Wilderness hiking and camping now banned in Sichuan (and elsewhere?)

 

This blog describes the camping and hiking trips I made to off-the-beaten track parts of Sichuan and Yunnan from the 1990s to the 2010s. It was an era when it was possible to simply take a bus to a remote town such as Jiulong or Litang and have the freedom to set off on a hike through the forests and mountains, seeking help with food and shelter from locals along the way. While there might have been rules against this, they were seldom if ever enforced.

But according to a 2023 notice I just found on the Sichuan government website, off-the-beaten travel outside of designated formal tourist areas now seems to be forbidden.

The proclamation, entitled "Strengthening the Management of Tourism Activities in Undeveloped and Open Areas" states that tourists (and tour guides) are to "strictly abide by laws and regulations and regulations of relevant management agencies, and not to enter nature reserves, ecological red line areas, water sources, flood rivers, water conservancy projects under construction, state-owned forest farms, forest areas, grassland fire prevention areas and other areas where tourist activities have not been carried out without authorization."

The notice also warns media and social media sites not to promote "wild excursions" and also to delete any content that is posted about travel in "undeveloped areas".

For local residents in wilderness areas, the notice states that they should not promote travel to undeveloped areas nor set up private scenic spots, engage in commercial activities for tourists [including retail and catering for them] or guide people within wilderness areas, unless authorised by tourism authorities. Local people are required to take the initiative to identify and challenge any outsiders they see entering wilderness areas and to "patiently explain and persuade them to return."

Local authorities are required to "update the scope and management subjects of areas where tourists are strictly prohibited from entering, and adopt normal inspections and investigations, set up signs at the entrance of the area, and issue announcements through the media to remind people of the security risks and legal responsibilities that may arise from unauthorized entry, and promptly persuade them to leave. For those who enter in violation of the law, if they do not listen to dissuasion, they shall coordinate the public security organs to take compulsory evacuation measures when necessary."

I can well imagine similar bans being enacted in provinces with wilderness areas such as Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu.

Choni 卓尼 update

 I have just updated the Choni chapter to reflect a recent discovery that Rock was concealing a major feature of the place - the presence of Christian missionaries and hundreds of converts. 

In his article about Choni, Rock portrayed the small town in Gansu as a remote Tibetan princely jurisdiction with a strange and unique Buddhist character, untouched by the outside world.

However, this article describes how Scots protestant missionary William Christie lived in Choni (Zhuoni, 卓尼)  for two decades from 1904 to 1924,  departing just months before Rock arrived. Christie converted hundreds of Choni Tibetans to Christianity and even won the favour of the local prince, if not converting him. 

Christie turned an abandoned Tibetan monastery into a mission station in nearby Lintan, and the locals are still practising Christians to this day. And yet Rock makes no mention of this, though he must have been aware, having lived in Choni for almost a year. Perhaps he didn't want to spoil the image of himself as a pioneer explorer.

And maybe the presence of a Christian enclave is the reason why Choni was deemed sensitive and 'closed' by the local PSB when I visited  - and was deported - a decade ago.