Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
has championed travel to Tibet, most recently describing it as a “bucket list destination”
with not even a hint of the sporadic bloody protests there. In an email sent out in March
2012, WildChina told would-be clients, “There is something very special about visiting
the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, witnessing monks in worship, soaking in the panoramic
views of the Himalayas and having your first sip of yak butter tea. . . . ”
Six days earlier, two young Tibetan women had burned themselves in protest against
Chinese rule. One year before, twenty-four Tibetans committed suicide as political
protest. The situation was so tense in 2008 and early 2009 that China banned foreigners,
including tourists, from visiting Tibet, canceling all foreign tours. The Chinese are trying
to maneuver around the politics and hold on to the tourism that makes up 20 percent
of the economy. The government built a road to the village where the fourteenth Dalai
Lama was born but forbids tourists from entering the house where he lived. To this day, it
is a crime to own a picture of the Dalai Lama.
In the Chinese tourism game there is no other choice but to stay within the bright lines
of political correctness drawn by the government. On my last night in Beijing, Zhang in-
vited me to her home, where I met her three lively children. Her husband was away on
work. There is nothing extravagant about her lifestyle save the car and driver required to
navigate Beijing traffic. When we started discussing Zhang's future plans, her youngest
daughter said, “Mommy likes to travel but she loves to be with us more.”
We delayed the conversation until Zhang walked me to a cab. “Wild-China is privately
held and now it is comfortable for me, a small cash cow. But the dream is too small. If
outbound takes off, then I could combine the two and be ready to take it public and to
grow. I'll need some pretty big growth to break through. That's what I'm working on.”
That description of her goals paralleled my last interview with Albar. Marriott, he said,
was building its brand in China and through China. “We require a thirty-year, iron-clad
contract for every hotel we manage here with the highest standards—far stricter than the
Chinese standards. We turn down more opportunities than we accept. We can't get it
wrong in China—this is the new world.”
• • •
After my stay in Beijing, I joined my husband Bill in Shanghai, where we began our travel
through China as tourists. There is a fierce modern-day rivalry between Shanghai and
Beijing in most spheres. Shanghai plays the role of New York City—the economic hub of
the country, a trading giant that faces the sea, and the biggest city, one with swagger and
attitude. If the comparison were a direct parallel, Beijing would be Washington, D.C., the
staid, single-minded capital of the United States. But Beijing has more of the feel of Ber-
lin, with its heavy history and its search for a modern identity as the newly emerged power
center of the Asian continent.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search