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Tourism takes off in Chinese villages
By ZEKE BARLOW
© St. Petersburg Times, MOON HILL VILLAGE, China -- Two years ago, Gui Feng Xu looked up from the rice paddy where she had worked for most of her life and saw throngs of tourists ambling through her rural village. As the number of visitors to the area's scenic limestone cliffs kept growing, Gui and about half the village's 400 residents gave up farming for tourism. Now the 22-year-old goes by the name Lucy at her jobs as a tour guide and receptionist at a nearby hotel. "I want to improve my English," she said. "I want to own my own business. I am tired of working in the fields." In many villages across China, tourist dollars are luring villagers like Gui away from subsistence farming and allowing them to escape poverty. Some families have earned enough from tourism to send their children to college and purchase luxury items. Tourism, foreign and domestic, is exploding across the world's most populous country. Since China opened its doors in the early 1980s, the nation has become the sixth biggest vacation destination in the world. Last year, China attracted 31-million overseas visitors, including 890,000 Americans, accounting for $56-billion and 5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, according to the China National Tourism Board. The board estimates that the number of annual overseas visitors will reach 135-million by 2020, generating $397-billion or 8 percent of GDP, and make China the most visited country on Earth. Armed for the first time with disposable income, China's emerging middle class is hitting the road in unprecedented numbers. The tourism board says there were 744-million Chinese tourists in 2000, the world's highest total of domestic tourists. "The tourism industry is expected to become the state's new economic pillar," Wei Xiaoan, director of the Planning and Finance Department of the National Tourism Administration, told the China Daily recently. Many Chinese say that Moon Hill, which draws tens of thousands of tourists each year, is the most beautiful spot on Earth. The limestone arch is famous for its moon-shaped hole, and the Buddha Water Caves, which tourists can slosh through. At their service are scores of villagers who work as tour guides, guest house hosts or hawkers, pestering visitors for a photograph with a water buffalo, bottled water or postcards. It is no wonder they are aggressive. The average annual rural salary is 900 yuan ($109), the price of a one-way plane ticket from Beijing to Shanghai. The standard price for a photo next to a water buffalo is 2 yuan or 24 cents, enough to purchase a kilogram of rice. Former farmer Shuibao Cheng said he barely earned enough money to feed his family of four after toiling all day in the fields and selling vegetables on the side. Since he became manager of the Buddha Water Caves, he has put his son through college and bought a television and VCR. "I want a BMW," he said, a beeper and cell phone hanging from his belt. In the village, television has replaced traditional activities including visits to neighboring villages to attend dances and ceremonies. "Yes, things are changing, but we have more now," Shuibao said. "I can send my children to school and buy things. Things are better now." And as the potential for earning money increases, time spent with family has decreased. Some villagers, who work as guides or hawkers in between stints in the rice paddies, say they work twice as much as they did before. Time once spent with family and friends is spent by the side of the road, competing with neighbors to sell goods to tourists. But Shuibao says tourism is well worth the price, having already paid for roads, electricity and a new television tower. He hopes that Moon Hill will one day resemble nearby Yangshuo. Yangshuo, a 20-minute drive away, is a Westernized city of 285,000 people that caters to English-speaking tourists. In Yangshuo, visitors can eat pizza and burritos at restaurants with names like Planet Yangshuo and Hard Rock Cafe. Last year, some 200,000 tourists visited the city on the Li River, double the number five years ago, according to Zhaogui Huang, the city's director of tourism. If Moon Hill becomes a smaller version of Yangshuo, some of the younger residents like Gui Feng Xu may not be around to see the change. She is considering going to business school in Shanghai. "Tourism has been great for our village," she said while helping her father prepare lunch for several tourists in the family kitchen. "It has brought us great change."
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