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Deng, who was only 5 feet tall, poses on the trail wearing dark Bermuda shorts, a white
tee-shirt and white socks bunching up around his ankles. That image was slightly shocking
for a leader who normally wore buttoned-up Mao suits. Deng was conveying his idea of a
tourist at leisure, down to resting on a hiker's cane. His message was simple. China's lead-
er was endorsing tourism at Huangshan, one of China's most renowned mountain land-
scapes. Everyone was expected to fall in line behind him and build up the industry.
Another surprise in these tourism talks was Tibet. Deng singled out Tibet as a key at-
traction in his vision of Chinese tourism. “We should develop tourist routes to Tibet. For-
eigners are interested in Tibet. . . . We should build hotels in Lhasa,” he said, conjuring
up images of planeloads of tourists drawn to exotic Tibet and spending their money in new
hotels built by the Chinese.
China's rule of Tibet has prompted bitter condemnation since Chinese troops marched
into the Himalayan country in 1950 and asserted it was part of China. Tibetans have re-
belled intermittently ever since against Chinese Communist rule over their strict Buddhist
culture; Tibetan monks burn themselves in protest against Chinese heavy-handedness.
Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama received a Nobel Prize for his peaceful protest against Chinese
rule, and movie stars have joined the global Free Tibet movement to force the Chinese to
listen to international public opinion.
Tourism is the one policy that has diluted this opprobrium over China's handling of
Tibet. It took two decades to realize Deng's vision of building a modern rail link to whisk
tourists to the Himalayan kingdom, but once that was accomplished, nearly 2 million tour-
ists have visited Tibet every year. They are entranced by the pagodas and palaces carved
on the rooftop of the world. And their Chinese guides give the tourists a happy version of
the recent history that tourists accept as something close to the truth. To the list of reasons
why China refuses to give Tibet greater freedom and autonomy, add tourism and the $300
million spent every year by the 3 million visitors.
Deng's tourism talks were farsighted in predicting the downside of China for tourists.
The main problem, he said, was pollution, and this was in 1979 when China's pollution
problems were minor compared to what China faces today. Deng used the example of
Guilin, a city encircled by mountains and divided by two rivers to underline how China's
industrial growth threatened the environment and, therefore, tourism. “Water pollution in
the Lijiang River is very serious. We must do everything to prevent it. Factories that caused
water pollution should be closed. Mountain and water scenery in Guilin is the best in the
world. If the water is not clean, how can tourism be sustainable?”
He also said the Chinese had lost their instinct for hospitality and become inept if not
boring when it came to entertaining foreign tourists. He wanted China to build cinemas
and entertainment spaces and be welcoming to tourists. “Who will pay money and come
for a visit if service attitudes are not good and the place is dirty? Even if some may have
come, they would not have satisfaction.” The answer was training, he said, for interpret-
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