Traveling around China, I noticed something: in a country filled with spectacular natural scenery, domestic tourists have found numerous methods to limit their exposure to the abundance of nature. They had to, really. Can you imagine if they simply accepted nature as it is? Neither can I—the prospect is simply too horrible to fathom.

Erhai Lake and Dali Old Town seen from the Cang Mountains
It is not surprising that nature reserves and geological wonders account for many of the top attractions in a country the size of China and that millions of domestic tourists flock to the most popular every year. Few things can elevate a family’s social standing as quickly as a visit to one of the more popular—and thus quite overpriced—attractions (see Keeping up with the Changs); but the truth is, few of the visitors seem all that happy to be there. In fact, for the most part, they seem more comfortable at the man-made “beautiful scenery” attractions so abundant in China.
Unfortunately, no architect can come close to mimicking the beauty created by millions of years of plate tectonics and erosion; not even the world’s foremost experts in “imitation engineering”. For the time being anyway, the Chinese are stuck with nature. Luckily, they’ve devised a few simple tricks to make that prospect a lot less terrifying and I’ve decided to pass those ancient secrets on to you.
The Cang Mountains just behind Dali Old Town.
Obviously these will seem very simplistic to seasoned Chinese travelers, as it has become clear to me from my time in China that just about every single Chinese tourist is aware of them all; Chinese travelers might want to stop reading. The rest of you need to read on—the number of people (westerners especially) I’ve seen exposing themselves directly to the natural environment is shocking. Those of you with no travel experience need to know how the experts deal with all that pesky nature.
First of all, you’ll want to stick to popular destinations, especially in China, as the government will look out for you. In July 2011, I spent a day hiking in the Cangshan (“shan” means mountain(s), so that’s the Cang Mountains) just to the west of Dali in China’s Yunnan province. Dali lies in a beautiful valley near the large Erhai (“hai” means lake, so Er Lake), surrounded by mountains. The Cang Mountains provide some of the best views of the valley, so it should come as no surprise that every visitor to Dali heads up for some hiking.
Another view of the valley and the lake.
In this case the Chinese government has you pretty well covered, when it comes to limiting your exposure to nature. Cable cars take you up or down the mountain at two separate locations and a road runs along the top, called the Cloud Traveler’s Path.
Anyone who’s been to China knows that they have a very loose interpretation of the word “road”, but that’s not the case here. This one is a thing of beauty: flat, paved, no potholes. It is hands down the best maintained road in China. And it runs along rough mountain terrain, so you don’t have to. Other governments take notice.
Gantong Temple sits at the southern end of the Cloud Traveler’s Path.
Unfortunately, the government has not found a way to deal with the noise: birds chirping, insects buzzing, the sound of numerous waterfalls, the breeze rustling through the trees. It’s all so incredibly annoying and distracting and it never ceases. Thankfully, you won’t have to worry about that on Cangshan; in fact, after reading this, you’ll never have to worry about nature’s incessant drone again.
First of all, you need a radio. A cell phone will do, assuming the volume can be turned up to ear-splitting levels. In a popular place like the Cang Mountains, you’ll be covered even if your volume setting doesn’t hit the appropriate levels, as you’ll be surrounded by plenty of Chinese tourists, each blasting Chinese pop music that many would describe as horrible (think Britney Spears, but less innovative and less manly; no, now you’re thinking Justin Bieber—still too manly), but that’s only because those people have taste and functioning hearing. The important thing is this: you will no longer have to listen to nature’s constant babbling.
Thankfully, several radios saved me from having to listen to the constant babbling of this particular brook.
The music is pretty effective, but it’s not foolproof. That’s where the next trick comes in: screaming. You need to scream loudly and often, as if there were an echo, even when there clearly isn’t. Because there could be. The echo could happen at any moment, so you need to keep screaming as much as possible. The Chinese seem to aim for a ratio of one scream every ten meters and that’s probably a good benchmark.
With so many people screaming all the time, it kind of seems like some of them are answering your screams with their own, so you’ll naturally want to answer back. Then you can laugh at this amazing development, high-five all your friends and scream again, because it only gets cooler with every successive yell.
Yelling from this particular section was especially popular and annoying.
If you happen to see a foreigner, you’ll definitely want to high-five them. Since they are not screaming, they are obviously unaware of proper mountain etiquette, but once they see just how cool you look, red-faced and yelling like a deranged lunatic, they’ll be eternally grateful you took the time out from screaming at absolutely nothing in particular for no discernible reason whatsoever, just to acknowledge them with the ever popular high-five.
Even if they’re hundreds of meters away, you’ll want to run up to them to high five them and say “How are you?” Don’t forget to get out of there quickly or you run the risk of being engaged in a conversation. And if you’re not too out of breath, a parting scream would certainly be appreciated.
Now I realize some people might not enjoy the constant screaming set to a background of loud Chinese pop music and will want to leave the main trail for a bit. Obviously these are the same people who don’t enjoy China’s 24 hour a day car horn symphony or the perfectly reasonable habit of shouting “WEI!” into their cell phones over and over again at the same volume used by deck crew on an aircraft carrier (if you haven’t been to China, you’re missing out with this one); these people with their fancy “functioning hearing” are few and far between, I know, but I want to be inclusive here.
The next sign says, “…and give me twenty!”
And I’m not alone in that—in the spirit of inclusiveness, the local government has made sure to provide a few opportunities to get off the main trail. On the Cloud Traveler’s Path, you can take little side trips to caves and to the Dragon Maiden’s Pool, a set of beautiful pools of varying colors. At least that’s what I’ve been told—the pools were closed for renovations when I was there, since nature has apparently once again done a half-assed job.
This was over a year ago though, so I’m sure the pools are open once again; this time with a more aesthetically pleasing arrangement of the surrounding trees and rocks, as well as a water slide and a Wal-Mart. The superstore will be especially welcome for those who’ve forgotten to bring their own radios and have spent the past hour or two surrounded by sounds of chirping birds and babbling brooks. And with the whole Cloud Traveler’s Path taking 3 to 6 hours, there’s a decent chance you’ll finish the hike before the radio breaks.
Obviously I’ve only scratched the surface here, but other tricks for minimizing exposure to nature will have to wait. In the meantime, get out there and start practicing what I’ve taught you and, with any luck, you’ll soon forget what those annoying birds even sound like. Just make sure you stick to popular tourist areas in China—keeping up the required volume over the course of a hike is pretty much impossible without other tourists adding their noise and you’ll end up exposing yourself to all kinds of natural sounds. Even the most seasoned Chinese tourists would never dream of heading off to an uncrowded area.
This travel guide for Dali has more information on the area.
Tips to minimizing exposure to nature… what a great idea! I’ll keep on reading.
Laura @Travelocafe recently contributed to world literature by posting..Japan Highlights: Top 10 Places to Visit in Tokyo
Thanks. I was really just so annoyed with everyone being loud and obnoxious and making it very hard to enjoy the mountain…
Daniel McBane recently contributed to world literature by posting..Keeping Las Vegas Safe From Litterers and Al Qaeda
I have never been to China so I do not know what’s going on over there. The closest I have been to China is Nepal. China is a great destination and will remain on my top list of places to visit. Thanks for this interesting post.
Shalu Sharma recently contributed to world literature by posting..Seasons and climate of India
I love traveling in China, but Chinese tourists are still in that stage where they travel because it’s the thing to do when you have money and not because they really want to travel, so they can be a little annoying at times.
And of course the government is a huge problem and traveling in China will be much better once the party is no longer in power. I imagine it might be especially difficult to get a tourist visa as an Indian, due to the less than friendly relations between the two governments.
Daniel McBane recently contributed to world literature by posting..How Lake Toba Cleaned Up Its Hippie Backpackers
WEI!. Eee gads. Sounds like torture. Maybe the next generations will settle down a bit and just enjoy the provided sounds.
You ever thought about the Zhangjiajie National Forest? Let’s hope it’s quieter there. I hear it ‘s really something.
Graefyl recently contributed to world literature by posting..Death, freedom and the path you walk
I think they will settle down, once more Chinese tourists are allowed to travel overseas. I have not been to Zhangjiajie, but would love to go. It’s a little more out of the way, but it’s still very popular with domestic tourists, so I imagine it would also be quite noisy.
Daniel McBane recently contributed to world literature by posting..Who Says Trekking in Nepal Has to Involve Lots of Walking?
Imagine if we were never allowed to travel and suddenly it all opened up.
I suppose there is no real “tourist season” there yet. Dunno…
Graefyl recently contributed to world literature by posting..Death, freedom and the path you walk
They all get their vacations at the same time, so they do have a tourist season. That was part of the problem in my case: I was traveling at the height of that season. I’m sure I would have had the mountain to myself in the winter.
Looks like Spring is best then 🙂
We were in Dali in November 2012. Not much has changed I’m sad to report but at least it was relatively quiet (I use the word loosely) on the domestic tourism front. Zhangjiajie is incredibly beautiful and it was almost deserted by China’s standards at the beginning of December but sadly there is no escaping the pristine pavements and piped music emanating from speakers cunningly disguised as rocks! They almost drowned out the birdsong but we were lucky as some speakers were broken and the pesky birds were heard despite the Government’s best efforts. China IS amazing and all joking apart I’m loathe to criticize domestic tourism. It far outweighs foreign tourism and just watching them is a cultural experience but if I see another bloody plastic golden dragon or Bambi…..
Great account of the frustrations about China’s natural wonders. Interesting to see whether attitudes will change…. Or whether they will continue to Disneyfi (a proper verb I’m reliably informed) anything or place with a half decent view.
dawn underwood recently contributed to world literature by posting..Yangshuo – Part 2 – The Rise and Fall of the Wooky’s Cycling Career
I’m sorry you had to hear a few birds chirp, but that’s what you get for traveling in the quieter off-season.
You’re right though, I love traveling in China too and the large masses of often annoying domestic tourists are simply a part of that. In fact, to me they’re the main reason to go to a place like Dali or the nearby Lijiang. If you go expecting an authentic ancient Chinese village, you’ll likely be disappointed, but if you go to observe the unique and often baffling vacation habits of China’s new middle class, you’ll have a great time.
That said, I really hope attitudes change and more importantly, I hope they change fairly quickly; if not, there won’t be much natural beauty left in China.
Traveling to Dali next week and found your blog. It certainly reflects my own frustrations with traveling in this country thusfar. I don’t suspect the situation has improved in the two years since this post.
No, the situation has probably not improved. I haven’t been back to Dali since, but I’m currently in another part of China and things have actually gotten worse. The middle class is growing, so more and more Chinese are traveling within China and now they’re also taking their behavior abroad.
It seems like we’re getting new stories daily about the bad behavior of Chinese tourists overseas. To be fair, though, many Chinese people feel embarrassed by the behavior of some of their countrymen. And I can relate. I feel the same way when I encounter the “ugly American” stereotype or the stereotypical German tourist.
Daniel McBane recently contributed to world literature by posting..Sweating Away at Shenzhen’s Meilin Reservoir