Opinion
The heart should rule tourism
By He Bolin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-30 11:44
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China's tourism market has been booming over the past few years. Scenic spots across the country are overcrowded during holidays. Other tourist spots, even in some remote areas, are no exceptions. Behind the hustle and bustle of the country's tourism industry are six "tour elements": food, hotel, traffic, sight-seeing, shopping and entertainment.
But Chen Xujun, as a proponent of eco-tourism and "tourism for learning", says the "mass tourism" that has developed over the years in the country has been "de-assimilated" by over-commercialization. It is important, instead, to pursue a soulful journey on a tour, he says.
Chen has been a travel agent for years. Tourism is his bread and butter. But now he wonders whether a spot can be developed without causing environmental destruction. Are ecological benefits and commercial benefits mutually exclusive? Such doubts made him develop his own "philosophy" for tourism, and name his company Zhiyou (tourism for learning) Culture Communication Co.
Whether people can have fun during a tour is important. But what's much more important, Chen says, is whether they can derive spiritual satisfaction from the experience.
Most of today's tourists seem to be obsessed with the "six elements". They move from one spot to another without having time to take in the beauty and serenity, or the historical and spiritual importance, of a site. They are so busy taking or posing for photographs that they miss the woods for the trees. Instead of bathing in the natural, beautiful environs of a spot or appreciating the historical importance of a structure or place, they find pleasure in buying knick-knacks and mementos.
If photographs could lend the real feeling of being to a place why visit it at all? If mementos and knick-knacks, rather than the ambience and aura of a place or structure, can make us happy, why take the trouble of spending money and time to travel to distant places?
A person, a family or a group of people goes on tour to relax, to enjoy the atmosphere, to breathe in the air and to bask in the glory of a historical structure or a natural scenic spot. Assuming that to be the purpose of a tour, it is pertinent to ask whether do our fellow countrymen measure up to them. If not, why do they waste their time and money?
As for the tourism industry, which operates on the principles of the "six elements", Chen doubts whether its development can be on the sustainable road.
First, most tourist sites in the country have been artificially enclosed and can't be visited without paying an admission fee. Man-made fences spoil the integrity of a natural scenic spot. In other words, natural scenic spots have lost or are losing their natural elements. Doesn't nature allow you to go wherever you want to or can go? Take the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan province as an example, which taught us a bitter lesson. Since 2001, the local authorities have spent 1 billion yuan ($149.39 million) to demolish all the man-made structures in the park, which the UNESCO said was necessary to keep Zhangjiajie's world heritage status.
Second, many new structures and facilities have been built inside such enclosed areas, which is not only a bad example of commercialization, but also against the sanctity of a natural scenic or historical spot.
Third, residents in and around scenic spots have often been relocated without proper compensation, because most of the benefits go to developers and local governments. This has caused many a conflict between the local authorities and developers, and the common people.
The three factors prompted Chen to appeal for "tourism for learning". For the past few years, he has been advocating this idea, and urging people to think about their relationship with and responsibility toward the environment. He wants them to think about how to travel in harmony with nature, and learn about the inhabitants, and the culture and society they visit.
The concept of a "learning tour" is nothing new. In ancient times, Chinese people from Confucius, who visited all the states during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), to Xu Xiake, who climbed many mountains during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), used to travel around the country in search of knowledge.
Based on his "tourism for learning" principle, Chen has developed a tourism mode with a small but growing number of supporters and practitioners. He has worked out tour routes to several spots. The only problem is that the spots selected by him may not be that well-known to the ordinary tourist.
One such route is to a province in southeast France. Chen has organized several tourist groups to visit French villages, learn about local plants, visit local organic farms and get a firsthand knowledge of the process of making cosmetics.
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Once on a trip to the Borneo Island, Chen and his friends slept in shacks in the forest and ate simple food, all of which were obtained locally. They didn't mind, because their aim was to interact with nature. This was possible because they didn't expect the comforts of their city life to be available in the millions-year-old forests of Borneo. After all, they were "looking for the outside world and introspecting the inside world".
There are beautiful things around our homes, too, which we may feel too familiar to even look at. These things are hidden beneath the surface of our "model and regulated" modern life. But only people who are true of heart can find them. Chen wants all tourists to have such a heart, so that they can find the real beauty of the spot they visit.
A camera can catch a scene forever and the eyes can help you enjoy it, but only the heart can understand its real importance and make it eternal, Chen says, hoping more people would use their heart to learn from their tours.