Too Many Chinese Tourists

So far the backpacker trail has taken me from Hong Kong > Yangshou > Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces > Kunming > Dali > Lijiang > Tiger Leaping Gorge and now Shangrila. The traveling has been easy despite language difficulties. I’ve seen some beautiful and interesting places but the drawback is that I’ve been too much on the Chinese tourist track. Outside of the cities its not an issue but Lijiang was over the top and quite disappointing. A completely restored ancient city, stripped of any charm, and tourism it’s main focus is not where I care spend my time. Lijiang actually kind of bummed me out. It’s kind of like a Chinese Disneyland. For me, the saving grace was a network of peaceful trails upon Elephant Hill overlooking the city. Relief came when I left Lijiang for an awesome 2 day trek at Tiger Leaping Gorge.

I regularly see western tourist here and there but not many unless I’m at certain hostels or a specific location within a city or village that caters to foreigners. It’s quite easy to travel within a bubble hopping from hostel to hostel and forefinger street to foreigner street. The backpacker trail is pretty cohesive here in China. The downside is that you miss out on a bit of the real China experience. I guess it all depends on what kind of an experience a traveler wants. For me, I like to mix it up but I’m tired of Chinese tourists right now.

From what I can tell tourism is booming within the Chinese culture. Towns are fully revamped. Streets are cleaned. Vendors dress up in traditional garb and tour buses roll in packed with Chinese embracing free enterprise as much as anyone. Destination are complete with overpriced food, pricey accommodation, and expensive entrance fees to famous sites. In popular places tourism is very similar to the west. I’m sure it will continue to grow as much as it appears the Chinese love to travel within their country.

The upside to visiting the places I have, despite a boom of tourism, is that their still beautiful locations and the real China is usually right outside the boundaries of the tourist center. Or, as I like to see it, a short walk or quick bike ride away.