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Home , Jinghong, Nakhi people, Tiger Leaping Gorge

THINKING AHEAD, JUNE 2010 | ISSUE 15 THINKING AHEAD, JUNE 2010 | ISSUE 15 On the road in Expect the unexpected…

JAIME URIBE CO-HEAD OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS MARKETING

Although I was struck by the vastness of both cities, the density I was curious to investigate how many European cities have of their population, congested traffic, modern buildings, a population exceeding one million inhabitants, compared to exquisite food, historical sites, and business activity; a lot of China. According to http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/ it was as I expected it to be. Both cities have been frequently largest-cities-mayors-301.html there are 37 such cities in the exposed in the media (television, magazines, newspapers, etc), enlarged Europe (including Russia’s Moscow), while there are and almost never a day goes by without China, and its most 130 in China. But more staggering, McKinsey, the consulting active business centres, being mentioned. firm, in a report issued in March of last year: ‘Preparing for China’s urban billion’ is predicting that by 2025 China will have While working from our Hong-Kong office a long-time friend 219 cities with more than one million inhabitants and 24 cities suggested that I join him on a road trip through what he with more than five million. This gives an idea of the dimension described as one of China’s most beautiful and diverse regions. of the human, infrastructural and logistical issues that China His offer was very appealing as, having taken an interest in has to manage on its road to transforming itself from a rural and Following on from an enlargement of our team responsibilities, to include the Asian markets, the country and having read so much about its economic agricultural society to an urban and industrial one. I started travelling to the region in September 2009. I spent several weeks at a time meeting transformation, I was very keen to see for myself how people in existing and prospective clients, learning about their business and expectations while updating the countryside, as well as provincial urbanites, lived. I expected Our self-drive journey took us over 2,300km from the Tibetan much of the country to be a uniform sprawl of towns, factories town of Shangri-La at 3,300m above sea level in north-west them on our new organisation. It was during these trips that I had the opportunity to visit and pockets of farmland. Of course reality turned out to be , south to and Dali and the sub-tropical region and on several occasions. very different, and the trip was a memorable experience, full of Xishuangbanna where we drove across the border into . of surprises along the way. Once in Laos we travelled via Luang Namtha to the Thai border – marked by the River. Once in Thailand, we travelled through the Golden Triangle before reaching our destination of after 12 days on the road.

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Yunnan lies in the south-west corner of China, tucked fast Our journey started in , capital of Yunnan province, In 2001 Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan officially renamed itself The Nakhi are an ethnic group inhabiting the foothills of the against China’s borders with Vietnam, Laos and . where we needed to complete our temporary driving license Shangri-La – the initiative of an entrepreneurial mayor looking to in the northwestern part of Yunnan Province, as well The province’s topography runs to extremes, from the icy applications (China does not recognise International Driving attract visitors to this far corner of China. as the southwestern part of Province. The Nakhi are heights of Mt Kawagebo (6,740m) in northern Yunnan to the Permits). I had never heard of Kunming before, but was thought to have come originally from . Nakhi culture is steamy low-lying plain around in the south (390m). astounded to find that this city of seven million inhabitants Although not officially part of Tibet’s territory, Tibet’s influence largely a mixture of Tibetan and influences, with This unusual geography makes Yunnan one of the most diverse was also home to familiar luxury brands – from Louis Vuitton, is strong. It is present in its Buddhist temples, food, architecture, some indigenous elements. Agriculture is the main occupation of and interesting places to travel in China. Escada, Versace, Prada to Porsche. While these are out of reach clothing and people’s ethnic affiliation. There is something the . The chief crops are rice, maize, wheat, potatoes, for much of the city’s population, their presence speaks of the serene about it. Although I had lived at high altitude (2,600m) beans, hemp and cotton. While China’s roads are reputedly among the world’s most aspirations of millions of Chinese people. during my early years, and was aware of the effects of altitude dangerous, we’re in good hands here in Yunnan. Our host, Peter on the body, I had overestimated my capacity to adapt to Among some of the Nakhi people in Yunnan Province, there still Schindler, former racing car driver and management consultant From Kunming we took an early flight to Shangri-La. When, Shangri-La’s height, and I needed a couple of oxygen bottles existed remnants of a matriarchal family structure. The pedigree of (for more, see page 18), is a veteran of China’s roads, having prior to travelling, I tried to check the weather forecast for the and an aspirin to settle down. the family was traced back through the maternal line, and children driven thousands of kilometres there – including over 20,000km city we were travelling to, the search function of the web portal lived with the mother. The woman was the head of the family, and in a Lotus on a charity drive in 2007. With Schindler’s advice I was using could not locate it. I was surprised. It turns out that Our journey took us next to Lijiang, an 800 yeard old Unesco World the property was passed to the children through the mother, or to to us – ‘YES’ (Yield, Expect the unexpected’, Sound your horn) several cities in the Himalayas claim to be the paradisiacal city of Heritage Site. Lijiang old town is famous for its orderly system of the nephews through the mother’s brothers. Women comprised the – crackling over the car’s walkie-talkie, we set out on our journey. Shangri-La as described in James Hilton’s novel ‘Lost Horizons’. waterways and bridges, and as the home the Nakhi people. main labour force, respected at home and in outside society…

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A short ride outside Lijiang, there is a great cultural show Map of our journey Impression Lijiang demonstrating the traditions and lifestyles of the Nakhi , Yi and Bai peoples of the area. The show takes place inside the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Park at 3,500m high in an outdoor theatre specifically designed to showcase the mountain Zhongdian – Yunnan’s Shangri-la which is used as a backdrop. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is a mountain massif visible from Lijiang and capped all year round. Its Lijiang – UNESCO World Heritage Site highest peak is Shanzidou at 5,596m. The view of the massif from the gardens at the in Lijiang is noted as one of Dali a Lake Erhai China’s finest views. The far side of the mountain forms one side of Tiger Leaping Gorge (which you can see in the first picture of Kunming this article). Yunnan The remainder of our journey took us to Lijiang, Chuxiong, and Jinghong. On the way we visited the Linden centre (http://www. lindens.cn), the amazing project of an American couple who have created a wonderful oasis in the middle of the Chinese countryside and devoted their lives to the conservation and promotion of Biosphere Reserve Xishuang Banna Chinese culture. We crossed the and the Mekong rivers, two of Asia’s longest rivers on which millions of people depend for their livelihood. Golden Triangle Nham Ha Ecotourism Region Doi Mae Salong Laos We drove through vast expanses of agricultural land and I was very surprised by the almost total absence of mechanical Chiangmai devices to deal with agricultural tasks – whether to plant, Thailand irrigate or harvest. As far as I could observe, all of these tasks are dealt by with sheer human power. Manual labour is still the most cost-effective method in many cases, and it is impossible to ignore the country’s enormous population, and the size of the workforce is itself incredible. It is here that one realises the vast human reservoir China has and how it has achieved the amazing headline growth figures over the last decade. Together with the realisation that their prosperity simply comes from the Chinese peoples’ desire for a better life for themselves and their children.

As I watched Bai minority ladies mending the roads near Dali, I realised that it is a common mistake to refer to the Chinese people as a uniform group of individuals with a common language and culture. Throughout our trip every few kilometres the clothing people wore changed, the architecture changed, food changed; and the landscape changed yet we only explored a small part of China. Officially there are 55 ethnic minorities in China in addition to the Han majority.

For anyone with an interest in seeing for themselves and trying to understand what lies behind China’s transformation and economic success, I would recommend this trip, it is the trip of a lifetime! http://www.ontheroadinchina.com/

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The trip designers:

PETER SCHINDLER Pity the customs official who needs to deal with Peter when he crosses a border by car. His documents can be rather confusing, if not downright suspicious. His car has an Austrian licence plate, he holds a Swiss passport but it shows that his residence is in Hong Kong. As for his driving licence, take your pick: two from China, one from the US, and several other countries and his miniature laminated marriage certificate says that his Malaysian-Chinese wife is Australian!

When he was a lot younger, he raced automobiles in Europe (Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula Super-V and Renault Elf) for four years and on occasion even successfully.

He then entered the ‘dark years’ of his life during which he studied IT at MIT and Business at INSEAD. Painfully, he heaved himself up to become an associate partner in Accenture’s China Practice. Then it was time to move on.

However his passion for driving has never left him, in 2005, Peter Schindler it resulted in a book which BBC Radio called a love letter to the pleasures of being on an open road: On the Road – Driving Adventures, Pleasures and Discoveries (See www.ontheroadeditions.com)

Having driven a million-plus kilometres over the years on roads in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, and loving every moment of it, he nowadays quenches his thirst for driving by taking to the roads of China. The upshot is www.ontheroadinchina.com, a company through which he offers driving holidays in China and wants to show the world just how beautiful China can be. On the road in China In 2007 Peter completed an incredible journey from the mouth to the source of the Yangtze (and on to ) and then from On the Road in China specialises in guided driving journeys sat-nav system and walkie-talkies, which give drivers a good the source to the mouth of the Yellow River … in a Caterham through south-west China (primarily Yunnan, Tibet and combination of freedom on the one hand – there’s no need to (a remake of the original 1950’s Lotus 7). Sichuan) and the neighbouring countries of South-East Asia. drive in a tight convoy – and safety (so far the company has See: www.ontheroadinchina/nokiadiscoverchina Guests enjoy the freedom and privacy of driving in their own driven 120,000km safely with its customers). car while at the same time seeing a beautiful side of China JOANNE JAMES that very few travellers ever get to see. While these holidays Journeys vary from 4–14 days and range from the luxurious Started driving much more recently than Peter but has now are clearly for people who enjoy driving, the journeys are to the adventurous. Drive from Kunming or to Lhasa driven more than 3,000km in China and is looking forward to more than your average road trip – enjoy excellent regional for a totally unique adventure or add a luxurious four-day doing more. She has a BA from Cambridge and an MBA from food, hiking and horseback riding, and temple, home and journey on to a longer holiday in Asia to sample the freedom Peking University, where she was the first non-Asian student even factory visits en route. of China’s open roads. to graduate from the Chinese MBA Programme (Joanne speaks fluent Chinese). She has travelled extensively across South-East On the Road in China owns its fleet of cars – new Toyota For more information about On the Road in China journeys, Asia, as well as through more than 20 Chinese provinces, and Landcruiser Prados – and these are maintained and managed please visit www.ontheroadinchina.com or write to she has recently discovered a love for off-roading! Joanne James by Avis. Each car is equipped with a pre-programmed Garmin [email protected]

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