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NYTimes’ “31 Places to Visit in 2010″ features Shanghai and Shenzhen

January 12, 2010 in In the News, Travel Tips by Alex G | No comments

First the Travel+Leisure feature, and now this article in the New York Times: it is increasingly apparent that China is set to experience a tourism renaissance in 2010.

Among the 31 chosen destinations in the article, Shanghai and Shenzhen ranked at number 12 and number 20, respectively. These are impressive numbers, given the caliber and reputations of the places with whom these Chinese cities share the list.

Shanghai's dynamic Pudong skyline. (Photo courtesy of shinanthology.files.wordpress.com)

Shanghai in particular is an intriguing destination: it has much to offer visitors, especially in light of the upcoming 2010 World Expo. Aric Chen writes,

To many, the idea of a World Expo might seem like a dated, superfluous throwback from some preglobalized age. (Remember the one in Aichi, Japan? Enough said.) But tell that to the 70 million who are expected to attend Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

This is China, after all. And following up on Beijing’s spectacular Olympics, Shanghai is pulling out all the stops. From May 1 to Oct. 31, more than 200 national and other pavilions will straddle the city’s Huangpu River, turning a two-square-mile site into an architectural playground: Switzerland will be represented by a building shaped like a map of that country, complete with a rooftop chairlift, while England is in the celebrated hands of the designer Thomas Heatherwick, who is fashioning what looks like a big, hairy marshmallow. Other attention grabbers include Macao, taking the form of a walk-through bunny, and the United Arab Emirates, which hired Foster + Partners to build a “sand dune.” (By contrast, the United States pavilion might be mistaken for a suburban office park.)

In the run-up to the Expo, Shanghai seems to have taken this year’s theme, “Better City, Better Life,” to heart, spending tens of billions of dollars to upgrade the city. The riverfront Bund promenade is getting a makeover with parks and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, while the subway is being dramatically expanded — including several new stations serving the World Expo site. — Aric Chen

Read about Shenzhen and find out what other destinations are featured on the list here.

Interested in learning more about travel to Shanghai? Please contact our Private Journeys director, Barbara Henderson, at barbara.henderson@wildchina.com. You can also send us a tweet @WildChina.

Walking in the Footsteps of Dinosaurs in Gansu Province

December 3, 2009 in On the Road by Alexander Maudhuit | 3 comments

Pandas and dragons are the creatures most commonly associated with China, and yet this vast and fascinating country was also once home to yet another legendary creature: dinosaurs. With paleontological digs happening in Zhucheng, Gobi and Liaoning, we often hear about new discoveries of fossils. Only recently, huge dinosaur footprints were found in Gansu and a small T-Rex was found in Inner Mongolia.

On a recent WildChina educational trip to Gansu, high school students from Shanghai were lucky enough to make a discovery of their own. WildChina’s Director of Educational and Non-Profit Travel, David Fundingsland, accompanied students on the trip, and reported seeing fossilized ribs and other bones in the hillside at the dig site. Running educational trips has remained his passion since his start at WildChina in 2007.

While helping to excavate a dig site at Gansu, they were able to get first-hand knowledge of searching for dinosaur fossils. Under the tutelage of renowned paleontologist Hai-Lu You, the students helped remove rocks and stones from the site. With their help, the on-site paleontologists were able to identify ribs and vertebrae from a Sauropod dinosaur from the cretaceous period.


For more information about educational and non-profit trips with WildChina, please email David at david.fundingsland@wildchina.com.

Simatai Sunset: New Perspectives on the Great Wall

November 26, 2009 in On the Road by Alexander Maudhuit | 1 comment

My first experience on the Great Wall a few years back was much of a disappointment: it was marked by rivers of tourists, screeching loudspeakers and weather that would make anyone search for the nearest air-conditioned enclosure.

However, on a recent WildChina trip, I was fortunate enough to return to a different section of the Wall with a group of international students on a trip to Beijing. As part of their WildChina trip, the student group spent a night hiking and camping on the Great Wall at Simatai – a vastly different experience from my previous Great Wall fiasco.

Sitting on the wall, surrounded by the vast pristine landscape during sunset, seemed almost too good to be true. It was more than the combination of a lack of tourists and stunning yellow foliage; it was a moment of total freedom with the Wall stretching endlessly for me to explore.

Great Wall 长城
What made the camping that much more enjoyable, regardless of the rain and cold, (pack warm clothes!) was the kindness of the local people from neighboring villages who made sure that we felt welcome. The hike was not as hard as one might think. Of course, the zip-line ride down from the top of the Great Wall at Simatai was the perfect end to our hike.

With the setting sun on Simatai ended a new perspective on the must-do Great Wall experience. I’m glad I had a second chance to do it right. 

Asia Society Video: On Thinner Ice

November 18, 2009 in On the Road, What We're Reading, WildChina Experts by Emma | No comments

melting glaciers

There’s a breathtaking video on the Asia Society’s website right now that documents the effects that the melting of Himalayan glaciers will have on the 2 billion people who live in Asia. The video talks about glaciers as “the canary in the coal mine” for climate change, and urges China and the US (the two biggest contributors to global warming) to take decisive action.

One of the directors of the Asia Society, Orville Schell (featured in the video) traveled with WildChina this past spring to research glaciers in Yunnan. It was an amazing trip, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the participants to learn about climate change in Yunnan first-hand. There’s also a video of this trip featuring Orville Schell on our homepage now, which you can see here.

North China is Hit by Blizzard

November 11, 2009 in News You Can Use, Travel Tips by Alex E | No comments

This year’s transition from Autumn to winter is already turning out to be one of superlatives. This week, northern China experienced its heaviest snowfall in the last half century. Not since 1955 has one tempest delivered so much snowfall in northern China.

On October 31, China experienced its earliest snowfall in over two decades, albeit aided by measures to alleviate a lingering drought in China’s north. Advancements in weather technology are leading to a winter marked by sudden and heavy snowfalls.

Winters First Snowfall on the Great Wall

Winter's First Snowfall on the Great Wall

The heavy snowfall created picturesque winter scenes all over Beijing for the several days following the snowstorm.

If you’re planning on traveling to northern China during the winter, make sure to bring a warm coat!

Beijing International Tourism Festival

October 29, 2009 in Culture, Holidays and Festivals by Alex E | No comments

This last weekend celebrated the 11th annual Beijing International Tourism festival. The festival featured regional drum performances and a parade of floats from each of the 18 districts and counties in Beijing.

Drum Procession at the Opening Ceremony

Drum Performance at the Opening Ceremony

Attendance at the festival reached record levels, accompanying a 20% increase in tourism to Beijing since last year. This number is all the more impressive since the Olympics took place in 2008. The festival’s closing ceremony highlights China’s penchant for ornate performance. To see the closing ceremony, click here.

The Olympics were Beijing’s debutante ball, earning it recognition as a global metropolis and the focal point of China’s history. In the post Olympic era, Beijing is creating a new draw for tourism by emphasizing its ancient roots and cultural significance.

Improving Local Practices in Southwest China, Part III: Resource Management Techniques in Jiuzhaigou National Park

October 28, 2009 in On the Road by Alex E | No comments

WildChina recently embarked on a series of initiatives to improve local practices in rural areas in southwest China. This is the final section of the three part series examining efforts to improve life for those in rural areas and the technologies that enable a better standard of living.

Jiuzhaigou National Park sits in the rugged West of Sichuan at 2000 meters elevation on the edge of Tibet. This cluster of virgin mixed forests is home to several endangered animals; giant pandas and golden snub-nosed monkeys traverse amongst the limestone cliffs and the effervescent blue lakes. Despite its natural beauty, Jiuzhaigou has had a tenuous history. It was discovered in the early 1970s, and hurt by large-scale logging efforts. Jiuzhaigou was declared a national park in 1978, and the park’s ecological restoration began.

Leaves turn magificent colors over a crystal lake

Leaves turn magnificent colors over a crystal lake in Autumn

Jiuzhaigou established a formal relationship with Yosemite National Park in 2006 to promote international cooperation that benefits both parks.

WildChina accompanied the Yosemite team on their first official sister park visit to Jiuzhaigou in 2009. On this trip, Yosemite preservationists completed a four day survey trek through Jiuzhaigou valley. Through these trips and related efforts, the sister parks aim to share resource management techniques and cooperate to preserve natural biodiversity. Read the rest of this entry »

Improving Local Practices in Southwest China, Part II: Bio-toilets in Sichuan Province

October 27, 2009 in On the Road, Sichuan-Earthquake by Alex E | No comments

WildChina recently embarked on a series of initiatives to improve local practices in rural areas in southwest China. This is the second of a three part series examining efforts to improve life for those in rural areas and the technologies that enable a better standard of living.

At the upper reaches of the Minjiang river and the edge of the Tibetan plateau sits Shenxi village, the remote home to a group of Chinese villagers. Shenxi village, an hour hike from the nearest paved road, seems a world apart from the rest of civilization. However, the activities of this town profoundly influence the rest of Sichuan province and surrounding areas. Shenxi village sits atop the Sichuan water basin, which stores water runoff from the Himalayas and supplies vital water to Sichuan and regions downriver.

Water cleanliness is a persistent issue for China’s water lifelines that carry snowmelt from the Himalayas eastward to the Pacific Ocean, from which one quarter of China’s population drinks contaminated water every day, according to the United Nations (PDF). These issues with water cleanliness are often the result of unsanitary conditions and practices in human settlements that border major rivers.

Seperated by only a mountain from the epicenter of last year’s earthquake, Shenxi village was devastated by the damage it inflicted. Aside from the toll on human life, many of the buildings in Shenxi collapsed outright and those still standing suffered heavy damage. Villagers who returned to Shenxi village after the earthquake rebuilt their homes with the limited resources available, and the result was a village that lacked adequate sanitation. WildChina recently completed a three day project building bio-friendly toilets in this area.

Students and Villager in front of completed toilet

Students and Villager in front of completed toilet

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Improving Local Practices in Southwest China, Part I: Developing a Model Village for Sustainable Peri-Urban Development in Anlong, Sichuan

October 26, 2009 in On the Road, Sichuan-Earthquake by Alex G | No comments

WildChina recently embarked on a series of initiatives to improve local practices in areas that we visit. This is the first of a three-part series examining efforts to improve life for those in rural Southwest China, and the technologies that enable a better standard of living.

Imagine a beautiful, rural, riverside village that serves as a living relic of China’s traditional agricultural history. Then imagine the trash and pollution that clouts this image – unmanaged sewage, outdated farming practices, and unsanitary living conditions, to name a few.

In China’s poor rural communities, scenes like this are all too common. However, organizations such as the Chengdu Urban Rivers Association (CURA), a Sichuan-based NGO, are working to change this by building sustainable development practices in these communities from the ground up. In one such community, CURA hopes to make a model of sustainable development that can be applied to similar rural areas of China. WildChina recently had the exciting opportunity to bring a group of school children from Beijing to engage in this endeavor, specifically to conduct water testing as well as improve water and sanitation technologies.

 

A student cleans a new eco-toilet facility, built by students on WildChina's service learning trip to Anlong in Sichuan province.

A new eco-toilet facility, built by students on WildChina's service learning trip to Anlong, Sichuan province.

Located along the banks of the Zou Ma River (one of the Fu-Nan Rivers) near Chengdu, Anlong was once a community plagued by severe water pollution as a result of livestock, chemical fertilizer, and more. Although efforts in the mid-1990s cleaned up the rivers to some degree, the Fu-Nan Rivers Comprehensive Revitalization Project was not entirely effective. As such, communities like Anlong still needed help to rid themselves of pollution and contamination.

CURA has been working with the Anlong community to develop sustainable practices for farming, sanitation, and development. 

Read the rest of this entry »

China’s World Heritage

October 23, 2009 in Travel Tips, WildChina Experts, WildChina on the Web by Anita | No comments

China has 38 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, a designation that can sometimes be both a blessing and a curse to these cultural and natural areas due to the influx of tourists. So how can we ensure responsible travel in these sites? WildChina Founder Mei Zhang and The Nature Conservancy (TNC)’s Lulu Zhou tackled this issue on air today during Let’s Travel!, a weekly, global radio talk show hosted by New York-based Susan Raphael.  

First Bend of Yangtze River, Yunnan

First Bend of Yangtze River, Yunnan

Lulu, who oversees sustainable tourism and environmental education projects in Yunnan’s Three Parallel Rivers World Heritage Site, pointed out a major difference between protected areas  in the U.S. and China: whereas in the U.S., no communities reside inside national parks, in China, it’s a different story. In the Three Parallel Rivers area (named after a mountainous region in southwest China where three of Asia’s mightiest rivers, the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween, run parallel), almost 300,000 people reside in the site, with 36,000 people within the core zone. Since relocation of these communities isn’t an option, it’s key to engage the communities themselves in conservation work to help preserve the site. 

Mei agreed, noting that a change in mindset and an education process are required. At WildChina, we hire and train local guides for our journeys, who benefit directly by providing high-end, sustainable travel services. This training allows us to practice green travel, particularly in hiking trips – for instance, we emphasize responsible outdoor practices, such as Leave No Trace, where travelers “pack it in, pack it out.”

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