Travel Forum / Destinations / Asia / October 2005

Unemployed? If you want a guide, surely a guide that can speak English
and actually knows the area would be what you want... Such a person is
unlikely to be 'unemployed'. Slightly bizarre, asking for unemployed
people.

Not too many areas with great scenery and friendly people would be non
touristy.

Probably more likely to find university students rather than
un-employed individuals.

Friday, October 7, 2005

Soaking up the sights on a shoestring

JANE CAI

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    Copyright ©2005. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights
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Zhou Xinxin saved 2,000 yuan while still a Beijing university student
to finance his first trip, to Shanxi , with his girlfriend in 2001.

The couple explored alleyways, stayed in cheap hostels, ate noodles in
roadside restaurants and hunted down places recommended in offbeat tour
books.

"I don't remember particular shining moments of the trip, just the
feeling of being free," the 26-year-old Beijing office clerk said. "We
were not part of a tour group, so there was no set timetable, no
stopping to buy souvenirs and none of the noise you have to tolerate
when you are with a group of tourists."

Since then he has journeyed to Jilin , Xinjiang , Guangxi , Guizhou ,
Hunan and Hong Kong, and taken on part-time jobs to help finance the
trips.

He relies on trains, buses, his own two feet and even horses to get
around. Excluding transport costs, he spends less then 50 yuan a day in
most places, a budget that seems to bring him into closer contact with
local people.

The Zhejiang native said Xinjiang had left the deepest impression on
him. The autonomous region was part of a 28-day, 8,000-yuan trip he
made in 2003 to 14 cities along the ancient Silk Road.

Families welcomed him into their yurts and invited him to stay the
night free of charge. They offered him lamb and kurmis, a kind of
fermented mare's milk.

"A stranger would never get such treatment in urban areas," he said.

"There were no toilets, running water or electricity, but I felt
comfortable and delighted surrounded by mud and cow dung."

During a 40-hour bus ride from the autonomous prefecture of Yili to the
city of Kashgar , he was the only Han passenger on the bus for more
than a day.

"I couldn't speak their language and was kind of worried," he said.
"Some people got off at every stop to buy fruit and offered me
something to eat. I had the sweetest Hami melons and watermelons that I
have ever eaten in my life!"

Wen Jing, a 34-year-old Beijing property-design consultant, has been a
hiker for 10 years and describes the experience as "the body in hell
and the soul in heaven".

"When I'm bored of my job or life, I always seek refuge in travel. A
few years ago, I even resigned from my job to go on a trip. It's an
important part of my life," Ms Wen said. She has left here footprints
in Guizhou, Yunnan , Sichuan , Tibet , Inner Mongolia and Vietnam. "The
wilder and more uncivilised the place, the better," she said.

Three years ago, she visited Basha village in the southwestern province
of Guizhou, where people wore clothes made of hand-woven cloth and used
homemade firearms to hunt pheasants. When she took out her camera, the
villagers rushed back home to change into jeans and leather shoes.

She went there again last year. To her shock and sadness, the villagers
had become performers and, in an arrangement with a travel company,
made money singing and dancing for tourists. Ms Wen said the residents
had been transformed into a commodity to earn money and she decided
never to go there again. "The pressures of commerce and tourism mean
there are fewer and fewer places where people can retain their original
way of life," she said. "My solution is to go to more remote places as
soon as possible before things change."

Ms Wen is keen to face the unexpected, but sometimes being far from
home can be dangerous.

Travelling independently in August 2002, to Ali in western Tibet, Ms
Wen and two companions were unprepared for the extreme cold of a night
on the plateau. Thousands of Tibetans were in the area on a pilgrimage
and all the accommodation in the area, including tents, was fully
occupied. It was summer but Ms Wen's trousers were stiffened by frozen
moisture and her body was exhausted.

Overcome by fatigue, one companion stopped walking and muttered: "I
can't move. I must stay here. I need sleep." The other pulled her up
from the snow-covered ground and slapped her, warning that she would
die if she lay down.

That night, the three huddled together on a stone and sang, not daring
to sleep in the extreme cold.

"It was the most dangerous experience I've ever had. It's unforgettable
because I was at the edge of death," Ms Wen recalled.

Her travels have also changed her life in other ways. "I meet other
hikers all the time and most of them are good companions," she said.

"Some have become my friends, and one is now my husband."

Liao Yuehan retired from his engineering job in Nanjing , Jiangsu ,
three years ago to live on a monthly pension of 500 yuan. Rather than
signalling the start of a decline, life after paid work has given him
the chance to realise a life-long passion for train travel and
exploration.

"My ambition is to travel along 80 per cent of China's railways. I've
had this dream all my life and now it's time to fulfil it," said Mr
Liao, 55.

With 1,000 yuan in hand, he embarked on his first trip last year to
take a look at 13 cities in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan,
Guizhou and Sichuan. He used the same amount of money in May to see 12
cities in the eastern and northeastern provinces of Shandong , Hebei  ,
Tianjin , Liaoning , Jilin and Heilongjiang .

He cannot explain where his interest in train travel comes from, but
some of his inspiration stems from the movies.

"I had a strong desire to see the railway between Chengdu and Kunming
because I watched a movie in 1966 about PLA soldiers who built the
railway. So I chose southwest cities along the railway as a basis for
the trip," he said.

The views outside the train have also been cinematic, showing him a
world of terraced fields, red-earth plains, a horse and ox fair, a
village funeral and mountain porters with huge baskets on their backs.

"I was deeply impressed by the strong local character of slogans
painted on walls along the railway lines. For example, `Investment in
Taian is as stable as Taishan Mountain,' `Government, give us
relocation compensation!' and `Welcome to an area of revolutionary
origins.'"

When he gets off the train, he looks for somewhere to stay for about 20
to 30 yuan a night and spends half a day or so exploring each city by
bus or on foot. He wanders old streets, tasting inexpensive local
snacks and chatting to people in residential areas or food markets.

"People are what I most want to know about in each place," he said.
"They are the soul of a city.

"Many friends ask me how I'm able travel to so many cities on such a
tight budget. They wonder how I can put up with cheap food and
accommodation. But as long as I can find fun in knowing the people and
the place, it is all worthwhile."

In his travel diary, Mr Liao has reserved the highest praise for the
Shanhaiguan region of Qinghuangdao in Hebei province because of the
simple kindness shown to a visitor.

One hour after asking three old men the way to a tourist attraction, Mr
Liao bumped into them again at a bus stop. They got off their bicycles
and asked him if he had gone the right way.

"They were so sincere people and so nice to a stranger."

In Mr Liao's eyes, every city is different. "Older people should be
curious about everything. Don't take it for granted that each city is
the same. They are not.

"Chinese people, especially ones like me who did not have the chance to
travel when they were young, should go out and have a look."

While not exactly non-touristy some of the rural areas around Dali in
Yunnan province are very picturesque.  Due to the mountainous terrain
there are many highly terraced farm fields that make for amazing
scenary.  Getting off the beaten track will mean you can't be picky
about food or accomodations.

How's your Mandarin language skills?  Anyone good enough to 'act as a
tour guide' would be one, their pay is many times that of the average  
worker, especially in rural areas.