Off-the-wall journeys

The Great Wall is, well, great. And armies of travelers conquer the Terracotta Warriors for good reason. But brisk tourism development has conjured some peculiar contemporary Chinese destinations

Watch people thrust their heads into crocodiles' jaws?

Visit a giant-salamander "biotech" museum? See parrots lift weights with their beaks? Feed live cows to Siberian tigers?

Sleep in a dungeon, Soviet aircraft carrier or warehouse pocked with peepholes so you can spy on other guests?

Stage a corporate meeting in a cave? Or a secret room behind a hotel bookshelf? Take a breather in an "oxygen room"?

If you want to do any of these things, China is the destination.

It's where you can visit a "kiss" petting zoo where animals are pickled in jars.

You can join the walking dead on a torch-lit march led by a shaman, worship at temples devoted to hell or wander a tombstone museum.

And you can ride a haunted subway. Or a "children's tram" with a man in a scowl-faced, sushi-roll costume with fish roe bubbling from his head and pink pants with an even brighter-pink braided waistband.

(Perhaps hard to say, which is scarier.)

Where else can you visit a "kingdom" inhabited by more than a hundred costumed little people? (The shortest is the monarch, who blasts out on a motor trike.) They dance to death metal, pop ballads and Korean hip-hop hits, and dwell in massive mountainside mushrooms - when not performing acrobatics and tightrope walking.

China hosts the most UNESCO World Heritage Sites of any country. Its five millennia of history have left a legacy of world icons from the Forbidden City to the Potala Palace.

But its contemporary condition has sired wacky attractions, as the tourism sector develops at breakneck pace and locations without a natural draw script new novelties from scratch.

These places appeal to neophilic globetrotters jaded by beaches, mountains and temples.

They've been there. Done that.

And want something new. Some place more.

Since this jet-set sect is huge, yet relatively small in the grand tourism scheme, most oddball locales find themselves mostly appealing to the most thrill-seeking.

Consequently, they're able to keep the doors open yet don't draw the hoards they aspire to. Marginal allure produces marginal profits.

Yet they're arguably some of the country's most fascinating and distinctive destinations.

"Though the majority of foreign China tourists are first-timers and stick to the standard destinations, I believe tourists enjoy weird tourist destinations because something weirdly different is refreshing and mind-broadening," China Highlights' Web editor Gavin van Hinsbergh says.

"It gives a trip value and a personal touch to go somewhere original. It makes good material for stories when tourists return home, and photos. ... China is full of weird experiences just because it's different. And that's part of the fun of touring China."

But any swell in foreign visitors to such places seems likely to largely come from expats and seasoned sojourners.

Most of the country's offbeat sites are off-the-beaten path and, consequently, aren't high traffic.

"Do (foreign) tourists really want to come all the way to China to see (them)? (That) goes for honeybee museums, sex museums, Hello Kitty-themed restaurants, marriage markets, etc."

This feeds an emergent sector relatively reliant on domestic travelers.

"China's (domestic) tourist majority typically doesn't stray far from the tour bus and the concrete path laid out for them around the standard attractions. But national and international tourists are becoming more adventurous as China's wealth, infrastructure and standards develop dramatically and quickly," Van Hinsbergh says.

"China's weird tourism is only recently being advanced, as awareness grows as to the richness of China's innate local cultures and sites, and how 'weird' and potentially marketable they are."

Strange sites will spawn stronger future attraction, China Tourism Academy researcher Zhan Dongmei believes.

"As Chinese people's living standards keep rising, and the tourism industry becomes hot, traditional sites can't cater to individuals' interests," Zhan says.

"So weird or unique tourist products have begun to mushroom. They're gradually becoming the new hot destinations for young people.

"From the perspective of tourist psychology, everyone is curious and longs to explore the world, to hunt for novelty - especially young people. That's the niche market where weird tourism is expanding to occupy. But I don't think older generations seek the unusual."

She says Chinese youth value individualism and need to release their work stress. Peculiar tourism supplements and diversifies travel packages. And it combines local cultures with commerce, enhancing native economies.

Its proliferation is summoned by marketization, she says.

"These (lower-tier cities') travel resources were previously overlooked," Zhan says.

"These sites create gimmicks to bring outsiders to these places."

Demand commands more than scenic and historical destinations, Beijing Union University's Tourism College's assistant dean Zhang Lingyun says.

"I don't think every city should make sightseeing their tourist industry's pillar. Not all cities and towns have these tourist resources."

But Zhang doesn't believe inventing outlandish attractions is the way to create inroads to outlying destinations.

"Second- and third-tier cities with no special tourist sites can lure people from metropolises by providing them cleaner air, healthier organic food and relaxed atmospheres, instead of just creating something weird."

Contact the writers through erik_nilsson@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/27/2015 page24)