The group has had a tremendous opportunity to visit a place where they can see natural wonders, begin to learn about the extraordinary and multiple cultural history of China and also witness the impacts of the rapid changes that are affecting all of China. I will be very curious to hear about their reactions when they return.
This video talks about the tensions between cultural conservation in Lijiang, as funded and promoted by UNESCO and the Chinese state, and the needs of the town's inhabitants who are faced with overwhelming numbers of tourists--almost six million a year--- from both China and abroad. {Note that it is doubtful that our group did kind of the bar-crawling and karaoke that is depicted at the end of the clip!)
The famous movie director Zhang Yimou, who also choreographed the amazing spectacle of the opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, has created an outdoor show called "Impression Lijiang" that employs several hundred local people. Rather than presenting the various ethnic groups of Lijiang in a "natural" or folkloric way, this oversized spectacle astonishes with its scale, color and movement. I confess to some ambivalence about this, but it is not pretending to be something it is not.
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