yuhu (nguluko): yunnan

Yuhu Village, Baisha Township, Yu Long County, Lijiang, Yunnan (丽江市玉龙县白沙乡玉湖村)

Up the 214 highway from Dali lies the busy tourist centre of Lijiang Old City, and a mere sixteen kilometres further is the much quieter administrative village of Yuhu (“Jade Lake”) comprising 357 households spread across nine hamlets (村民小组). Previously known as Xuesong village (雪嵩村), Yuhu was the home of Austrian-born American botanist and linguist Joseph Rock from 1922-1949. Ninety four percent of the population of 1,365 is Naxi. Set at the foot of Yulong Xueshan (玉龙雪山, “Jade Dragon Snow Mountain”), the village is a starting point for hikes or, more commonly, horse rides that take visitors up the mountain slopes.

The village receives more than 33,000 visitors a year. Luo Mingjun (罗明军), Project Assistant for the Centre for Community Development Studies at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, estimates that tourism accounts for sixty percent of Yuhu’s income, followed by agriculture and animal husbandry, each accounting for about twenty percent. Unlike other villages considered in this report, where local people are less involved in the industry, most Yuhu residents consciously regard their village as involved in “eco-tourism.”

In May 2004 the Yuhu Tourism Development Cooperative (玉湖旅游开发合作社) was formed to develop tourism that protects natural resources and the local environment. It is largely managed by Village Committee members. The cooperative organizes households to take tourists up the mountain in turn. There are a total of 354 donkeys and horses registered in the scheme.

“We are a new socialist countryside pilot village project (社会主义新农村试点),” says He Jielin (和杰林), who is the head of one of the hamlets as well as a spokesperson for the cooperative. If Yuhu is successful, he says, it could serve as a model for other eco-tourist sites.

Tourists can choose to take a horse to 3,400, 4,400, or 4,800 meters, paying CNY 180 (USD 22), 300, or 350 respectively. The households who take the horses up then receive a cut: CNY 53, 80 or 100 respectively. CNY 2 goes to insurance, CNY 35 to management, a further portion to “market development fees,” and the remainder goes to special funds designated for university scholarships, a Senior Citizen Association (老年协会), public services (公共事业) such as mending roads, and management of the service centre (服务中心). Households make CNY 6-10,000 per horse per year (not counting the expense of maintaining their animals).

He Lushan (和继珍), The Nature Conservancy’s Lijiang Visitor Centre Project Coordinator, says that eco-tourism in Yuhu can and should develop further. When the villagers are the “principal parts” of the industry, they can gain an income while personally being responsible for the local environment, culture, and for the village’s future generations.

Lu Zhifeng (吕执风), a farmer and Naxi folk performer and singer, says that tourism transformed Yuhu. “We used to be very poor . . . we couldn’t farm enough for subsistence.” Locals cite sandy soil, diminishing water resources, poor climate and high elevation as the causes of farming difficulties. Lu estimates that farmers can only produce about 100-150 kilograms of grain per mu (亩,0.0667 hectares). He Cuigao (和翠高), another local, said that her family has twenty mu (1.34 hectares), but that only four or five mu are productive.

Although Lu Zhifeng cites the income benefits of tourism, there are some complaints about management of the cooperative. In June 2007, residents say, several official positions were added, making a total of twenty one posts in the cooperative. The office holders receive income from the management fees in addition to stipends for their village committee responsibilities. Many villagers feel that there are too many officials earning money that could go to the horse-owners.

He Jinyong (和近勇), a former Communist Party Secretary of the village, now offers six rooms in his village home-stay (农家乐). He suggests that the cooperative management fees should be slashed in half, allowing horse-owners to make more money. Though such issues can be raised in village meetings, he does not feel that his idea would ever be accepted by the cooperative managers.

Yuhu, moreover, does not control all of its tourism resources. It has three main attractions: Yuzhu Qingtian (玉柱擎天 “Jade Pillars that Prop Up the Sky”), Joseph Rock’s former residence, and Longnü Lake (龙女湖 “Daughter of the Dragon King”) The latter two have been contracted out to tourism companies that manage the sites and charge entrance fees. Luo Mingjun believes that villagers should be allowed to incorporate the spots into their horse treks.

For now, visitors are impressed with what Yuhu has to offer. Tao Yanzhen (陶焰真), a native of Lijiang’s Old Town, was surprised by her visit. “I never thought it would be so pretty . . . I hope it doesn’t open up too much. We should protect what it has been. The Old Town doesn’t have the same peace and quiet, there are too many tourists there.”