Exploring The Wukan Village: Tourist Experiences In Rural China

Choosing the perfect destination

Discuss about the Skyscrapers Land Revenue and Concentrated Villages.

There were numerous places to tour, interact with new people and above all experience new ideas and things. My uncle had a selection of destinations to travel like historical islands, falls, harbor, and bays. But before my uncle chose to travel to those places, he reviewed about all the expenditures and availability of accommodation in the places he anticipated to visit. Of all the areas based on the accommodation and expenses, he personally felt that Wukan village was the most suitable place for both of us to tour. But before he came up with his final decision, he thought back to his native area, his childhood friends. Meeting his friends to him would satisfy his need for regressive behavior. I had also put that idea to my uncle’s mind before he could make any decision. I reminded him of the beauties of the rural area. He as well recalled the most famous bay in that area which used to offer him a majestic view and a peaceful mind. All this could satisfy both of us self-evaluation needs. Similarly, Wukan had promising fishing activities and also the nearby pacific oceans which drew my uncles attention for traveling to see the bay (He, and Xue, 2014). This became the reason for my uncle approve of our tour to Wukan village where he grew up.

My uncle and I had a lot of fun that holiday. For my uncle to drive a vehicle in a busy highway was so impossible but I helped him that time. He actually overcame that driving fear that satisfied the need for self-prestige, esteem, and above all self-confidence. After arriving Wukam village we went direct to the fishing area where we met the friends from his village fishing and others swimming in the pods. This satisfied us the need for social interaction. After interviewing my uncle, he claimed that life in the rural areas and mountain happened to be very simple (Miller, 2012). As long as people had enough in the kitchen for their daily survival then life became worth-living (Coggins et al., 2012). He remembered those days he grew up there when we did not have the current computerized technologies how life was so complete. The area however was not so developed and the technology was not widely spread in that area (Fewsmith, 2013). My uncle seemed so contented and seldom he could feel the complexities of life. Even that time we could spot utterly happy children in the barangays swimming in the ponds. My uncle noted the joy these people had there and they genuinely experienced it. My uncle too seemed to miss swimming and fishing. I interviewed him on the same and he confessed how he loved fishing but claimed that it was decades since the last time he went on fishing with his siblings. He felt really nostalgic simply thinking of those times. My uncle also pointed rural area people to less suffer from psychological disorders as compared to people from urban areas (Tong, and Zuo, 2014). He described that to be true because it was the simplicity of life that made people nearer to healing powers of nature. He added that the people fulfilled their needs and their desires were very less and when they had no or less desires then their expectation could not break their self-esteem.

Touring the Wukan Village

However, we visited the nearby area that he said it was well known to have natural beauties such as lush forest and the wet plantation fields in the neighboring area that would help us to fulfill the need for rest and relaxation. He said they used to bask in the short grasses in the forest and admire the wild animals who lived like a community. The gazelles and the monkeys well depicted the human behaviors in the way they all moved as a group in the forest. In addition, the chimpanzees were also spotted taking care of their young ones just like the human beings do. They as well lived in a family taking care of each other. My uncle confessed of the fresh natural air in that area as compared to the city pollution. He confessed to have enjoyed the befitting temperatures for his need for sunlight (Huisheng, 2015). Everything there was natural including the fresh air and wild fruits he picked from trees on our way to that forest.

After that tour, we all went back to the village where we would spend our holiday. That was the cheapest of all the places my uncle toured. My uncle claimed that we did not have to rent any building nor take meals from the towns. We met with his childhood friends. That satisfied for need of regressive behavior. My uncle could remember all the fun they shared with his friends (Chung, and Unger, 2013). We all interacted with the few friends who we met there and that satisfied our need for social interactions. He took me to his friends and relatives who were living in the village and he claimed that quenched his need to spend time with friends and relatives. Traveling to those areas absolutely relived the moments and memories with his friends to satisfy the need for nostalgia (He, and Xue, 2014). He claimed the nights there to be so dark and that experiences made him remember the days he used to scare the wild animals off their plantations during the night. He took me to the nearby plantation on the same issue. He could hardly walk faster as the nights there were so terrible with noisy from the frogs from the nearby swamps.

I conducted some research to get full information concerning the Wukan area. The simplest form of data collection methods I could use was the face to face interview to my uncle and his brother who lived there for long. I enquired of any progress made on the formal education and there was none at all. The people there were not that learned and questionnaire could only work when you interpret to them and then fill it yourself. I enquired from one of my uncle who almost got all the news from the area. The surprising was the most rapid urban expansion construction on land grabs that had become so ubiquitous over the decades in China (Sargeson, 2013). There were cases of land deprivation crises and rural identity within Chinese rural society that were created by the pursuit of urban-centered economic growth.

Life in the rural areas

My uncle claimed that land-related protesting was becoming the focal point of movements that aimed at protecting the village farmer’s rights (Yang et al., 2013). They feared to be deprived of their plantations and they all together stood to protect their properties. My uncle was drawing on ethnographic material on the basis of series of influential protests on the Wukan village land grabs (Ong, 2014). My village uncle was part of the movement that aimed at protecting their land. There was a critical rethinking of the economy as well as examining how the restoration of the village member’s collective identity contributed to the communal resistance that succeeded in reclaiming governing power and social order (Yang et al., 2013). In essence, they sowed the seed of hope to the village for the anticipated better life. There activities were restored back as normal.

Their fishing continued, pastoralism, and also fishing. The reinvented and revitalized clan systems helped in organizing around an extended kinship network that played a crucial role to reconstitute the villager’s collective identity (Sargeson, 2013). The Wukam area events constituted the initial step in the ambitious project that turned around farmer’s subordinates and the vulnerable role among the area’s relentless urbanization (Xue et al., 2013). It is in this procedures that the economy is being redefined for giving such a greater significance to the livelihood and the marginal group’s well-being.

My uncle had a lot to tell from that tour. We all had terrible encounters in the mountains and the fishing and bay areas because the hike was difficult and uncomfortable to walk all those regions. My uncle did not have enough sleep as well. This made it hard for hiking. Although there were such difficulties, we struggled to visit as many places as possible and eventually be happy with the view despite the difficulties we experienced (Fewsmith, 2013). Notably, beyond sightseeing the body was explained to be exercised as an instrument for traveling. To better understand traveling destination, all tourists ought to use all their senses.

A good example describes both spoken and written word, the ear as well as the tongue to be more essential than the individual eye upon sight. This is a prove that the human body can be exercised as the traveling instrument. However, the whole tour was an adventurous experience to my uncle while traveling to the fishing area, neighboring bays, and the forest because of the complications he faced on the way to those areas (Wines, 2011). We travelled across big stones within the swimming and fishing area, limestone’s and big tree roots that were memorable to both of us. I later realized that people who do not travel envies the souvenirs. The souvenirs are deemed to act as tourist’s information and share their experiences with their friends. In this case, sets of souvenirs reflect the significance of travel experience and self-esteem.

Discovering natural beauty

Conclusion

Conclusively, I realized that not only urban centers had a lot to offer with regards to touring and having new experiences. Touring the rural areas gave my uncle and I an impression to start focusing on other sites that one spent his holidays enjoying. The rural lives for instance reminded us on the beauties and cultures that were embraced during the past. Some sites were used for recreation and having fun. For instance, the swimming on the creeks in our village was so fantastic and even to-date most of the villagers were still enjoying the natural swimming sites on the creeks. In addition, fishing was still practiced in the nearby rivers and water catchment areas. other historical sites like the bays and mountains posed a significant figure within the rural areas. People in the villages could enjoy the beauties of the nature and the fresh breeze that came from the nearby bays. The climate there was pleasing and urban dwellers could feel the different compared to their climates. There was fresh air, conducive temperatures that favored farming in the plantations. Live in the rural was as well cheap as tourists in the villages could still stay in the families and everything including food was well catered for. We could as well get to know the history of the land developments that arose later concerning the land grabbing in the region. We learned about the history of how the villagers united to protect what was theirs in the rural areas. We later used individual interviews and realized the urban-centered economic growth to be the main issue that created cases of land deprivation crises and rural identity within Chinese rural society. Lastly, our tour made us get how the movement acted to secure their land and protect their culture.

References

He, S. and Xue, D., 2014. Identity building and communal resistance against landgrabs in Wukan Village, China. Current Anthropology, 55(S9), pp.S126-S137.

Wines, M., 2011. A village in revolt could be a harbinger for China. New York Times, 25.

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Ong, L.H., 2014. State-led urbanization in China: Skyscrapers, land revenue and “concentrated villages”. The China Quarterly, 217, pp.162-179.

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Sargeson, S., 2013. Violence as development: land expropriation and China’s urbanization. Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(6), pp.1063-1085.

Chung, H. and Unger, J., 2013. The Guangdong model of urbanisation: collective village land and the making of a new middle class. China Perspectives, (3), p.33.

Fewsmith, J., 2013. The logic and limits of political reform in China. Cambridge University Press.

Yang, J., Ryan, C. and Zhang, L., 2013. Social conflict in communities impacted by tourism. Tourism Management, 35, pp.82-93.

Coggins, C., Chevrier, J., Dwyer, M., Longway, L., Xu, M., Tiso, P. and Li, Z., 2012. Village Fengshui forests of southern China–culture history and conservation status. ASIANetwork Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts, 19(2).

He, S. and Xue, D., 2014. Identity building and communal resistance against landgrabs in Wukan Village, China. Current Anthropology, 55(S9), pp.S126-S137.

Huisheng, S., 2015. Between the Formal and Informal: Institutions and Village Governance in Rural China. China: An International Journal, 13(2), pp.24-44.

Yang, J., Ryan, C. and Zhang, L., 2013. Social conflict in communities impacted by tourism. Tourism Management, 35, pp.82-93.