Coming Home to Yangshuo

10 | Tuesday, October 6, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY TRAVEL A bird’s eye view of the picturesque karst landscape of Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. DENG BIN / FOR CHINA DAILY Coming home to Yangshuo By LI YANG A new generation of villagers is catering to a new generation of tourists, For the farmers, the thriving [email protected] homestay industry brings more as homestays employ 10,000 people in the Yangshuo county of Guilin than jobs and money. It brings with Orchard owners in Yangshuo it a modern way of life. county of Guilin city, Guangxi Zhu- Sandee, the tourist from Bei- ang autonomous region, have little jing, said the services provided by to worry about harvesting their the villagers in the homestays are yield when it starts raining fruits on It is the young people different from the hospitality one their premises. They are employing who have injected sees in city hotels. “It makes you people from around the world to do feel you are cared for,” Sandee it for free. In fact, Yangshuo is open- vitality in the villages says. “For instance, they will greet ing many a door to tourists to stay by exploring ways to you like a family member and take with them, enjoy their hospitality the initiative to help when they and share the fruits of their labor. bridge their fear you might get caught in the “Wonderful getaway experience. hometown and the rain or lose yourself in the moun- The staff at the hotel made every- tains.” thing easy and doable including but outside world.” Wang Jie, a tourist guide in Yang- not limited to picking up to and Fang Quanxing, vice-chair of shuo, said locals regard tourists as from Guilin train station, fabulously Guilin Homestay Association their friends, or even family mem- comfortable rooms, great restau- bers, which not only brings them rant and menu, bike rentals, and a more regular customers but also raft drifting down the river. We only Zhang Xiaoyang, deputy Party makes them happy. had a long weekend, wish it had chief of Yangshuo, said the home- Fang Quanxing, vice-chair of Guil- been longer. Am already looking for- stays not only create jobs for some in Homestay Association, attributes ward ... when I can visit again.” impoverished farmers, but also the success of Yangshuo’s homestay That’s how Karen B, a tourist help them sell their agricultural industry to the involvement of the from Greater Adelaide in Australia, produce, thus becoming an impor- younger generation. describes her stay at Tea Cozy on tant tool for poverty alleviation in “The young people can change a TripAdvisor. the county. whole village’s fate, as they have a The “hotel” she is referring to is Some homestays are renovated stronger desire to pursue a better actually a homestay in Yangshuo, houses that are hundreds of years life and are more skilled in using the which now has around 1,000 home- old and invariably located in the internet to sniff business opportuni- stays. XingPing Island Resort in Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, is an example of how home- mountains or beside the rivers. ties,” Fang says. “Living in a homestay puts me stays try to fit into the natural landscape. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Chen Ronghua, who owns six “It is the young people who have closer to local customs and practic- homestays in Yangshuo, pays spe- injected vitality into the villages by es. The homestays in Yangshuo, cial attention to ensuring any altera- exploring ways to bridge their with the leisure activities they orga- near Gongnong Bridge on the owe their living to the tourism his farmland revenue. tion during renovation gels well hometown and the outside world. nize, ranging from handicraft to Yulong River. It has now grown into industry in this county. Around 20 out of 70 families in with the natural landscape and And it is this special experience painting, slow paced life,” says an industry employing 10,000 peo- The tourism industry is the village run homestays; even the overall construction style. The more that Yangshuo offers that is pulling another tourist, from Beijing, who ple in the county of 300,000. rebounding quickly as the novel remaining ones rent out their place “invisible” a homestay is, the more tourists from around the world.” calls herself Sandee. Wu Jianyuan, a 30-year-old from coronavirus has largely been sometimes. attractive it becomes, he says. According to Zhou Yan, head of The homestays in Yangshuo amid Jiwodu village in Yangshuo, brought under control in China. Tourists are also invited to pick Almost all homestay owners in the Yangshuo local government, the beautiful landscape, and the cultur- returned to her hometown to work The booking rate at homestays in fruits in the farmers’ orchards. With Yangshuo are unanimous about government introduced a regula- al events they organize appeal to as a front desk manager at a home- Yangshuo, particularly the high- a large influx of tourists, farmers are carefully preserving the environ- tion in 2018 to better regulate the tourists who have specific needs stay after gaining experience work- end ones, has almost returned to less bothered about what to do with ment, ecology and way of life in the homestay industry’s development. these days, says Cheng Bing, a pro- ing in hotels in Guangdong and the pre-pandemic level. their yield. Liao Dongxiu, a 62-year- villages. The same year, a homestay associa- fessor of tourism studies with Guilin Jiangsu provinces. “The payment is Homestays have created a way for old farmer in Liandaowan village of No wonder many tourists find tion was founded in the county, Tourism University. “The charm lies better here. Life and work are stable, farmers to get a slice of the tourism Yangshuo, who manages an orange their county experience memorable. which has now become an effective in the integration of the landscape and Yangshuo is not only a beautiful industry’s cake. orchard, said: “Ever since tourists Wirral Walker, who was Chen’s platform for the industry to and culture,” says Cheng. place, but my home too,” she says. Zheng Jiancheng, a farmer in began arriving, we have stopped guest, said on TripAdvisor: “The strengthen self-regulation and As one of China’s early tourist des- Wu is one of many migrant workers Huashan village of Yangshuo, opened bothering about picking up the scenery stunning with the karst exchanges among its members. tinations to open up to the world in from Yangshuo who returned to a two-room homestay in 2015. It now fruits ourselves, as tourists love to peaks overlooking the swimming the early 1980s, Yangshuo got its work in her hometown. It is estimat- has eight rooms. He says his earnings do it for us. And the oranges also get pool. It provided us with images of Li Ziyu and Wu Yijun in Yangshuo first homestay in the mid-1980s ed that more than 80,000 people from the homestay is about five times sold quickly.” China we will never forget.” contributed to this story. Road opens up a new Shangri-La By LI YANG aged to preserve its traditional ever stepped out of village until to raising pigs and growing cash embroidery; shengxiao, or playing recently. crops.“Years ago I used to ask my A road built with government of a kind of reed-pipe wind instru- Now, 93 percent of laborers from husband if we can ever move from support connecting Qucun village ment; and its women’s style of curl- the village work as chefs, electri- our shack to a ‘concrete house’,” she in Sanjiang Dong autonomous ing up their long hair into a typical cians, drivers and construction says. “I now live in a three-storey county of the Guangxi Zhuang bun. workers in the cities, thanks to voca- house.” autonomous region with the near- When Red Yao girls turn 13, they tional trainings organized by the Qucun village epitomizes Sanji- est town has brought this hitherto start learning how to weave from county government. ang county, home to multiple ethnic hidden treasure to the world and their mother or grandmother. They The fast development of tourism groups, where the well-preserved the world to its doors. conceive designs directly on the and popularity of local agricultural natural environment and ethnic The road has essentially shorten- cloth without any pre-drawn pat- products in recent years have culture have brought tangible bene- ed commute time from more than 5 tern. For generations, Red Yao wom- helped lift many Qucun residents fits to local residents. hours to just 50 minutes. Now not en have been wearing clothes they out of poverty. Sanjiang has the largest architec- only do tourists, capital and knowl- have themselves wove. Around 160 of the 251 village fam- tural complex of the Dong ethnic edge flow in, but also agricultural They keep their hair long, letting ilies once lived in dilapidated hous- group in China, consisting of 108 produce and surplus laborers flow it grow since childhood; curling it es. Their houses have been rebuilt or shelter bridges and 159 drum tow- out of the village through it. up into a bun later in life and wrap- they have been rehabilitated, says ers, as well as large amounts of Dong Many tourists call this place — ping it up in a black embroidered Deng Yibin, a 35-year-old civil ser- residential building clusters. home to the Red Yao people, a hood when they grow older. They vant in Nanning, capital of Guangxi, Paying special attention to pro- branch of the Yao ethnic group, for apply special hair care supplements who has been working as secretary tecting the environment and ethnic thousands of years — a kind of and have a special hairdressing cus- of the villagers’ committee for three culture, locals are taking advantage Shangri-La.

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