This is not really an essay about China. Mostly not, anyway. Over the last month, I’ve been back in the United States traveling. While this trip has taken me to New York, New Hampshire, and Georgia, I spent most of my time in my home state of Maine. There, I was struck by the parallels between the economic and demographic struggles of rural China and rural Maine. While both regions face challenges that are similar in many ways, they face these challenges with approaches reflective of their [different] respective political cultures.
Very interesting David! Of course, the situation is very similar in rural Québec, or New Brunswick for that matter. Small towns and villages barely survive, and not every place can be a tourist attraction. So, pretty much the same as in China. On the other hand, in China they are still very busy building infrastructure such as highways and railways that help bring more tourists, and other businesses as well. First time I went to the Garze county in west Sichuan, it was almost three days of driving from Chengdu to get there. Then they finished the highway from Ya'an to Kangding, and if you leave in the morning from Chengdu, you are there before dinner. I also recently visited the Ruoergai area, north west of Sichuan, a (beautiful) high altitude plateau between Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu. I saw that they are building a railway, so there should be a high speed train within a couple of years. Not a chance, of course, that there would be a high speed train taking tourists from Boston or New York to the north of Maine! Also, it would still be difficult to attract enough tourists to make even a small town thrive, whereas China has a 1.4B basin of potential tourists. But right now, however, the internal tourism industry in China is in the doldrums. Even a normally hyper-busy place like Jiuzhaigou is "relatively" quiet (which just makes it pleasant enough to visit....). There were also plenty of tourists along the Ruoergai plateau, and locals offering horse riding all along the road. Yet for them, it is just supplementary income. Most families have a horde of yaks, 100 or more, that gives them enough of a basic income. I met a family where the husband went to work in the small town nearby, while the mother and grandmother took care of the yaks (I have some beautiful pictures). It is interesting that the government does not allow other types of agriculture to use that land, since that would destroy the unique and fragile ecology of the place, and the traditional way of life. I visited the yak research center, and it was quite a bit off the central road and not in the flat area but by the mountain side, for the reason that the government would not take good land from anyone. There, they were busy trying to breed better varieties of yaks, like mixing traditional yaks and angus beef. So all in all, the area, although remote, is quite dynamic. They are definitely not just sitting on their ass and hoping things will improve.
Some rural areas in the US are booming--see, for instance, many small towns in the Rockies and Sierras--or even Milbridge, ME down here in Washington County. What makes them boom? The Sonoran Institute (now Headwaters Economics) did a study more than 20 years ago and arrived at 5 factors that enabled communities that were once resource dependent (logging, ranching, mining, fishing, etc) to thrive once the resources could no longer support the community. I have a copy of the study if you are interested. Contact me at rsl@russellheath.net. Russell Heath
Very interesting David! Of course, the situation is very similar in rural Québec, or New Brunswick for that matter. Small towns and villages barely survive, and not every place can be a tourist attraction. So, pretty much the same as in China. On the other hand, in China they are still very busy building infrastructure such as highways and railways that help bring more tourists, and other businesses as well. First time I went to the Garze county in west Sichuan, it was almost three days of driving from Chengdu to get there. Then they finished the highway from Ya'an to Kangding, and if you leave in the morning from Chengdu, you are there before dinner. I also recently visited the Ruoergai area, north west of Sichuan, a (beautiful) high altitude plateau between Jiuzhaigou and Chengdu. I saw that they are building a railway, so there should be a high speed train within a couple of years. Not a chance, of course, that there would be a high speed train taking tourists from Boston or New York to the north of Maine! Also, it would still be difficult to attract enough tourists to make even a small town thrive, whereas China has a 1.4B basin of potential tourists. But right now, however, the internal tourism industry in China is in the doldrums. Even a normally hyper-busy place like Jiuzhaigou is "relatively" quiet (which just makes it pleasant enough to visit....). There were also plenty of tourists along the Ruoergai plateau, and locals offering horse riding all along the road. Yet for them, it is just supplementary income. Most families have a horde of yaks, 100 or more, that gives them enough of a basic income. I met a family where the husband went to work in the small town nearby, while the mother and grandmother took care of the yaks (I have some beautiful pictures). It is interesting that the government does not allow other types of agriculture to use that land, since that would destroy the unique and fragile ecology of the place, and the traditional way of life. I visited the yak research center, and it was quite a bit off the central road and not in the flat area but by the mountain side, for the reason that the government would not take good land from anyone. There, they were busy trying to breed better varieties of yaks, like mixing traditional yaks and angus beef. So all in all, the area, although remote, is quite dynamic. They are definitely not just sitting on their ass and hoping things will improve.
Some rural areas in the US are booming--see, for instance, many small towns in the Rockies and Sierras--or even Milbridge, ME down here in Washington County. What makes them boom? The Sonoran Institute (now Headwaters Economics) did a study more than 20 years ago and arrived at 5 factors that enabled communities that were once resource dependent (logging, ranching, mining, fishing, etc) to thrive once the resources could no longer support the community. I have a copy of the study if you are interested. Contact me at rsl@russellheath.net. Russell Heath