Beat the rush to China’s last tourism frontier – remote Dulong Valley
Hong Kong ultrarunner Pavel Toropov explores a high-altitude gorge near the China-Myanmar border. Home to some of China’s last primary forests, it is earmarked for mass tourism; enjoy it while you can
I first heard about the Dulong Valley from a trekking guide who had just taken a group there. He described it as stunning, with sheer, jungle-covered gorges rising straight to snow-capped peaks above. He also complained about bugs, snakes and near impenetrable terrain, but intrigued, I decided to make Dulong the final destination of a 400km solo exploration run I did last year from Shangri-la in Yunnan province, southwest China.
The Dulong River flows into Myanmar, where it is called the N’Mai, and is one of the headstreams of the Irrawaddy River which flows south through Myanmar and Bangladesh. Its inaccessibility and remoteness have kept it pristine until recently, and the lush, humid forests at the bottom of its deep valley are one of the most biodiverse places in China. Culturally and ethnically, it is closer to Myanmar than China; the local ethnic minorities – the Dulong (also called Derung or Drung) and the Nu live on both sides on the border, and many still follow a traditional lifestyle based on fishing, hunting and forest agriculture.
This lifestyle is now dying out, as this unique corner of Yunnan has finally succumbed to the juggernaut of China’s development. The almost complete isolation of Dulong ended in 1999 when a road was built and authorities announced the “opening up of China’s last ethnic minority area”.
Last year a tunnel was built, making the valley accessible all year round. The Dulong people are encouraged to relocate to housing provided free of charge by the state and are given food subsidies, so they are losing their knowledge of sustainable agro-forestry, built up over centuries.
Billions of yuan has been poured into infrastructure investment, which has brought ever more people, vehicles, pollution and refuse.