Attractions & Humanity

Local Attractions

It's hard being a tourist at the best of times. With few comprehensive sources of information, guide books become your best friends.

As a result, travellers tend to blindly follow suggested attractions, and that "must see, quiet, crowd free" place becomes everyone's prime destination. In the well oiled world of backpackers, the ubiquitous Lonely Planet guide book series has taken on the moniker "The Crowded Planet".

The trick is to decide whether you really want to see what everyone else is seeing. Most travellers I meet are bent on going to specific places in order to photograph a view that someone else has already published in a guide book. Who cares if the photo is out of focus? As long as they can show their friends and say "I was there!"

Attractions for Local Tourists

China is set up for its most prolific tourists who are, in fact, Chinese. Everywhere you go there are thousands of domestic Chinese tourists on package tours. At some of the main sites in Beijing the Chinese tourists are so numerous you can find yourself at a standstill in crowds of hundreds or more. And what is really cool is that they wear coloured baseball caps and follow their tour guides who hold up flags or umbrellas so that the tour groups can follow.

The domestic tourist economy is apparently incredibly powerful.

I reckon that, out of a population of 1.3 billion, I must have bumped into about 0.3 billion of them on package tours. (That's about 300 million, isn't it? It sure feels like it! And about half of those wanted to get a photo with me. That was a fun novelty for a while, until I found I wasted large amounts of time just smiling for pictures. If I had one Chinese Yuan for every photo I agreed to be in...)

The thing is that my preconception of a weak Chinese economy is clearly illusory. Relatively high (for locals) entry fees means that a lot of money is getting bandied around in China.

Attractions for Foreign Tourist

When in doubt, or tired, or just plain lazy, I have been going to see tourist sites recommended by the guide books or hostels. And they are almost always sites of interest to the Chinese traveller, developed and accessible to Chinese people. Very little is tailored for the foreign or western tourist. It's amazing that local tourists travel thousands of kilometres to see yet another temple. Well I'm sorry, but my spiritual well-being does not extend to visiting every temple under the sun. I have seen Buddhist temples in Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, S. Korea and elsewhere, such as China. Sure, they're interesting. I've seen 'em in caves, on mountains and on rivers; new, old, private and public. But at some point, you gotta move on and see something unique. (That's not to say that I do not share interests with Chinese tourists. Sometimes I do).

Locals as an Attraction

Like I said, foreign tourists blinker themselves when travelling, trying to reach those 'must see' attractions. Many don't understand why I travel slowly, exploring in depth specific places and the people who live there. After all, who would actually want to make the effort to speak to the locals?

For me, learning a few words in the local language allows for amazing interactions that cannot be gleaned from a guide book.

(Penelope is all for this approach and, as you have seen, loves meeting the locals. And let's face it, she has a way with them. She leaves the task of learning the language to me. It did result in a small crisis last week when she needed to buy some "ladies things" and my Mandarin did not extend to such items. A bit of confusing body language and gesticulation at the pharmacy overcame the problem but it did get a bit hairy there for a few minutes...)

For me the real deal is not when I visit a site that someone else tells me that I want to visit but when someone in the street approaches me to ask if I need help, to ask where I am from, or to test their English. It is the humanity that is shared when locals approach me with a smile, trying to connect, and in a strange mix of Mandarin, English and sign language we share our respective stories. It's offering some fruit to fellow travellers on a train with whom you do not share a common language; the simple gesture of extending a hand holding an orange represents kindness, warmth and sharing. It's seeing the distant glazed look on a stranger's face turn to a warm smile when Penelope waives her little paws and calls out "Ni Hao !" (Hello) in her utterly ridiculous, high pitched voice.

I am not the only one who thinks this way, but we are not the mainstream. Let those other western tourists have their views and temples; I've got more than a billion people here to talk to.

Catch ya later

Al