in depth, that I don’t think current travel industry’s done a fair job at promoting the country’s deeper beauty. I want WildChina to make some contribution in bringing China’s inner beauty to the world.

Typically in the past, when travelers go to China, and there were variations of the standard route: Beijing-Xi’an-Yantze River cruise-Guilin-Shanghai. That’s about it. In these sites, guests get to bused out with crowds of other travelers to visit Badaling Great Wall, stop at commission driven shops, forced to buy those kitsch trinkets, and to eat those bland buffet food. I just don’t want WildChina guests to be subject to that at all!

For me, who has grown up in Yunnan Province in Southwest China, there are lots to be explored in places that are not on the tourist map. In the villages like Shaxi near Dali and Lijiang in Yunnan, you visit the local family, join them for a lovely Bai meal in the courtyard, then watch a casual village concert performed by village elders. That’s the way I used to know Yunnan, and that’s the way I want my guests to experience China. I cannot quite pin point these tiny little villages on the map, and I can’t really tell you which tourists sites featured in the guide books you might visit. All I can say is I can take you to experience the China I grew up knowing. Regardless of where you go, the most important aspect about traveling is getting to know the people there. One of the best compliments I got from some clients was that they really felt like they got to know some Chinese people as everyday individuals with their joys and personalities, not as a collective “Chinese”.

Now back in familiar sites like Beijing and Shanghai. Same thing, I want my guests to experience life the way it is. One of my personal favorite thing to do when living in Beijing is getting up early to go for a jog in Ritan Park, where tons of Beijing ren’r do their morning Taichi, or sing at the top of their voice to exercise their lungs. So, I want my guests to have the same – a morning of Taichi with a master in the park. Obviously, there are a lot one can do, but getting to know the Chinese way of life is a big part of our experience.

Then, there are the nature reserves that people don’t even know about. Why did I take my 8 month old baby to travel to Changqing Nature Reserve last august? I admire the conservation work the Chinese rangers are doing on a daily basis. The director of the nature reserve has a sincere desire to see what is possible to build a sustainable ecotourism practice so that they can spread the word about their conservation work. So, I spend time to get to know them, and spend time to work with the nature reserve staff. In due time, we’ll be able to launch a sustainable eco-walk into the nature reserve, as what we’ve achieved with Wanglang Nature Reserve in Sichuan.

So that’s what I am talking about. WildChina is all about helping our guests to experience China differently.

WildChina 2010 Exclusive Journey, “Tracking Wild Panda Footprints,” featured on Away.com

November 16, 2009 in Uncategorized by Alex G | No comments

 

A panda in its natural habitat

Observe pandas close-up on WildChina's 2010 exclusive journey, Tracking Wild Panda Footprints

Away.com recently featured WildChina’s 2010 Exclusive Journey, “Tracking Wild Panda Footprints.” The piece details the WildChina trip during which visitors to a panda reserve, where one can observe the endangered species’ natural behavior with infrared cameras as well as spot other rare wildlife in two of Sichuan’s gorgeous nature reserves, Wanglang and Jiuzhaigou.

Find out more about this exclusive journey, and read a WildChina blog post about the trip with video.