The temple above Jian Gou, a village outside of Beijing, is a location of significance for Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Until 1986, when a road up the mountain was built and the restoration of the temple began, the only way from the village to the temple was by pilgrim trail on foot. This area first attracted scholars in the 1920s when they visited the Miao Feng Shan area to document the temple. The temple has, and hopes to continue, supplementing the documentation and photos with the materials collected by these scholars since the temple was partially destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The village of Jian Gou has links to the temple, red tourism and roses cultivated in the area. The village attracts tourists interested in all three areas. The temple site is accessible from the village on foot or by vehicle. Red tourism sites are located in and around the village and rose cultivation sites are also accessible by car in areas around the village. In this area, roses were first cultivated as decorative flowers before they were used to make tea and food. In 1997 farmers began developing their farms in the area to grow more roses to make into tea. Mr. Wu, the owner of the restaurant we visited for lunch and interviewed, told us that currently sixty percent of the village grows roses. Since 1997 the number of restaurants in the village began growing due to increased visitors in the area. Since that time, Mr. Wu has noticed an increase in foreign tourists, including French and American tourists who began visiting the area. The growth of foreign tourism in the area is noticeable since signs in the area which direct to specific attractions are in English, such as directions to the rose valley national forest park. However, the lengthier interpretive signs and those with historical information are not available in any foreign languages. Furthermore, the number of farmhouse style restaurants in Jian Gou grew from three to the current twelve as the region became more popular for tourists.
The fieldwork team ate lunch at Mr. Wu’s restaurant along with a courtyard full of tourists who arrived at the location in two groups of about twenty people. There was a parking lot across from the restaurant on the main road where large tour buses could park and the drivers of the buses could wait for the large groups. There were also several stands in the bus parking lot, of which three were open, selling rose jam, rose team and other gifts such as fans. We also noticed several smaller groups of one to four people who rode their bicycles up the road the mountain and were resting along the main road in the village. The fieldwork team’s lunch included a fried type of pancake made with roses from the village inside of it. The team was also served fish, vegetables, stewed chicken and rose tea grown in the area. Dishes were brought out as they were ready to be served. After lunch, Mr. Wu, the owner and cook at the restaurant, led the team to a bedroom to conduct the interview. From within the bedroom, which was set off from the courtyard where lunch was served, the toasting of the tourist group enjoying lunch and drinks could be heard. The bedroom contained a prominently placed poster of Chairman Mao positioned over the television set. The prominence of the Chairman Mao poster was apparent in the kitchen of the restaurant as well and in the government offices we visited in the village. The room we interviewed Mr. Wu in also had a kang in it, which is a bed historically used because it can be heated from beneath in the winter. Sounds from cooking in the kitchen while lunch was made for the employees, employees cleaning up the dining area and a radio could also be heard. Even though the bedroom was chosen because it was detached from the restaurant, the sounds of restaurant business activities could still be heard. During this interview Mr. Wu described the importance of the local cuisine he prepares to the fieldwork team. He explained the types of dishes available in the farmhouse restaurants in Jian Gou village are notable because they are available nowhere else in China. However, he also noted that over time he has made innovations to the dishes he cooks. As long as the customers accept the innovations he continues to use the change in his cooking. Although tourists come to this area to see certain sites, and also to partake in this type of food which they can only find here, there is some allowance for innovation in the cook’s style of preparation. He also tells us the increase in tourism in the late 1990s is due to the road, which previously had been made of sand and was unpaved, becoming a paved road. In his opinion, this accessibility lead to increased tourism and drew local residents to become involved in the farmhouse restaurant businesses in town instead of working in the fields.
Both the tourists and the restaurant employees were interested in viewing the materials collected by the fieldworkers. The group of tourists, from a company in Beijing, who were enjoying themselves in the courtyard during our interview with Mr. Wu took photographs of members of our team with members of their group. We also documented them eating lunch in the courtyard and waving to our cameras. Mr. Wu documented the fieldworkers videotaping his kitchen and interviewing Mr. Wang, a prominent folklorist, to be included on the website of his restaurant. During the interview with Mr. Wang members of our fieldwork team focused on Mr. Wang, while Mr. Wu was taking panning shots of the entire team and surrounding as well as Mr. Wang during the interview. While we were videotaping Sam, our videographer, was able to put his camera in the hands of the employees and also share his footage with them. The fieldwork team was interested in documenting Mr. Wu’s restaurant to present to visitors to the ChinaVine site and Mr. Wu seemed interested in portraying this interest in his place of business to visitors to his website. While we documented the kitchen and the adjacent room where food was prepared to be served, Mr. Wu videotaped our group moving through the space.
When the fieldwork team visited Jian Gou it took approximately one and half to two hours to get to the village by bus. About half this time was spent climbing the winding mountain road to the village. Accessibility has influenced the popularity of this region for tourists. Mr. Wu stated the paving of the road was instrumental in increasing the number of tourists visiting the village and increasing the need for farmhouse restaurants for them to eat at. This location’s proximity to Beijing allows it to be easily accessed for day or weekend trips. We noticed a much higher number of visitors on the weekend who were taking day trips to the area or riding their bikes up the mountain road for exercise when they have the whole day on the weekend. The amount of vehicle traffic on the road up the mountain to Jian Gou was noticeably higher on the Saturday the fieldwork team went to the village. There were also fifteen to twenty bicyclists on Saturday and only one or two on the Thursday the team visited the village. This increase in popularity has benefits for the residents of the village who seem to have been able to find employment for some of the younger residents of the village since their businesses are viable. Accessibility figures in to this popularity since tourists can easily reach this site by vehicle from Beijing and other surrounding areas. Accessibility can have benefits for an area since it allows for increased tourism. Can you think of areas for which accessibility has been problematic for an area in terms of increased tourism and numbers of visitors? Furthermore, Mr. Wu demonstrated to us that he has a certain amount of control over the food he is producing since he can introduce innovations to his cooking. However, can tourist’s expectations of receiving a certain unified type of experience or product be detrimental to cultural practices because this type of innovation is no longer possible? Think of a recent experience you had as a tourist and examine how you accessed the experience or site. If it had been more or less difficult to get there would this have changed your experience? Were your expectations met and if they were not how did this make you feel as a visitor?
Field Work Team
Rosalynn Rothstein – Coordinating Field Worker
Samuel R Gehrke – Videographer
Jo Guan – Interviewer and translator
Yuting Han – Interviewer and translator