The Post You've All Been Waiting For

Alright, so I'm finally going to write a little bit about my vacation. I have arrived at the decision to write this post based on the fact that over the weekend I finally got around to posting pictures.

SO, first, I want to talk about the difference between Chinese tourism and Western tourism.

We often talk about how bad it is to make broad cultural generalizations. You're not supposed to say "Chinese people are all this way" or "French people are all like this." However, there are some cases where these stereotypes are very true. There is definitely a Chinese style of tourism, and it is very different from Western Tourism.

Paul Theroux aptly describes Chinese tourism as a type of pilgrimage. I don't know if he's correct about Chinese enjoying crowded places, but Chinese tourists definitely like to go to places that are well known for tourism. If a destination is well known, then you can be sure that there will be tons of Chinese tourists there. They don't go to experience a place, they go just to take a look and say that they've been there. Or, if there is some activity associated with the attraction, then they go to participate in that activity--at any cost.

The cost is sometimes a fortune in hard currency, and sometimes a more physical struggle. The problem, of course, is that Chinese don't generally have a lot of money, so corners must be cut in order to save.

Therefore, we took a hard-seat train to Nanning. Twenty-seven hours sitting in cramped quarters surrounded by people who either can't afford or missed their chance to buy a seat at all is not the ideal way to travel. We left Beijing in high spirits and arrived in Nanning unhappy, sore and only semi-sane. The worst part was that there was nothing to do in Nanning, and the friends we were supposed to meet had already moved on to greener pastures.

Unfortunately, we were traveling Chinese style, and half of our party really wanted to go to Weizhou island. This was unfortunate because there is absolutely nothing to do in Weizhou. We already knew that the weather was going to be lousy and that the conditions were not great, but by god it's a tourist attraction! It's as beautiful as Hawaii! You can enjoy the local cuisine! Swim in the clear water!

Well, the brochure did describe Hawaii pretty well, but Weizhou is nothing like Oahu. It's mainly a fishing town, and the interior of the island is blanketed by banana farms. They are even less interesting to look at than the Banana plantations of Hawaii because the farms operate the same as all Chinese farms: small plots are farmed by individual families. Everything about the place is extremely average except for the tourism industry which is extremely sub-par.

As we had nothing to do there for two days, we decided to cave in and spend the RMB 150/person to try scuba diving. I don't know that much about diving, but I know when something is fishy (so to speak). I was handed a wet-suit that would have fit three of me, and some kind of water shoes instead of fins. When I tried to explain that A suit that large would not actually work properly, the 12-year-old in charge of equipment just said "it doesn't matter." Thanks. The "instructors" also had a hard time believing that fins would be a useful piece of equipment. They are probably used to dealing with Chinese people who don't know how to swim.

After being outfitted, we should have known that we were in for a ride. We went along with it, though, because we weren't going very far away from shore. Things only got more ridiculous once we got in the water, though. The Chinese method of "teaching" was to sneak up behind the guests and push them under water. We also weren't allowed to let go of our "instructor."

We finally made it out to the coral by being dragged. Too bad that for all that work, we only got to see a fish and a bunch of dead coral that the very thoughtful guides ripped out of the sand to show us. We got a great look at a destroyed eco-system--thanks to the wonders of Chinese tourism.

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Luckily, even the Chinese friends I was with realized that the situation in Weizhou was less than ideal. When we finally got off the island, we high-tailed it up to Yangshuo to meet our friends. They had stayed in the same town all week and were having a great time. Yangshuo is well-equiped for Western tourism. From a number of agencies in the town, you can arrange tours on the river, through the mountains and into the farmland. There is world-class rock-climbing with well qualified guides, and plenty of other safe and fun ways to enjoy the small rural town, which has a surprising number of restaurants and bars for a town in the middle of nowhere. The three days we spent in Yangshuo were the only real vacation we had all week.

And the cultural difference in tourism is real. Pierre and I stayed in Yangshuo with our other Western friends, but our Chinese companions fled back to Guilin to see the more well-known sites. They spent another 2 days waiting in crowds and staring at rocks with names, while we spent 2 days relaxing and enjoying nature.

I'm not allowed to say that one style of tourism is better than another, but Western tourism is certainly more pleasant. We may spend a lot of money on vacation, but it gives us the chance to relax and enjoy our time off. Chinese tourism involves to much hustle and too much argument--Things that can easily be found without leaving home and normal life.