Herders revel in tradition and tourism
2019-10-24 10:29:33 China Daily Mo Hong'e
A herder grazes cattle on the Narat, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in Sept, 2019. (Photo/Xinhua)
An influx of visitors has resulted in rising living standards on the Narat grassland. Cui Jia and Wang Keju report from Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Editor's note: This is the eighth story in a series focusing on the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, looking at developments in the economy, the cultural and business sectors and poverty alleviation measures.
On Oct 8, Bahargul Asat packed up her yurts on the Narat, the fertile grassland of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and moved to her winter settlement as the vast expanse was transformed into an autumnal golden blanket at the foot of the snow-capped Tianshan Mountains.
Like her nomadic Kazak ancestors, Bahargul and her family spent the summer grazing more than 100 sheep and horses on the grassland that the ethic group has called home for thousands of years. However, unlike her forebears, as head of a yurt hotel that houses tourists on the grassland, she had an extra-busy summer.
Dubbed the "grassland in the sky" for its average altitude of 1,800 meters, the Narat, in Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture, is surrounded by mountains on three sides. To view the Narat, visitors have to climb a mountain before the vast grassland suddenly opens up at the end of the winding mountain roads.
Most of the people in Bestobe, Bahargul's home village, retain the nomadic lifestyle, and members of the Kazak ethnic group are among the last nomads in China.
As the grassland is located at high altitude, the herders have to move their livestock and their yurts to low-lying pastures when the weather turns cold, before returning to higher ground for spring and summer. Although there are no boundary markers, each family knows exactly which part of the grassland is theirs for raising livestock.
"It's how we Kazaks achieve harmony with the environment. Each pasture will have time to recover from grazing. Also, only strong, healthy animals can survive the tough migration, which can sometimes take a week. The system has made the Kazaks strong, and it still works," said Bahargul proudly.
Her family's winter pasture is only 50 kilometers from the Narat, and she will return to the grassland in June.
Xinjiang is possibly the only place in China where vehicles on the highway are required to give way to flocks of sheep escorted by traffic police and herdsmen on horseback during the migratory period. After all, many roads in the region were built on ancient livestock migration routes.
Attracted by the grand beauty of the grassland that was once a hidden jewel, a growing number of tourists have flocked to the Narat in recent years. The influx of visitors has changed the herders' lives.
A Kazak woman tidies a yurt for tourists in May. (Photo/Xinhua)
Cooperative living
In addition to continuing their tradition of raising livestock on the grassland, many residents, including Bahargul, have started tourism-related businesses.
In 2014, Bahargul and some of her peers founded a cooperative to provide yurts as guesthouses, offering standardized, quality services to tourists. The group owns 40 yurts, each of which can accommodate eight to 10 people, she said.
She got the idea in July 2008, when a family of three from Beijing asked to stay overnight in her spare yurt because they didn't want to miss the sun rising and setting over the grassland. Those sights are commonplace to the herders, who, unlike the family, never regard them as "breathtaking", Bahargul said.
As a result, she discussed establishing a yurt hotel with the other residents as a means of earning extra income. "It's a win-win situation," she said.
The following year, nine other families followed in Bahargul's footsteps and started renting yurts to tourists.
Initially, the yurts were scattered haphazardly across the grassland, and the quality of food and other services provided by the families varied greatly.
Gradually, problems started to surface, such as guests expressing concerns about hygiene in the yurts.
Even more worrisome was the tourists' habit of dumping rubbish, such as plastic bags and cutlery, on the grassland because the waste disposal facilities were too far away.
"As Kazaks, it is our duty to protect the grassland. So when the Narat is hurt, we are hurt," Bahargul said.
In response, the herders discussed the situation and decided to establish the cooperative. Their first action was to move all the yurt guesthouses much closer to the waste-disposal facilities.
"Learning to serve guests at the professional level is never easy for herders. You can leave the sheep out all day and shout at them all you want, but you cannot do that to guests who need regular quality services," said Bahargul, who is head of the cooperative.
The members have drawn up standards for services and hygiene, and even held a competition to see who had the best taste in interior decoration for the yurts.
"People brought all the most-precious traditional decorations from their homes so the guests can be submerged in Kazak culture as soon as they step into a yurt," Bahargul said.
A view of the Narat grassland in early autumn. (Photo/Xinhua)
Upgraded services
This summer was Maliwat's first as an employee of the yurt hotel. The 29-year-old university graduate was determined to upgrade services to meet the tourists' demands, and also came up the idea of serving traditional milk tea in the afternoon along with a range of Kazak pastries.
"Kazak afternoon tea can be just as posh as afternoon tea in England," she said as she capped a cup of freshly made milk tea with butter, impressing the guests who could not stop taking photos and videos on their cellphones.
Since the Narat was listed as one of China's top scenic sites in 2011, tensions have arisen between tourism development and environmental protection.
To address the issue and protect the grassland, the local government introduced new guidelines in 2015 that imposed tougher waste-disposal requirements and banned unlicensed permanent structures. It also encouraged local herders to take part in tourism development.
From January to last month, the grassland received 871,000 tourists, a rise of 43.7 percent year-onyear.
"When I am serving tea, I love to talk about how important the grassland is to us, so the tourists will leave their rubbish at the right places," Maliwat said. "I want them to understand that while they see the Narat as a tourist site, it is home to us."
Every day, the herders take all the waste generated by the yurt hotel to a new disposal site outside the grassland. Maliwat calls the process "the daily migration".
According to Bahargul, every family in the cooperative receives an average 20,000 yuan ($2,817) during the summer season, while also grazing their animals.
"Besides earning extra income, we all believe that running the yurt hotel is a good way to spread the Kazak culture," she said.
Herders take care of the horses on the Narat grassland. (Photo/Xinhua)
Horseback riding
Bahargul has much to do before she returns to the Narat in June. She plans to buy an eco-shower system for the yurts and list the hotel on travel websites. "I wish I had time to rest, like the grassland," she said.
Next to the hotel, the herders have established another cooperative, which allows tourists to experience the feeling of roaming the grassland on horseback like true Kazaks.
Before the horse herd cooperative was set up in 2012, the herders randomly picked up tourists who wanted to ride horses, which sometimes led to fights over customers. Also, some herders allowed tourists to ride the horses on their own without providing any protection, said Arken Meyir, who is the head of the cooperative.
The number of families involved has risen to 150 from the original 40, and each household provides two horses. "The herdsmen need to wait in line for tourists like taxi drivers. There are no more fights," Arken said.
To ensure safety and environmental protection, tourists are only allowed to ride on designated horse lanes and they must be accompanied by experienced riders.
Before the herders return to their yurts at the end of each day, they are required to clean up the horse lanes and take away all the rubbish, he added.
"Actually, the tourists don't disturb the herders' normal lives, because most of us live quite far from the tourist area, which is only a very small part of the Narat," Arken said.
Bahetnur Sutanhaz was born on the Narat grassland and was first put on a horse when he was 3. The tourism boom has allowed the 37-year-old to open three restaurants offering authentic Kazak cuisine in Narat township.
"No matter how busy I am, I drive up to the family's pasture on the grassland almost every day during summer to check on the livestock. I would feel uncomfortable if my feet didn't touch the grassland for a day. I think that's caused by my Kazak blood," he said, adding that he has recently started teaching his 7-year-old son to ride.
"He needs to be a real Kazak man, no matter what he does when he grows up. Also, he should always remember that our roots lie in the grassland."