Is China really so unwelcoming as a tourist destination?

[能田]

(Commentary Today Friday 26 July 2019)

Is China really so unwelcoming as a tourist destination?

By Junice Yeo

A mountain scene in Zhangjiajie, a city in the northwest of China's Hunan province.

Joshua Sortino/unsplash

Updated 26 July, 2019

Ever thought of visiting China for a holiday? Most people I know have never set foot in the country, and even if they have, it is usually because they are compelled to go to China for work, and then they leave on the next flight out.

Conversely though, Chinese tourists are seen everywhere today. In 2017, 143 million Chinese made outbound trips compared to 60.7 million tourists who went to the mainland, according to statistics by World Tourism Organisation.

In fact, China’s tourism trade deficit is such a serious issue today that economists are attributing this ‘problem’ as a major factor for wiping out the country’s entire current account surplus.

Can China welcome more tourists? After all, it does have a lot to offer.

I’ve travelled to different parts of the country for over a decade now, from the water towns in Zhejiang to the highlands of Tibet.

I am convinced this country is more Instagrammable (and NatGeo-able) than most would ever imagine.

China’s tourism is also well established — its transport systems are phenomenal, tourist sites are well stocked with hotels and restaurants, and scenic routes well marked.

However, this has largely been made for its domestic travellers, and so hosting foreigners is a concept many retailers haven’t gotten quite used to. Foreign credit card? English menus? You get the drift.

There are many reasons why China has some way to go in attracting the world to its shores.

First, China’s reputation in the press. Mention China and we immediately think of over-crowded cities, smog, and filth.

Second, finding travel information on China for free-and-easy travel is hard. This is a sore point especially for non-Mandarin speakers.

Whilst many of the major travel platforms such as Tripadvisor and CTrip provide good access to unbiased reviews of places to visit, the information available compared to other destinations is still sparse and inadequate.

However, if you do read Mandarin, the wealth of information available at your fingertips is phenomenal. Chinese apps such as Dianping (点评) and Meituan（美团）are sophisticated and easy-to-use, making one wonder why there are no such platforms available outside of China.

Another uncomfortable truth about travelling in China is the sorry state of its lavatories. That is not to say things have not improved; they have.

China’s default sanitary standards are just different from the rest of the world, so changing its peculiar piping system and squatting habits is just going to take time. 

These challenges however do not mean the fate of China’s tourism is doomed.

China has immensely beautiful sights, especially if you venture outside the big cities of Shanghai and Beijing. The provinces of Yunnan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Guangxi and Gansu promise mind-blowing natural beauty in different climates, and even the Russian border in the north is a hotspot for ice-sculptures and the Northern Lights.

A sub-point that I should make to that is the kind of memories we often make during our travels aren’t actually the destinations, but the journey in itself.

I have found that the best travel memories are usually the ones in which we took the slow noisy train, ordered the strange thing on the menu, or witnessed a random scene on the road that makes you not know if you should laugh or cry.

And somehow, China has an endless supply of such experiences every single day that just brings out the magic of the place.  

Of course, the magic of a place isn’t just physical. There are also the humans behind it.

^{Wuzhen water town in Zhejiang province. Photo: Vicky Tao/unsplash}

Some years ago, my husband and I decided to spend our babymoon exploring the scenic watertown of Wuzhen, where I unfortunately fell and twisted my ankle.

Seeing that I was heavily pregnant, the staff at the inn, and even passers-by went out of their way to make the rest of our travel as seamless as possible.

This included hunting for available crutches and designing the smoothest possible route in and out of the water town that was lined with staircases. We were undoubtedly touched and grateful for all the help we received.

Over the years, I have found Chinese people to be incredibly worldly. The Internet firewall may seem like a great obstacle for Google users, but the Chinese have their own ways of accessing information about the world.

Many of the educated youth whom I have met are genuinely interested in knowing about societies outside of China, especially arts, history and culture which are different from theirs. Sadly, I don’t see quite the same interest among foreigners in Chinese traditions and cultures.

Travelling with children in China has also been immensely enjoyable. Parks, playgrounds and countryside over four seasons — the country has enough variety to accommodate any style of family holiday.

But perhaps most unique to China is its organised chaos unfolding daily on a busy street, offering parents a great chance to listen to our children’s observations of the contrasts of China. Their perceptions of the world — untainted and refreshing — can be a lesson on its own to parents.

China’s growth in the last 40 years has been spectacular and its role on the world’s stage is growing by the day.

These changes cannot be fully appreciated just by reading books or news reports. Travelling to China, experiencing its sights, feeling the buzz of the country and interacting with its citizens will go some way in promoting better mutual understanding.

In our high-tech world of virtual reality where our emotions hinge on data we see on our flat screens, there is nothing we more badly need than to reacquaint our senses to the real world.

Travel invokes the very mix of sensations of novelty, surprise and exhilaration, and China will no doubt, promise its visitors, a lot of that. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Junice Yeo is Greater China senior advisor at Eco-Business, a digital media company focussing on sustainable business. She is based in Beijing.

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