Place making in Tourism
Walking China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road
On China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road, walking tourists are changing the trails to suit their preferences.
By Alexandra Witte
A group of five hikers is walking up the stone steps leading to the Cloudpass. Having travelled both from within China and other countries, the group had only met a few days earlier. Still, they shared similar expectations of hiking the Cloudpass.
They discuss the difficulty of finding the steps up to the pass. Every local had told them to take the chairlift, but the group agreed that walking was the whole point.
If you take the cable car and you get to the top, you don’t appreciate the top. If you hike to it….and you get there, and you don’t have that feeling. (Ezra)
Two days before, Lulu and Jizhe had also visited the Cloudpass for a hike. They had taken the chairlift. To them, walking up the stairs seemed pointless:
There is no point walking up the stairs. All you see are the trees. (Jizhe)
I just want to relax. Walking up at this altitude is really hard. (Lulu)
Walking the Trails of China’s Tea Horse Road
This article is part of a study that explored walking tourism on China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road (ATHR). Forty-one tourists participated in nineteen walking interviews on the trails. Additionally, eight guide interviews and many informal encounters with locals and tourists informed this study.
The ATHR is an old caravan network of trails that started around the 7th century AD. It spans modern-day Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet.
Many of its original pathways have vanished, but some trails remain and attract walking tourists. Some of these trails are not official tourist attractions at all and remain mostly unmanaged. Others are official tourist trails. These are often linear and easy to walk and include activities, cultural attractions, and snack stalls.
Trail authorities generally intend to direct walking tourists along specific trajectories. Some trails offer several directions to choose from or different difficulty levels. Others offer only one path and difficulty level to follow.
Design aspects, e.g. fences, steps, or boardwalks offer guidance on how people should walk the trails. Viewing platforms invite us to stop and pay attention to what surrounds us. Boardwalks allow us to walk less attentively than trail grounds where roots or puddles may make us stumble. Steps make us walk rhythmically, while rocky inclines can make us use our hands as well as our feet.
The 13km long Cloudpass on Cangshan Mountain is one of the ATHR’s official tourist trails. Situated right next to Dali Old Town, it is an important regional tourist attraction.
It was designed to make walking as easy as possible. Paved flagstones, cable cars for easy access, and several cultural attractions and mythological scenic spots along its length mark the maintained section. At the time of research, the northern part was an unmaintained section where the flagstones are crumbling and fences are no longer functional.
The maintained section with its cable cars and cultural sights was the one advertised. Official maps didn’t even show the stairs tourists could also choose to walk up to the Pass. Several signs on the trail also only offered information for the southern rather than the unmaintained part.
Not Everyone Wanted to Walk the Maintained Section
Many participants felt that the maintained section of the Cloudpass was a “typical Chinese-style” trail. For some that was a good thing, for others less so.
The maintained section offered what Lulu and Jizhe sought: easy access by chairlift, easy walking, a cultural experience created through man-made attractions and mythology, interspersed with grand vistas over the valley.
For the other group, the maintained section went against their expectations and ideas of a ‘good’ hiking experience. They wanted a more sensory experience, one focused on nature rather than culture. They also wanted the physical challenge of hiking.
Differences in Expectations and Experiences are Culturally Informed
In the West, culture and nature are often seen as two separate entities. A common distinction is made between culture and nature trails. In comparison, Chinese outdoor trails emphasise a close relationship between culture and nature. The traditional Chinese view is that nature is improved through human influence.
The experiences favoured by tourists on these trails can also differ as a result of different cultural ideas. In China, many tourists traditionally prefer taking cable cars and similar alternative transport options, which are seen as signs of modernity and progress (Nyíri, 2006) and also minimise walking. Tourists also often expect visual experiences and cultural storytelling on trails.
In the West, walking outdoors is often referred to as hiking. Challenge, perseverance, and accomplishment are common motivations for hiking (Edensor, 2000). Romantic notions of communion with pristine nature are also often visible in hikers’ sought experiences.
These differences can make designing trails for an audience complicated. And although tourists’ nationality can provide a clue, not all Chinese like one type of trail, and all Western tourists another. Research has shown that new ideas around walking and hiking are emerging in China, for example (Witte, 2020).
Changing the Face of the Cloudpass
When hikers’ desired ways of walking matched with the trails, they were reaffirmed through the tourists’ practices. Lulu and Jizhe took a chairlift up and walked the maintained section. They only stopped at designated viewing platforms and attractions.
The other group challenged the trail’s legitimacy through words and actions. The group decided to walk the unmaintained section against all recommendations. Cultural attractions alongside the Pass to the south were ignored, and the group also went off trail to explore.
They were not the only ones. Local hiking guides and tourists have challenged the sanctioned ways of walking the Cloudpass time and time again.
Many walk the unmaintained section; tourists go off trail to explore beyond the official pass; some stay overnight although this is not officially allowed; and rock climbers are often seen scaling the sides of the mountain.
As a result, a second, unsanctioned but unopposed identity of the Pass and Cangshan Mountain has emerged. This second version is one of nature, challenge, and exploration.
Ways of walking differing from the officially sanctioned ones have even changed the Cloudpass in tangible ways. A network of unofficial paths leading into the higher reaches of Cangshan Mountain has been created.
As Tourists’ Experiences Diversify, Trail Authorities Need to Adapt
Official trails on the ATHR and in China often follow a similar blueprint to the maintained part of the Cloudpass. Emphasising traditional perspectives of merging culture and nature, they continue to successfully draw in tourists.
Yet, people don’t all walk in the same way. Some walkers challenge trail authorities’ design — changing the trails physically and in their meaning.
For trail authorities, this is important information. When walkers go off official trails or visit entirely unofficial trails, there are implications for tourists’ safety on the trails, as well as for the protection of the natural environment.
The key is to understand walking and hiking in the outdoors as an activity steeped in wider society and culture. Walking means different things to different people. It is done in different ways by different people, too.
Being aware of and sensitive to the diversity and dynamic nature of walking tourism will be key for successful trail management.
About the Author
Alexandra Witte is a Research Assistant Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Alex’s research focuses on tourism mobilities and their wider connections to culture and society. A particular area of interest is the development of walking tourism in China. Her teaching portfolio covers a wide range of subjects within tourism, hospitality and events.
This Article was Based On:
Witte, A. (2021). Revisiting walking as mobile place-making practice: a discursive perspective. Tourism Geographies.
Related Academic Papers
Edensor, T. (2000). Walking in the British Countryside: Reflexivity, Embodied Practices and Ways to Escape. Body & Society, 6(3–4), 81–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X00006003005
Li, P., Bin, Z., & Ryan, C. (2017). Hiking in China: A fuzzy model of satisfaction. Tourism Management Perspectives, 22, 90–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2017.03.003
Nyíri, P. (2006). Scenic spots: Chinese tourism, the state, and cultural authority. University of Washington State Press.
Witte, A. (2020). “Chinese don’t walk?” — The emergence of domestic walking tourism on China’s Ancient Tea Horse Road. Journal of Leisure Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2020.1847624
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