At the end of May, tourists in twos and threes walk past Tibetan houses and bask in the sun on a small square in Rengkang Ancient Street in the center of Litang County, Ganzi, Sichuan Province. Tibetans in Tibetan costumes recited scriptures and walked through the tourists who were visiting, circling around the meridian tube. At noon, the concentration of tour groups arrives to make the ancient street noisy, constant but not crowded. Every day from 12:00 to 15:00 is the most lively time here, the ancient street on both sides of the road is full of tour buses.
May, after the long vacation, is the off-season for tourism in Litang. The first two years of this time, the ancient street few tourists, but this year is different. With Ding Zhen and "Sky City" Litang red network, to Litang visitors increased significantly. Scenic "full" after May 1, until the end of May, the number of single-day tourists remained in the four-digit, including Ding Zhen fans, including the number of casual visitors increased, the number of team tourists have also increased.
As a priority development industry, tourism has been given high hopes and support by the local government in recent years. Under the influence of Ding Zhen effect, Litang in this year's May Day Golden Week results are bright. According to official statistics, May 1-5, Litang County received more than 84,000 tourists, realizing a comprehensive tourism revenue growth of 98.7% year-on-year.
Things are changing. But for the people of Litang, change is still a matter of choice.
Although the Litang tourism fire, but for many Tibetans in Litang, dry tourism can not earn money or a question mark. In May, digging wormwood is still their first choice to earn money. Ancient street stalls empty half of the local stallholders "May Day" just after the leave on the mountain to dig Cordyceps to go. But at the same time, some people are optimistic about the development prospects of Litang tourism, some people give up or shorten the time of digging cordyceps, turn to prepare for the bed and breakfast, for the upcoming June-August tourism season to prepare.
Litang county panorama. Xinjing Newspaper reporter Han Qinke photo
Ding really influential
May 27 morning, perhaps the night before the rain, Litang originally thin air seems to have less oxygen.
Wang Xue, a girl from Chongqing who had been staying in Litang for three days, felt that her plateau reaction had gotten worse again. She sat in a black tent in the Himalayan Voice micro-museum, gasping for breath, with the propaganda film "Ding really world" projected on the wall in front of her. Despite having seen it countless times, she took out her cell phone and snapped a picture of Ding Zhen's smiling face.
Wang Xue is a self-driving enthusiast who wears a sunscreen face towel and gloves, with only her eyes exposed. Over the past few years, she has traveled the Western Sichuan Great Circle Route and has also driven all the way from Chongqing to Lhasa along National Highway 318, twice passing through Litang without stopping. "I have always known Litang, also want to go to see, but the altitude is too high." At the end of last year, like Ding Zhen gave Wang Xue must go to Litang power.
She deliberately chose the end of May this time, the weather turned warm, oxygen is more than enough winter, not many tourists, the local reception pressure is small.
In the itinerary of Litang, Wang Xue did not do too much planning, just want to follow Ding Zhen in the short video and live walk through the place one by one card. "Super lucky!" Wang Xue just happened to catch Ding Zhen to Renkang Ancient Street shooting, in order to see Ding Zhen a few more eyes, she ran around the filming team a few times, and then had to go back to the hotel to lie down and inhale oxygen.
On May 27, Wang Xue, a traveler from Chongqing, watched Ding Zhen's promotional video in the museum. New Beijing News reporter Han Qinke photo
Walking in the LeTong ancient town scenic area, it is easy to recognize which tourists are specifically for Ding Zhen: two or three peers, dressed in a fashionable, in the scenic area to find the "high teacher", that is, the Litang County Cultural Tourism and Sports Investment and Development Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as the travel investment company), deputy general manager of the Gao Xiaoping, Ding Zhen, the Chinese language teacher. In the scenic area of the 318 Travel Memory Museum on the third floor, a long table with visitors to write down the message, left souvenirs. There is a guestbook from 2013 and various pictures with "Ding Zhen" and "Zhen Zhen" written on the back.
In the first few months of this year, Ding Zhen fans in Litang tourists in the proportion of high, with the arrival of Litang tourism peak season, the proportion of ordinary tourists gradually increased.
At the end of May, Chengdu people doing outdoor travel Xiaoluo is stepping on the route near Litang. In previous years, when choosing outdoor routes, he always deliberately bypassed Litang, even if it is necessary to catch two hours of mountain road. "There wasn't much to see in the county before, and tourists are still prone to high altitude sickness, so it's not worth it." Xiao Luo told the XBJ that donkeys who often take part in plateau trekking are also likely to experience discomfort if they spend the night in Litang. "The altitude is too high."
Litang County is 4014 meters above sea level, nearly 400 meters higher than Lhasa, known as the "City in the Sky". Although the county is located at the intersection of National Highway 318 and National Highway 227, it is quite "remote" for ordinary tourists. It takes at least one and a half hours to drive from the nearest airport to Litang County. Considering that the climate in the plateau region is changeable, if there is a sudden snowstorm and the road is icy, the traveling time may be doubled. In addition, Litang County, the various attractions are far apart, outdoor sports circle Ding Ding mountain landscape Gnai Shenshan, from the county has nearly 3 hours of driving.
This year, Xiaoluo in the line planning to add the Litang county, and plan to arrange for tourists to stay in Litang county two or three hours, this change is not only because of the Ding Zhen fire, but also because of the "Litang ancient town is a point of view".
"Le Tong" is the Tibetan language of Litang, "Le" means bronze, "Tong" means grassland, meaning flat as a bronze mirror grassland. According to the town's official website, the construction of the LeTong Ancient Town - Thousand Houses Tibetan Village Scenic Spot was launched in 2018, and it was awarded a national 4A scenic spot license in March of the following year, with the main attractions including the Rengkang Ancient House, the Rengkang Ancient Street transformed from the old residential street, and the ChangYuXingKeR Temple (also known as the Litang Monastery), which is the "holy site of Konang Buddhism", about 1 kilometer away to the north. In the middle of the route are a number of miniature museums, such as the Kumbum Museum, the Tibetan Theater Museum, the Tibetan Incense and Tibetan Medicine Museum, or a display of traditional Tibetan culture.
The same add Litang into the route of the tour group there are many. The ancient town of Tibetan guides with "full" to describe the past "May Day" holiday, a hundred meters long Rincon Street influx of more than 20,000 tourists. 2010, Litang County, the annual visitor reception is only 152,000 people.
May 24, 318 travel memory museum on the third floor of the long table, tourists left about the Litang souvenirs. Xinjing Daily reporter Han Qinke photo
Data show that during the May 1, 2021, the Litang search volume ranked third in the list of famous Buddhist mountains, second only to the Wutai Mountain and the Putuo Mountain, the hotness of the year-on-year increase of 178%.
"Let the guests like in their own home"
Rapidly increasing the number of tourists let the people of Litang in the happy at the same time also doubled the pressure, the lack of accommodation beds is one of the most pressing problems faced.
At the beginning of this year, the Litang high town of Zhenqu village branch secretary Zi Nai statistics out of a list, which records the willingness to transform their own house into a bed and breakfast of Tibetan villagers, involving more than 40 households, can provide hundreds of beds, half of which has been completed remodeling, at any time you can receive tourists. Jen Gluttony village also belongs to a thousand Tibetan villages, and Rincon ancient street is only one street away.
"The conditions are not too high, there is a place in the house and a water and electricity grid, easy to park, can communicate in Chinese, their own will." Tsinai told the New Beijing News reporter, the village is also according to the villagers' homes and yards, divided into traditional Tibetan houses, Chinese houses, tent campsites. Considering the limited conditions of the lodges run by villagers, the current pricing is only 40-60 yuan per bed and 20 yuan per tent site.
The B&B in Jen Sip Village is part of Litang County's tourism emergency plan. According to the county culture, tourism and broadcasting, film and television bureau deputy director Bi Xuesong introduction, Litang County, the existing 93 hotels, can provide more than 4300 beds. Taking into account the upcoming tourism season, especially the August 1 Horse Racing Festival, is expected to receive a single day the number of overnight visitors or close to 10,000 people, Litang County has developed a red and yellow emergency plan to meet the accommodation needs of tourists.
If the number of tourists monitored by big data exceeds 4000 it will start the yellow plan, and the staff of the villages around the ancient town will arrange for tourists to stay in the villagers' homes. More than 5000 will start the red plan, coordinating tourists to live in the surrounding townships "has mobilized residents of nine villages around the scenic area, which can provide about 1,500 beds," Bi Xuesong said.
May 26, Ze Drolma home has a hundred years of history of the Tibetan room and a few years ago just built the Chinese room. New Beijing News reporter Han Qinke photo
Zedzuo Ma's house, a villager in Jengyu Village, is one of the fastest-progressing families in the transformation of the B&B. Zedrima's family has two houses, one is a hundred years of history of the double-storey Tibetan house, built in Zedrima's grandfather's childhood; a two-storey high Chinese house, is a few years ago to borrow money to build. Although it is a Chinese house, the interior decoration is still in Tibetan style, with golden paintings and copper pots decorating the walls. It is a 2-minute walk from her house to the entrance of Rincon Ancient Street.
"Guests can stay in whichever room they want." This 31-year-old Tibetan girl has a clear face, with the mark of plateau red on both cheeks. Her Chinese is average, and when she encounters complex sentences, she speaks brokenly, so she seldom takes the initiative to speak, but just smiles. In order to receive good guests, the eldest daughter in high school is also ready to come back to help in the summer vacation.
Zedzuma's family consists of eight people, including her parents, who are over 70 years old and in poor health, her husband, who is deaf and dumb, her husband's brother, and three children, the youngest of whom is not yet in elementary school. In the past, she, her husband and her brother went to the mountains in May-June each year to dig up wormwood, and in the summer to dig up matsutake mushrooms, and the rest of the time went out to do odd jobs. The family earned less than 50,000 yuan a year. "We are not well educated, we can only do small jobs, do not earn money."
At the beginning of this year, listening to the second Nai Zhishu said that you can do lodging to engage in tourism, Zedzuo Ma and his family did not how to tangle on the agreement, her only worry is that she is afraid of not earning money. This May, Ze Zhuo Ma did not go to dig Cordyceps, stay at home to transform the B&B. "I'm at home to wash the sheets for the guests, cooking, can earn money, but also can take care of the children," she said. at the end of April, her family tried to receive five tourists. Jinaai helped her family calculate an account, 10 beds, according to 40 yuan / night / bed counting, a day can earn up to 400 yuan, enough for the family's daily expenses for three or four days.
In a few days, Ze Drolma's family is ready to move to a small room on the east side of the courtyard, leaving the best of the house for guests to experience the original Tibetan room. In the wall of the room that has been remodeled, there is also a family portrait of her family.
A few blocks away, weeds and wildflowers have sprung up in the yard of villager Zaxi's house, which will be transformed into a large campsite in a few weeks' time. The two couples are in their 70s and have difficulty communicating directly in Chinese, and the B&B is run mainly by his daughter.
Now, Zahi's daughter is still digging for wormwood in the mountains, and the family's B&B remodeling is almost at a standstill. When his daughter came back in June, he was ready to let her go to the county to customize a written "lodging" sign, and then put the home lodging on the Internet.
"Do your own thing"
and Litang County actively preparing for tourism emergency preparedness, the villagers home remodeling progress rapidly different, the staff and Tibetan residents in the town have been less likely to take the initiative to mention Ding Zhen. Everything seems to be the same as before the popularity of Ding Zhen, in addition to the increased number of tourists, graffiti walls and message boards on the "Ding Zhen" name, filled with fans of the book wall of the Cangyang bookstore, and in the scenic area in the stalls of a few more "Wang Youmei" (Ding Zhen fan nickname).
And the other two are the same.
The Tibetan girls and boys of Ding Zhen's age, who are equally handsome or beautiful, continue to explain and market their work, and the popularity of their peers seems to have little effect on them.
On May 27, there are not many stallholders in the ancient town of LeTong, and most of the local vendors have gone to dig up cordyceps. New Beijing News reporter Han Qinke photo
May 25, travel investment company employees Ren Zhenquzha and colleagues in the ancient town square to prepare for the experience of Tibetan woodblock printing activities. Visitors can hand-topograph the Tibetan verses of Cangyang Gyaltsen, and then go to the Cangyang Gyaltsen Miniature Museum a few dozen meters away to find the corresponding Chinese translation.
"Dingzhen let more people know about Litang," said Renzhen Quiza. Asked if he also wants to become an Internet celebrity, he shook his head, he would rather do his own thing and attract more tourists to Litang. This is also Gao Xiaoping in the staff training with his eyes "children" repeatedly emphasized: do their own work, slowly.
As the hostess of the first B&B in the ancient town, Gesang Meiduo, 51-year-old Simone Gelong is planning a B&B expansion program. She is ready to invest about one million dollars to repair the row of houses on the east side of her small courtyard into a small two-story building with a few more rooms.
In 2020, Simone Geddon, who was still working as a janitor in the ancient town, decided to convert her family's Tibetan house into a bed and breakfast. In October of that year, her "Gesang Meiduo" B&B opened, a month later, Ding Zhen burst into the network. Because Ding Zhen had done a few live broadcasts in Simone Gezhong's bed and breakfast, the bed and breakfast from December to now has been in a full state. Opening half a year, three rooms of the room fee income up to more than 100,000 yuan, about two or three years before the income.
On May 25, Simone Gezhong was tending to flowers in the living room of her B&B. By Han Qinke, Beijing News
Diagonally across the street from Gesang Meiduo, Liang Min and her friend, September, are busy renovating their high-end B&B. The two had worked together to open the first cafe in the ancient town, "Cloud a leaf".
According to Liang Min, the stone and wood structure of their B&B is the style of the Tibetan area in western Sichuan, and the corridor in the middle of the house and the open balcony are the style of the ancient Tubo period. The open balcony is difficult to see in the Tibetan area nowadays, but it is still preserved in the Potala Palace. They hope to show the history of Tibetan architecture.
"A B&B can also be a museum of traditional architecture and traditional crafts." Liang Min said. To realize this goal, their B&B has been built for three years. Liang Min and September stubbornly stick to traditional crafts, and every wooden board on the wall comes from Litang and is hand-polished by local craftsmen.
Litang's level of economic development is not high, but its level of consumption is not low. According to September's estimate, building a B&B in Chengdu with the same specifications might cost nearly 50 percent less. Yet renovation work on the B&B has not been accelerated or lowered in standard by Ding Zhen's popularity and the increase in tourists, even if an early opening means less investment and more income.
In Liang Min's opinion, Ding Zhen not only brought fire to Litang, but also carried forward the Tibetan culture, but the Tibetan culture can not be carried forward by only one person, it takes a lot of people for a long time to *** with the efforts, she hoped that she can also contribute to it.
Big plans for Litang
The planning for the ancient town of Lertong began as early as 2016.
Zhang Xi, head of the Litang County State-owned Assets Group Company, who has long been involved in the planning and construction of the tourism industry in Litang, told the New Beijing News that according to the plan, it is hoped that the Lertong Ancient Town will achieve the goals of gathering and displaying multiple cultures, experiencing scenes of original ecological life, preserving and transmitting intangible cultural heritage, and cultural innovation in Tibetan areas. "The county has positioned the ancient town as an encyclopedic scenic spot in the Tibetan area, and we also hope to realize this positioning." Zhang Xi said that to this end, the LeTong ancient town plans to build a miniature museum cluster. At present, 10 museums have been built in the ancient town, the next three to five years, plans to build 30 to 50 miniature museums.
May 24, Tibetan villagers living in the ancient town in Rengkang Ancient Street in the transepts. Xinjing Newspaper reporter Han Qinke took a photo
"The market of the future is a customized market." Zhang Xi wants to create a new model for building ancient towns: using local Tibetan culture for cultural innovation, launching products that are only available in Litang; and rejecting homogenized products including pottery flutes, African drums, silverware, and ox horn combs.
But he also admitted that this plan is quite "idealized", the construction of the mini-museum cluster will take a few years, and the cultivation of cultural innovation awareness may take even longer.
For the next development of Litang, capital, talent are obstacles.
In describing the development status of Litang County, Zhang Xi quoted a catchphrase: the land like a province, the population like a town, the economy like a village.
Litang County covers an area of 14,300 square kilometers, more than twice the size of Shanghai, with a resident population of less than 80,000 people. The local Tibetan people mostly live a self-sufficient life, digging cordyceps, digging matsutake mushrooms is their main source of income. 2020 the beginning of the year, the Litang County only officially removed the hat of the poverty-stricken county.
As a priority industry in the fight against poverty, tourism has been the focus of development in Litang County since 2015, but the results have been unsatisfactory. Because of the high altitude, the popularity and number of tourists in Litang has been lower than that of Kanding, Batang and Dacheng counties, which are also in Ganzi Prefecture.
"There is not enough money, we will slowly repair little by little." Zhang Xi said, Le Tong ancient town plans to invest 240 million yuan, has invested more than 80 million.
For Litang, can not keep outside talent, cultivate their own talent.
Litang people Ren Zhenquza originally studied veterinary medicine, but in 2019 joined the travel investment company, became the staff of the LeTong ancient town. Most of the colleagues who joined the company with him have similar characteristics: local people, early twenties, just graduated from high school or college, studying majors that have nothing to do with tourism, and wanting to do something for their hometown's tourism development. They're the ones who have been working on the Litang Tourism Development Program.
Now, the Litang tourism industry has been trying to develop for a few years, and finally waiting for Ding really popular, he is like a wind blowing through the Litang, blowing the opportunity of tourism development, but also may bring other changes.
"Take your time and see, it should develop well." Zhang Xi said.
Edited by Yuan Guoli
Proofread by Yang Xu Li