10-7-2014 China's adventure tourism reaches new heights with sustainable climbing | Zara Maung | Environment | theguardian.com

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2009/nov/13/china-climbing-sustainability 1/3

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A Yangshuo climbing festiv al participant on the White Mountain, Guangxi prov ince, China. Photograph:

Colton Lindenman/y sclimbfest.com

Yangshuo, an ancient mountain town that is fast becoming the adventure capital of

southern China, opens its second annual climbing festival today with the aim of

promoting "sustainable" climbing in the region.

Orginally built during the Sui Dynasty (AD590), the town has stood for over a 1,000

years, so it's perhaps no wonder the locals want to see climbing tourism develop

sustainably, in a way that benefits the town and preserves the area's stunning natural

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China's adventure tourism reaches newheights with sustainable climbingThe British Mountaineering Council could learn a thing or two from

Yangshuo when it comes to scaling back exhaust emissions

10-7-2014 China's adventure tourism reaches new heights with sustainable climbing | Zara Maung | Environment | theguardian.com

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2009/nov/13/china-climbing-sustainability 2/3

beauty. The festival organisers promise to hook up climbers at the weekend festival with

rental bikes to get around, in order to promote cleaner means of transport. They'll also

encourage local traders to sell food and drink to the ravenous climbers hanging out (oh,

and climbing hard) at the rocks.

Perhaps British climbers out in Yangshuo might be inspired to bring some of the Chinese

bicycle culture back to the UK. We already have clear conservation rules in the UK, set

out by the British Mountaineering Council, on preserving the local environment of

climbing crags by not littering and respecting bird nesting restrictions.

But when it comes to transport to and from climbing destinations, UK climbers are still

reaching for their car keys. Despite a growing awareness of climate change impacts,

especially on winter climbing conditions in Scotland, the climbing community in the UK

still has a car-driving addiction.

This is not helped by the lack of information on how to approach crags in the UK by

public transport. Take a look at the national crag access database on the British

Mountaineering Council website and you'll find lots of information on parking facilities

but no mention of nearby train or bus stations. This lack of information is reflected in UK

climbing guidebooks. And if you to approach a crag by bike beware the usual lack of

parking facilities for bikes at rural car parks – hopefully there'll be some thin trees

around.

The British Mountaineering Council might want to go one step further from just telling

its members to "use public transport initiatives" on its website and actually give them

information on how to use public transport to get to climbing destinations. A cycle rack

or two at popular climbing destinations wouldn't go amiss either. And as for using

Yangshuo's cycle hire idea: organising bicycling and public transport climbing events in

the UK would be a great way to galvanise climbers into action.

What about a meaningful first step for the BMC? Committing to the 10:10 pledge to help

facilitate a 10% cut in UK climbing community's emissions in 2010 might be a start.

Climbers, both in the UK and abroad, can always choose to make the 10:10 pledge

themselves and start reducing their car use by 10% next year. You can sign up to a site I

founded, ecoclimber, for free and offer and accept lifts from other climbers on the social

networking forum (entirely at your own risk). Once you've signed into the site, you have

the option of setting up a local car share climbers' group for your town, which you can

encourage other local climbers to join.

Finally, until a public transport database is available for climbers, try Traveline for

reliable up-to-date national and local travel information.

10-7-2014 China's adventure tourism reaches new heights with sustainable climbing | Zara Maung | Environment | theguardian.com

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2009/nov/13/china-climbing-sustainability 3/3

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