Sustainable Tourism in China 2---Ecotourism

Ecotourism has four elements, nature-based, minimum-impact management, contribution to conservation and education. China is famous for its history, people, and unique architecture, nevertheless, it has a number of Ecotourism resources that are unseen to most of the people. If you are not the type of person just wanna see the Great Wall and Terra-Cotta warriors, or if you want to spend half of your time visiting some unique places that can only be made by the God, my recommendations are Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibet and Silk Road. And you know what, ecotourism trips are the cheapest, even cheaper than regular main city visits. It is mostly because of the relatively simple condition of the hotels.

For Yunnan, I would recommend WildChina tour operator. The reasons are simple. The founder, Mei, who is originally from Yunnan, has been the most passionate about spreading the word about Yunnan. Bird watching, climbing, excluded village visit, glaciers, and snow mountains, you name it. You can actually find any ecotourism activities in just one of the over 30 provinces in China. Some recommended tours include:

No. 1 pick: Pilgrimage Trail to Mt. Kawagebo


No. 2 pick: Hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge

Picture credit: WildChina Travel

For Guizhou, very few tour operators have tours going there because of high costs, low profits, and difficulties in marketing and sales. If you search 'China tour' or 'China trip' on Google, you are going to find at least 7 pages of search results. On the contrary, if you search 'Guizhou tour', the results are only one page with just 6 paid results. Guizhou was just discovered by tourists and is famous for its ethnic groups, untouched scenery like waterfalls. 87% of its land is covered by plateaus and mountains. Other than WildChina, Odyssey Tours also have some very good tours going to Guizhou. Check it out here.

Tibet and Silk Road are not just known for their ecotourism resources but religion and history. If you are just interested in ecotourism activities like hiking, climbing, biking and bird watching, Yunnan and Guizhou are the two places that I highly recommend. Be one of the 8 million people visit Great Wall Badaling section alone or be one of the thousands of tourists going to remote areas in Yunnan, it is your choice!