World China Yunnan Lijiang

What I did on my holidays - 2005/6

Lijiang 13 Aug 2005

Oh my god what have they done to this place?! Lijiang is now tourist central. The old Naxi minority buildings are still in place, but they've all (at least in the prettier, central areas) become Camden market style tourist shops, bohemian cafes, or thin-walled guesthouses. Why? Because the place is now overrun with tourists.

This used to be a charming, old, traditional cobble-streeted town with old man carrying caged birds over the quaint stone bridges and women gossiping on stone benches beside the network of water channels. Channel 4's 1994 documentary "Beyond the Clouds" was filmed here. It used to just be visited by Western backpackers. But now that the Chinese have become tourists they are all coming here, to see one of the few old towns that has been missed by the wrecking ball of development.

And they get the full tourist show. Costumed women dance in circles in the new old town square. You might think that it was spontaneous, as it had been in Deqin, except that they carry on under umbrellas in torrential rain - no doubt under some sort of contractual obligation. And that's the problem, really, the old town used to have life but now it exists just for the tourist hordes.

It's frightening to think that the Chinese internal tourism boom has only just begun. Only a few years ago, it's not an exaggeration to say that the Chinese hardly travelled at all: now they all seem to be at it, mostly in groups but including some student backpackers all with immaculate, brightly-coloured waterproofs and all the latest travel accessories. You can't deny them the right, of course, but the crowds, and the noise and development that accompany them have really changed the China travel experience for the worse. It's another world from how it used to be, and not a good place to revisit nine years on. But that's not really a surprise.

It's been raining almost permanently here, which just makes it worse. The narrow stone alleys are filled with umbrella-wielding Chinese, mostly gathered into groups, of course, for maximum obstruction potential.

It's just about possible to find some empty alleyways away from the centre of the old town, especially when it's raining, and of course the local authorities are expanding the old town (!) to accommodate the burgeoning hordes. But generally speaking it's too late to come here, I'm afraid.

A side trip out to an old stone city perched above the Yangtze is therefore attempted, but predictably turns into an odyssey. First of all, the 8am bus (which of course doesn't leave from the bus station - that would be too easy) leaves at 10am. Then it happens to pass through a national park, so officials at the entry gate scan the passengers for white faces and attempt to charge them a surprise Y120 (9 pounds) entry fee. We argue politely that we're not visiting the park and didn't even know there was one here - we're just going to Baoshan stone city, we say. "Show me your bus ticket", they bark, but of course there are no tickets because the bus didn't leave from the bus station.

"Why are you only charging foreigners?", we ask. This was my real issue with paying the entry fee. If the Chinese are charged it, then I'll happily pay it, although it did seem rather silly to turn a national highway into a national park, so that you can't even travel north without paying an excessive fee. "The other passengers are all local people [they weren't - at least one was a Chinese tourist from northeast China, and anyway she hadn't asked anyone for proof of residence]. All tourists must pay", is the reply.

Having instructed the driver not to let us off inside the park, they try to charge us a Y40 entry fee for the preservation [destruction, more like] of the old town of Lijiang, regardless of the fact that we're actually leaving it and that we weren't charged anything when we did enter (on a major highway). They say that we will have to get off the bus if we don't pay, so I ask if we have to stay in Lijiang forever unless we pay Y40 to be allowed to leave. The logic of our argument and the ridiculousness of the situation is lost on them: they just like to shout and glare for a living. You just can't try to reason with authority here: it doesn't get you anywhere. It's amazing how personally they take it, too. It's like they will lose the money themselves if you don't pay, which does make you wonder if the tickets they issue are genuine.

The Chinese generally deny that there is any racism in their country. Even leaving aside the whole thorny issue of the treatment of its minorities, and the experiences that black travellers have here, there certainly is - at least at an institutional level. Imagine if the UK barred foreigners from staying in the vast majority of its cheaper hotels, charged only foreigners an "insurance fee" for bus tickets, or if I were to stand at the edge of the Lake District and charge any Chinese I see an entry fee to leave the area. They have simply excluded foreigners for so much of their history that many people don't really know what racism is. It's a very minor thing compared to other forms of racism across the globe, I know, but it still spoils the China travel experience, especially having come from Pakistan and Tibetan regions where there is such hospitality towards any form of stranger.

On arrival at Baoshan via some beautiful scenery, the bus will go no further because landslides make the road too dangerous. It's an estimated 21km walk to the stone city, which a Chinese student grossly underestimates as an hour and a half. The terrain here is all up and down, and the road is muddy (although the sun is now out). We have no success in finding sensibly priced onward transport, and this village is so remote that there is no through traffic. On the plus side, it's well off the tourist trail.

So we resign ourselves to staying in Baoshan and travelling back to Lijiang the following day. 7am departure, says the driver, who is overnighting here too. We awake at 6.45am and just miss a bus to the stone city. We had spent most of the previous afternoon trying to get there, but no one had thought to tell us about this early morning bus. And that, I'm afraid, is all too typical. The Chinese may be well educated, but the schooling system doesn't teach its pupils how to think. (That's my theory, anyway.) I'm sure this is quite deliberate. The last thing a totalitarian regime overseeing a billion people wants is a population that can think for itself.

The only good thing about Lijiang, apart from all the pizza restaurants, is that there are well stocked copy CD shops here, although you do have to be careful what you are buying. Kenny Lodgers and Lichade Kelaideman are probably best avoided, but the new "Coolplay" album is a good investment.