Access issues in Yangshuo

Following a successful visit by Chris Sharma in April, access to Yangshuo’s premier crag has been throw into question this month. On Saturday morning White Mountain was the scene of a thirty-minute stand-off between a multi-national group of climbers and local farmers who are unhappy about the outcome of talks with Yangshuo’s climbing association. The confrontation was the second this month. Three weeks ago a small group of climbers was threatened with farm tools and, after calling the police, were made to leave White Mountain. Several routes were subsequently vandalized. Climbers have chosen to stay away from the crag since, but heavy rains in Yangshuo sent them looking for steep terrain last week.

On Friday, representatives from Yangshuo’s guiding companies met with the farmers, who have a legitimate legal claim to the land adjacent to White Mountain. It is reported that the farmers demanded 10,000 CNY for continued access to the crag. The climbing association balked at this figure, setting the stage for yesterday’s confrontation.

Yangshuo's White Mountain

Says Bob Keaty (USA), a Yangshuo regular: “The problem is that the climbing association doesn’t have the same interests as the independent climbers that visit White Mountain. The association represents the guiding companies in Yangshuo town. These companies don’t guide White Mountain because the climbing is too steep for beginners. They don’t depend on it for revenue, so of course they’re not going to be willing to pay to maintain access.”

Keaty, a long-time resident of Shanghai who is fluent in Mandarin, accompanied the group of climbers to White Mountain on Saturday morning, expecting trouble. Arriving at the crag, they found a few locals, all younger men, crowding a party from France that had arrived just minutes earlier. The village headman, meanwhile, was talking loudly on his cell phone at the top of an adjacent hill, the anger in his voice obvious. Keaty quickly went to speak with him, but more farmers soon arrived from the nearby village. While the climbers outnumbered the farmers twenty to seven, a tense atmosphere prevailed for several minutes before Keaty and the village headman could come to a temporary resolution.

In an attempt to make the farmers feel better about our presence, Marcus Oechsner (Germany) and I made a short expression of our gratitude for being able to climb at White Mountain. Keaty interpreted for us, and we were received positively by the farmers. Their group graciously invited us to return to our climbing and dispersed shortly thereafter. Keaty went to the home of the headman to put the details of their complaint into writing. He later reported on a productive discussion:

“These are a poor but generous people, and they’d like to make a bit of money for allowing us continued access. Their chief complaint is that we arrive in taxi vans and contribute to the erosion of their dirt roads. This complaint seems legitimate, so I suggested that we might walk or ride bikes to the crag, thereby not damaging the roads. They didn’t seem pleased with this suggestion. I also suggested that we might buy our water and snacks from the village, providing them with some income. I think, in the end, we may just have to pay a few yuan each day to have access to the crag.”

Word travels fast between the little villages outlying Yangshuo, and there is concern within the climbing community that such an arrangement might set a dangerous precedent. Climbers have enjoyed hassle-free access to world-class limestone sport climbing for many years in Yangshuo, and loathe the idea of having to pay to climb at the area’s many crags. As a result of the interaction, though, I am not convinced that money is the central issue. I, personally, think that the villagers at White Mountain simply feel disenfranchised. We have visited their land on a regular basis for many years without asking permission and without saying “Xie xie.” The small gesture that we made to them – shaking hands and expressing our gratitude – was enough to assuage their anger and resentment. The final resolution of the issue will, undoubtedly, not be so simple.

Saturday’s events recalled the struggles that organizations like the Access Fund take on regularly in the West. Yet in places like Yangshuo, where there is little official representation by the global climbing community, we often rely on locals with a vested economic interest to act on our behalf. As Keaty so clearly expresses, though, this is one situtation where our interests and the interests of local guiding companies diverge, highlighting the need for a more global treatment of the access issue.