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TRAVELLING IN CHINA

The Middle Kingdom – as China is called by the Chinese – is not the monolithic country that most foreigners imagine it to be. The stereotype of China in the West is largely disconnected from reality. It’s an eclectic country, and so huge and varied that it would take a lifetime to fully explore it and understand it. In fact, when Westerners first arrive in China, they are surprised to find a country that is different than what’s conjured in the Western media – which tends to be sensationalist, distorted, and out of touch with ground realities.

China is also in the grip of rapid development, and this makes perceptions of China in the West particularly susceptible to lag behind the evolving realities on the ground. Additionally, it takes time to change stereotypes and historical perceptions. You can only do one thing: come to China and see for yourself. We promise you that your idea of China would be radically transformed by the time you leave – and you would be longing to return.

Yet China’s development started from a low base only a generation ago and, as in other developing countries, this has led to uneven development. The cities are increasingly modern, transport infrastructure is comparable or better than Western countries, but peasants in rural areas lag behind. And in remote places, such as the vast grasslands of western China, the live of herders has changed little – although some touches of modernity are also dramatically evident: many herders, for example, now use motorbikes on the grassland instead of horses.

The paradox of China is that although its people are welcoming and tourist infrastructure is sufficient and extensive, China remains one of the hardest places for Western travellers largely due to the language barrier. Outside the modern coastal cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Gaungzhou, everything is in Chinese, and few restaurants have menus in English. Few people who work in tourist services talk English (except staff in international five-star hotels), and this makes China artificially arduous and aloof. If you want to book an internal flight, if you want to find a bus, if you want to purchase a train ticket, even if you want to explain to a taxi driver that you want to go to such and such a bus station – doing any of these simple tasks becomes a frustrating and time-consuming undertaking due to the language barrier. Ordering food in a restaurant is equally disheartening, and you might end up unwittingly with foodstuffs (intestines, pig’s hooves, testicles, etc) that give you an aversion. Due to these artificial barriers, foreigners who don’t speak Chinese miss out on the best that China has to offer. Additionally, cultural differences sometimes lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations that in turn continue to nourish misconceptions. 

Why Western China

Within China, we operate in western China, and that’s because it’s region that has the most intact nature and culture. The relationship between the two – nature and culture – is in fact interrelated. The terrain is mostly mountains or deserts or grasslands, and we’re talking about extremities: the mountains are part of the highest chain of mountains in the world that circle the Tibetan plateau, and the deserts and grasslands are vast and forbidden. This kind of geography has arrested development and population expansion; limited agricultural capacity and transport difficulties have limited the density of human habitations in western China. Even today, it’s not easy to build an airport in the midst of steep mountains, and even building good roads in mountains or deserts is hard and expensive. Hence you can’t have large factories or industrial centres in this kind of environment.

It’s for this reason that western China has some of the least-touched landscapes on earth. Just as nature has flourished, so has human diversity. The mountains and deserts have isolated pockets of human communities within throughout history, and these communities eventually evolved their own unique customs, language, and ethnic expressions. There are dozens of ethnicities in western China.

This makes travelling in western China the most rewarding within the country, and one of the most spectacular and exotic regions of the world. Even the food is different, all exotic and delicious, and the human and nature diversity ensure that there is a surprise awaiting around every corner.

This is a boon for us – and for you. All the experiences are sublime, dramatic, and memorable. Whether drinking tea ritualistically in a Sichuan teahouse; whether feasting on an array of Sichuan dishes (the cuisine that’s the most varied in the world); whether taking in the timeless scene of Mongol or Tibetan herders encamped in tent settlements; whether trekking among monumental forests in one of the world’s most pristine landscapes; whether walking in deep-coloured desert terrain where the wind is the only thing that stirs; whether standing on a peak and taking in the endless vista of hazy mountains reaching up for the heavens – whatever you do and whatever you see, western China will leave an indelible impression in your mind’s eye.