TRAVEL GIRLMagazine
A Life Exposé on Thai Lady Boys
Different Paths New Sight
House Hunting --choose your journey
REALITY SHOWADVENTURE
Selfie Stick Ban: Fact or Fiction?
Discovering theReal You
May 2015 / VOL.01RMB 30
Travel Girl is a Zhuhai-based magazine that provides the best travel tips, guides, and stories for all our travel girls out there. Specializing in the Asia pacific region, Travel Girl aims to show readers the beauty and quirks of travel all in one package. Entering strange lands, enduring tough road-blocks, enjoying staggering sceneries, travelling stories that
Jennifer Chiu
Crystal Sun
Scrooge Chen
Elaine Hu
Jacqueline Qiu
Angelina Yang
EDITORS
>>>ON THE WAY
Different Paths New Sight / P3
House Hunting --choose your journey / P8
>>>COVER STORY
A Life Exposé on Thai Lady Boy / P11
CONTENTS
CONTENT
May 2015
>>>TRAVEL GIRL'S VOICE
Didcovering the Real You / P15
>>>TOP TOPIC
Selfie Stick Ban: Fact or Fiction? / P20
Reality Show Adventure / P24
RMB 30
2 Travel Girl
Different paths New sight
Everyone have a dif-ferent def ini t ion of travel. You could be
flying to a private island in the Caribbean to get some sun or be heading halfway across the world on foot in a journey of self-discovery. It does not matter how you get there either, whether it is by train, by bike, or by foot. But know this. You are bound to
have an equally unique expe-rience depending on the road you choose. Tibet, the holiest place in China, is one of those special places. No matter how old you or how much money you have, you could always find a way to enjoy Tibet. As one of the Buddhism Holy Lands, the blend of
religion, the unique architec-ture, and the beautiful scen-ery takes Tibet to perfection. The lofty mountains, clear lakes, colorful dazzling sun-shine, and the pastures of the brilliant and mysterious tem-ples, Tibet will surprise you.
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By Elaine Hu
Makes things different, earn different sight
If you are a girl that wants to challenge yourself, tons of patience, and have enough time to travel, you could learn from Wang Xiyu, who walked her way across mountains near Ti-bet. As a graduating undergradu-ate student, Xiyu Wang wanted a different kind of graduation trip, something other than the big cities everyone else goes to. Therefore, she had decided to travel by foot to Meili Xue Shan, a mountain range located between the borders of Yunnan and Tibet. As a snow-capped mountain range with its highest point, the Kawagebo Peak, at an ele-vation of 6,740 m, the Meilin Xue Shan is one of the most sacred peaks for the Tibetans. Before the trip, Wang had made much preparation. Get-
ting a mountaineering suit, sleeping bags, and a large backpack is essential. “I did lots of research on what kind of equipment I should bring for my trip,” said Wang. “I did re-search on the climate, the road conditions and possible safety problems. To avoid diseases and accidents, I had to bring medicine, maps, and compass-es. Compressed foods like the BP-5 biscuit bars would be helpful in dealing with hun-ger.” While the trip is filled with beautiful scenery and many in-teresting experiences, but there were also many extreme obsta-cles along the way. In order to protect moun-tain’s natural environment, there is no manmade road. Acute mountain sickness, sharp branches, and rugged mountain paths had made Wang wanting to give up at times. “There are some places so narrow that I felt like my life was in danger,” said Wang.
On the road of Tibet. Photo provided by Jiang Jiaxin
Go down a mountain Photo provided by Wang Xiyu
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“One time, we had to walk along a mountain path that was only wide enough for one per-son and it left you staring down at the steep abyss at your side. It was frightening.”However, when she reached the mountain top and saw how the sun shined on the snowcapped mountain and turning it gold, it no longer matter how difficult getting there was anymore“This experience had made me braver and stronger,” said Wang. “I do think I will be frightened by any difficulties in the future.”
“Live happy is import-ant, do you want to do”
Running through the Tibet is the National Highway 318, known for being the longest road in China. It is also known as the most difficult road to
build in the country. Since there are many natural scenery along the road that you cannot see anywhere else, that is why Jiaxin Jiang, a 23 year old girl from Sichuan Province, had decided to bike to Tibet. “I remember one night, I saw friend posting pictures of her travels to the Taklamakan Des-ert and I was shocked by the beauty of the natural scenery,” said Jiang. “It had inspired me to go travelling myself. I wanted to challenge myself and that is why I decided to bike to Tibet.” Thus, Jiang started to pre-pare for her trip. “When you decide to do something, the whole world will be willing to help you,” said Jiang. “I began asking experienced bikers on tips and guides on the journey, and not long after, I was recruited by an experience band of bikers.
Biking holiday on the road of Ya'anPhoto provided by Jiang Jiaxin
Jiang Jiaxin with her teammatesprovided by Jiang Jiaxin
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Travel Girl 5
called the Raiders, who had much experience biking along the 318 road.” It was Jiang’s first time riding to the plateau and the hardships were unimaginable. Adapting to long-distance bike riding was not short of ups and downs, whether they were psychological or physical chal-lenges. “If you are not professional rider,” said Jiang, “Don’t try to biking to Tibet alone. The rea-son that I have held on to the end were because of my team
members.” Forgotten for what reason, while climbing on Ya’an’s fi-nal slope, she had separated from her teammates. She had to climb by herself, where ex-haustion and fear had made her hopeless. It was the first time that she had felt miserable. But she held out. When she climb the last slope, She saw her teammates waiting and she had almost burst into tears. In that moment, she could only think of one thing, that “we are a team”.
The load of her luggage was shared by her team members. She was always lagging be-hind during their rides, but her teammates still accompanied with her. They say that a set of tools and equipment needs to be shared She said that it was “thanks to my teammates, for support-ing each other that we enjoyed the trip so much. We shared happiness and sorrow. It’s hard to express this feeling in just one or two words. Not just my teammates, I also met other
Beautiful sight on the road of train. Photo provided by Liu Xiao
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6 Travel Girl
lovely people, like other riders, walkers, runners, skateboard-ers, self-drivers.” This experience had not changed her life, but had left an unforgettable experience and lots of good friend. Walking and biking are ways which need patience and long time to prepare. It also require lots of time and energy on the road, so many people might not be able to handle it. Relax on holidays
If you want to have a relax-ing travel experience and save time, there is still another great way to get to Tibet - by train. Xiao Liu, is a 28 year old girl. She saw her trip as a hol-iday, so relaxing is the most important thing. That was why her had decided to go by train. She said travel can change a person’s temperament, let a person takes a broader viewOn the road, you will see dif-ferent people with different habits and you will know that, not everyone lives life the way you do. She was attracted to many things in Tibet; the blue
skies, the feel the clouds at your fingertips, the calm lakes, the towering snowcapped mountains, the majesty of the Potala Palace, all kinds of gad-gets sold on Bajiao street, the devout pilgrims, the simple Tibetan children, and all those gallant, long-haired Tibetan men riding a horse galloping on the grassland. Different paths have different experiences. It de-pends on one’s budget, the amount of energy and whether they have enough patience. No matter what kinds of paths you choose, Tibet is an amazing place worthy for you to enjoy. The experiences of the trip is more important than the desti-nation. For tourists, no matter which path you choose, you can feel the ordeal of this holy land. Tibet’s stunning natural beauty is undoubtedly unified and harmonious. To some extent, Tibet is des-tined to become a dream desti-nation with her unique natural and cultural landscape. It is so hard to reach because it is so close to the skies.
On stop at Sichuan Tibet linePhoto provided by Liu Xiao
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Travel Girl 7
House Hunting --choose your journeyBy Crystal Sun
A room offerd by Aribnb Photo provided by Zhang Yifan
Accommodation is perhaps one of the most important factors to consider when planning for
a trip.
In order to obtain a comfortable and convenient journey, a lot of people choose to travel with travel agencies and live in hotels.
However, the younger generation in China has very different opinions about travel compared to the older generation. When they are traveling, they want to learn more about the local culture and even want to make friends with the local people because they think by doing so, they can truly feel that they’ve been to the destination and have integrated with the local culture.
Therefore, these young travelers might choose different kinds of accom-modation other than the traditional type of hotels.
Inns, guesthouses, and even couch surfing are good accommodation choic-es to get such experiences.
Guesthouse -- Good choice for overseas accommodation
Nowadays, in China, more and more people go abroad for travel than ever before. Citing the data from China’s national tourism administration, a total of 97 million Chinese tourists left the country in 2013, up 14 million from the previous year. Among them, young people account for a great ratio.
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The mat that Zhao slept in the host's house Photo provided by Zhao Xing
“When I go abroad with my friends,” said Zhang Yifan, a student from Tianjin University of Science and Technology. “We try to save money on accom-modation so we can use more money tasting delicious foods and visiting tourist attractions.I think that is the fun part during our travels.”
Earlier this year, Zhang went with her friends to South Ko-rea. In order to save costs, they booked a guesthouse through the website—Airbnb.
Zhang said there are many reasons why she had chosen to book a guesthouse. First, when she compared the price of Airbnb’s house with hotels, it is much cheaper. Because they had 6 people together,they would have had to book 3 rooms in the hotel, which would have round-ed off at the high cost of about 1500RMB. However, if they choose to live in the guesthouse, they could just rent one apart-ment at the low cost of about 550RMB. With the guesthouse, each person would only need to pay about 90RMB per night.
“Not only the price is lower when compared with hotel,” added Zhang,“but the guest-house’s living environment is actually quite good. It is a completely furnished apartment with a kitchen, so we can cook breakfast on our own, which is quite convenient.”
“The house owner also gave us a lot of good recommenda-tions,” said Zhang.“Like how to
effectively plan our route and which restaurant we should visit. Thus,it felt like we were receiving a warm welcome in a foreign country.” Zhang added.
Try to be a couch surfer Compared with the nice furnished houses provided on Airbnb, you could just sleep on a yoga mat but pay no money when you decide to be a couch surfer during your trip.
Normally, if you choose to book a guesthouse through Airbnb, you cannot live with the local people because the guest-houses provided on Airbnb are the owner’s spare houses.
However, when you become a couch surfer, you will have a lot of chances to interact with the local people. You will live with the couch-surfing host in his or her house. In addition, the hosts are glad to take you out to meet his or her friends and show you around the city.
Zhao Xing, a white collar from a PR company in Beijing, has chosen to be a couch surfer during her journey in Taiwan.
“My host and I talked a lot of topics,” said Zhao.“We don’t have many different opinions about issues. Even if we have some different ideas, we are not going to argue because I believe the essence of being a CSer are experiencing and exchanging. Being a good CSer also means you need to be a good listener so that you can hear the view-points from different voices and have a broader cognition about the world. That is the reason I believe why couch surfing can attract so many people.”
Traditional inns in China In some tourist cities of Chi-na, inns have become a kind of cultural phenomenon, especially in Lijiang. These inns have del-icate appearance which share many characteristics of tradi-tional Chinese architecture, such as screen panels.
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Travel Girl 9
Jiao is enjoying his life at Zhao Rong's inn Photo by Crystal Sun
Compared with the monot-onous living experiences in hotels, the colorful life in inns attracts more and more young people to choose to live in inns because these young generation love to experience something fresh.
Many inn owners are very kind and helpful. They even treat the guests like friends. For example, they are glad to bring tourists to the local restaurants to eat and drink together with local people and hold BBQ party at the inn. In addition, the inn owner might provide sur-prises for the travelers such as a birthday party so they could have unforgettable travel expe-riences.
Jiao Yanfu, a traveler who lived in an inn at Ancient
Shuhe Town located in the famous tourist destination of Lijiang—KuanZhai Xiang Zi for one week, said he had a wonderful time in the inn.
When he first arrived at the inn, the inn owner Zhao Rong was very warm. She showed Jiao around the Ancient Shuhe Town, such as the museum there. One night, Zhao invited Jiao to go out playing with her local friends whom are from Naxi ethnic group. Jiao said when he playing with the Naxi guys he learned more about their culture and customs.
“Naxi people are very good at drinking and they have their own character-- Dongba char-acter,” said Jiao.“But since Dongba character is a picto-graphic character, most people
don’t know how to pronounce it.”
Other than helping guests to make friends with local people, Zhao Rong also holds many activities at inn, such as BBQ, making dumplings and playing games so travelers can share their experience with other people and make friends in the inn.
Therefore, when people live in these inns, they usually feel warmly welcomed. This is also the reason why a lot people love to live at inns.
Being a couch surfer and liv-ing in inns or guesthouses can bring a different travel experi-ence to you. If you really want to have an enjoyable travel, try it!
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10 Travel Girl
Lady boys have become a well-known symbol of Thailand. According
to the statistics of Thai gov-ernment, there are over 400 thousand lady boys in Thai-land. Most of them are either dancers, singers, or actresses. Almost every tourist visiting Thailand watches the cabaret show. They have become the stars of the show and play-things to visitors.
Chiang Mai cabaret the-atre It is obvious that most lady boys have a difficult life. The Chiang Mai Cabaret Theatre has the biggest lady boy show in Chiang Mai. There are 47 lady boys in the theatre. Let‘s walk into their life. Almost all lady boys stud-
ied at a ladyboy school when they were young. The school had taught them how to look like ladies and basic dance skills aside from the basic school curriculum. When they were 18, most of them were sent to intern at the Tiffany show in Pattaya, where they learned how per-form well. After that, they are expected to attend the lady boy beauty
A LIFE EXPOSÉ ON THAI LADY BOYS
Photos & text by Scrooge Chen
COVER STORY
Travel Girl 11
contest by the age of 20 to try to become the lady boy queen. After finishing the contest, they will start working at the Chiang Mai cabaret theatre. Most of them like the beautiful and quiet city, although they cannot make a lot of money working there.
Daily Life They have to get up at the afternoon and go to work after dinner. Every day, a lot of them need to buy a big bottle of milk
tea before going to the theatre. "Drinking milk tea can give you good luck for getting tips,” said Suyapatta Pashine, one of the lady boys working at Chi-ang Mai Cabaret Theatre. The income for them is very low. The main income for them comes from tips for taking photos with tourists. People always give them
100THB for taking photos with them. The theatre only pay 5000THB (150USD) per month and most income is tips for taking photo. Some lucky lady boy can get as much as 2000THB (65USD) of tips from just one night. They would like to go to eat something with friends after work. They say it’s the best time of the day for them. They like to sitting by river side to eat and drink. However, they limit how much they eat every day to
keep their bodies thin. They usually sleep very late.
Sex trade
Some of them will wait for the audiences to find them and carry on the sex trade. This is done after the show, where some male audiences will add the lady boys to their social
network and ask them after the show. Audiences coming from China will connect them by WeChat and ask them if can they could offer sex trade. “Sex trade is also the main income for lady boys,” added Pashine. Some audiences who are very curious about them pay them money to take their clothes to check their gender. They are boys originally and they understand how to make men feel good during sex. So many men also want to pay some money to enjoy the spe-cial services provided. Some people even want to take them back to their country. However, few lady boys are willing to go with them, be-cause they think they will be discriminated in other place. They also know these tourists just treat them as a means to an end or as pets.
Short life
Lady boys could only work for a few years. After 30 years old, they will look like old ladies and could not work the shows anymore. They need to work every day and make enough money for the rest of their life. They are also eager to find love. Most lady boy have a very short life because of the clash of their hormones. If they don’t do the transgender operation, they may not live to more than 40 years old. They need to eat or inject female hormones every day to get good skin and big breasts. Most people think lady boys are transgender boys that turn
The wonderful cabaret show
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12 Travel Girl
themselves into girls. In fact, it is not true. Actually, they use the ‘special underwear’ to hide their privates such that you would not even notice it when they wear bikinis.
The love of lady boy
Lady boy also longs for love. Pashine has a boyfriend now. She said she want to live w i th h im in r e s t o f l i f e . Although she is a man in law, she will do degeneration in future and marry her boyfriend. Her boyfriend is a Thai man who have watched her shows before. She said his family could not accept it when they decided to live together. But she really treats him very well and also treats his family members very well. Now his family and friends all think she can be a good wife for him. She said she will open a shop with him in the future. She doesn’t hope get anymore from life since she thinks what she has now is enough. Her boyfriend is a waiter at a bar. He also makes little money per month. She said she doesn’t mind her boyfriend having little income. It’s difficult for lady boy to find someone to love. People also can’t accept them from the ethical perspective. Most people think they are dirty or just a plaything.
Pashine with her boyfriend
Lady boy was boy before
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Travel Girl 13
The family situation Pashine said she has a very poor family, so she goes back to home every Songkran Fes-tival (the New Year day in Thailand). She takes all money to home and give it to family members. She said they need the mon-ey very much to change their living condition. Every time she goes home, she is very happy. She doesn’t mind the hardship with the show work if her family has a good life.
Lady boy in Thailand
Thailand has most lady boys all over world. The reason for this is complicated to explain. The first one is the religion.
Almost all of the Thai peo-ple believe in Hinayana. The purpose for the religion is let people not to influence other people’s lives. So most Thai people have a tolerated view about lady boy. The second reason is the cul-ture. Woman has more power in Thailand. Woman can make more money in Thailand so that make many boys born into poor family would want to be-come a girl to make more mon-ey. The third reason is the huge sex trade and tourism markets. Becoming a lady boy can make a lot of money in a very short time and the work is very easy to do. So most lady boy choose to do the work by them-selves and are not forced upon by others.
The limit Policy
An increasing number of boys in Thailand want to be lady boy quickly such that they choose to cut off their testicles. The Thailand government for-bid hospitals to do the opera-tion. The Government tries to limit the number of lady boy now days. Most lady boy are labelled male in their ID card and they will be exempted from doing the mandatory mil-itary service. It’s difficult for them to change male to female according to the laws. Lady boy are human beings. They have faceted and colorful life. If you see them, please give them a sincere smile.
Thai people believe in Hinayana
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14 Travel Girl
Discovering the Real You
It is not where to go that matters, but who you go with and the experience that matters
By Angelina Yang
Travel Girl 15
Have ever you met a situation where your friends show pictures
they have taken during a trip on certain landmark buildings or famous local scenery, but they are not able to tell you anything about the story or the history of the landmark build-ings. Or when you ask about how they felt on their travels or what they had done, their answer was always about what they bought or ate. Traditional means of trav-eling is to experience culture and scenery, but people’s de-mand for travel has changed. A large wave of mainland tourist are starting to go to various
travel destinations for making purchases rather than as an ex-perience. Jack is a guide who has lived in Stanford in the United States for several years. There, he noticed that many of Chinese tourists are more interested in taking pictures at landmark attractions. When he takes his tour group to Leland Stanford Junior University and introduces the legend of this university, these Chinese tour-ists prefer to taking photos and putting it on their social net-work to show off. When they have gone back onto the bus, they only talk about what their next destination is, what they were having for lunch, and
where they could go shopping for things like cheap iPhones/iPads. These tourists show ab-solutely no interest about the history or the culture in Stan-ford and Jack was disappointed in the way Chinese people tend to travel. “The way Chinese people travel is very simple,” said Jack. “And that is to buy, eat and take photos to show off on their social network. It is not a bad thing that Chi-nese people have become rich-er and busier, but there is less time for people to wind down. Is this the method of travelling people should really be pursu-ing?”
Travel Girls
Chinese people are shopping in the chao phraya river in Bangkok shopping plaza Photo by Scrooge Chen
16 Travel Girl
MAY 2015
Another example of this would be a recent news article talking about how Chinese peo-ple had changed the European travel industry into an inter-national shopping carnival. In Spain, a famous shopping mall called La Roca Village had at-tracted more than 3.3 million shoppers every year, which makes it became the most at-tractive place. The amount of tourists there had exceeded even the famous Sagrada Fa-milia cathedral in Spain. Thus, we can see how important making purchases have become for Chinese tourists traveling. In addition, being a purchas-ing agent is extremely trendy now. People are always bring
back goods from certain travel destinations for a fee, which might include cheaper clothes, cosmetics or electronic prod-uct. This will increasingly make travelling for the sake of making purchases an import-ant ideology for many young Mainland girls. The purchasing agent have opened the doors to a huge in-dustry, as a Korea guide named Jin puhui said that there are at least some purchasing agents in all of his tour groups who goes to South Korea just to purchase clothes and cosmetics. We can see the huge influ-ence of purchasing in traveling.
The night scene of shopping street in Busan, South Korea Photo by Angelina Yang
TRAVEL GIRL VOICE
Travel Girl 17
Why have purchasing be-come such a necessity during one’s travels? A purchasing agent from Hong Kong named Liu Xiaoli thinks that the cheap price must be the most attractive factor, since people really enjoy the feeling that they could buy something at a much cheap price even though
it is not a necessary at the time. The second factor might be that most Chinese people have lost confidence in the quality of Chinese products, since there are too much fakes in the Chi-nese market. Purchasing these goods in Hong Kong or other countries could bring custom-ers a greater sense of security. In addition, there are more international luxury brands in places like Hong Kong, so the Chinese tourists can purchase unique and pricey products that would not clash with their friends. In recent years, there was a fashionable concept about in-
depth travelling, where people could spend a week or more at a single place to learn and to cleanse the soul. In-depth trav-elling could bring more pro-found experiences to one’s life. A travel enthusiast named Alice, although still single at the age of thirty, she has al-ready travelled to twenty-eight
countries and she has visited some of these countries more than once. She likes taking pictures at landmarks, but her pictures are unique and artistic and she never miss any local cultural details. When talk about her age and the reason why she does not care her mar-riage, she said how travelling and experiencing this world has deeply affected her and made her truly believe that there is no absolute rule in life. One will realize what he or she truly really want after much experience and thought.
Gansu Sichuan Cultural Town Photo by Angelia Yang
Two kissing girls Photo by Scrooge Chen
TRAVEL GIRL VOICE
18 Travel Girl
To experience the Hanbok Photo by Jacqueline Qiu
Alice’s experiences had real-ly inspired other people, where although making purchases in foreign countries is attractive, but people need to realize what truly is important and what one needs to learn from travelling. Here are several recommen-dations about in-depth travel from Alice. First, the best way to re-cord your wonderful memory in a foreign country is if you have a camera, some beauti-ful clothes, accessories and comfortable shoes. Alice is always very beautiful with a strong personality in her pic-tures. She always poses with big smile and is very creative, since she can pose in front of any backgrounds. All of this could help you to record every happy moment during travel-
ing. Alice believes recording is an extremely important part of traveling. Second, there are two ways one can travel: one could ei-ther travel alone or travel with friends. When you choose to travel alone, it could be a great chance to listen to your inner voice and this could give you another kind of feeling about the scenery you see. Alice re-ally loves to travel alone. She would not feel bored and she thinks travelling alone could make her stronger. On the other hand, if you choose to travel with your friends, it could also be an ex-tremely unforgettable and hap-py experience. Sometimes, you and your friends might meet some problems or difficulties, and after you solve everything
together, you could learn how to be patient and take care of each other in a strange place. You could also become better friends. Third, when you are in Rome, do as the Romans do. It means you have to respect and understand the mannerism in the local culture. Try your best to learn more about the local stories and culture and you will see a completely different world. Traveling should be a won-derful experience. Ignoring the great feeling of making pur-chases and you could gain so much more from traveling. It is not where to go that matters, but who you go with and the experience that matters. Go cross those many lands, and try to find the real you.
TRAVEL GIRL VOICE
Travel Girl 19
The world is in love with the selfie stick. Being the portable
pole that enable users to cap-ture a wider and more complete photos without the awkward extending arm at the side, the device have definitely changed the idea of taking selfies. No longer do photo takers need to ask passerby to take their memorial photos for them, but they now could get all the con-trol they want with just their front phone camera. For travel-ers like Linpei Zhang, the sel-fie stick is a must have during
extended trips. “The selfie stick is definitely something I’d bring with me on my travels,” said Zhang, recalling packing the extend-able pole on her recent trips to France and Rome. “You could get wider shots of the landmark and essentially better photos.” Although used for mainly photography purposes, Zhang might find her selfie stick banned from a number of tour-ist destinations. Similar to tri-pods and monopods in terms of its extendable and photography functionalities, many museum
authorities believe the selfie stick takes up additional public space, which create increased possibilities for tripping. In music festivities and sporting events, the raised selfie stick used for photography and videotaping have been said to create unappreciated viewing experience. With the selfie stick be-ing framed as an object that introduces risk in damaging historical relics, disrupts visit-ing experience, and produces injuries to fellow visitors, it is unsurprising that an increasing
SELFIE STICK BAN:FACT OR FICTION?
Photos and texts BY Jennifer Chiu
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20 Travel Girl
number museums and music festivals have started banning the selfie stick from their ven-ues. This list includes some of the most well-known tourist attractions out there, with the 19 Smithsonian museums in the United States, the Palace of Versailles in Paris, and the Roman Colosseum being some of the few that are closing their doors on the selfie stick. Music festivals like the O2 Arena in London and sporting events like the Wimbledon tennis Championshipsare some re-
strictions that might point to new areas where the stream of banning might start. For Zhang, although she had not faced much restrictions on the use of her selfie stick during her trips to France and Rome, she believes it is in-deed inappropriate to use selfie sticks in venues such as muse-ums. “Usually, selfie sticks are best used for capturing a large group of people or providing a wider backdrop for photos,” said Zhang. “It seems entirely unnecessary for tourists to use
such a device within a muse-um, since taking pictures with museum exhibitions is rather unconventional.” On the other hand, for Tsin-ghua architectural engineering student Thomas Wu, the ban-ning of selfie sticks is unneces-sary since he believes the situ-ation is still under control. As a frequent visitor of Beijing’s Palace Museum in the Forbid-den City, one of the museums considering banning the use of selfie sticks, visitors using selfie sticks within the museum still stands in the minority.
The selfie stick is officially a must have item when hitting the road
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Travel Girl 21
“While there are many vis-itors using the selfie sticks outside the museum,” reasoned Wu, “there is not too much of a problem with visitors using them inside of the museum. I do not think the museum have a problem with selfie sticks on their hands. In fact, they are even selling selfie sticks in the Palace Museum.” As for selfie sticks creating possible damage in its use among museum exhibits, ac-cording to Wu, they theoreti-cally should not be able to do too much damage. “A selfie stick is quite a handy object to carry around,” said Mai. “Un-less there is intention to cause damage by the owner, the like-lihood of causing serious dam-
age to exhibits is quite low.” Especially since there are rarely any reports of people be-ing injured or museum exhibi-tions being damaged from the use of selfie sticks or any men-tion of museum goers mention having their selfie sticks reject-ed from exhibition venues, it is difficult to imagine these tour-ist areas having such a tight crackdown on the use of selfie sticks or selfie sticks being a new destructive element in museum and crowded events. It is as Pulitzer Prize-winning Art and Architecture Critic Philip Kennicott had put it in the Washington Post, where the series of selfie stick banning stories earlier this year had felt ‘like a slightly manufactured
controversy’. This is particularly true for South Korea’s selfie stick con-troversy, where the outlawing of illegal selfie sticks spun out of proportion in international media. Back in 2014, due to the incorporation of Bluetooth technology to set off the cam-era, South Korea’s radio man-agement agency have officially labels selfie sticks as a type of ‘telecommunication device’ which must be tested and reg-istered with the agency to re-ceive approval for sale. Due to the incorporation of Bluetooth technology, the agency believes such signals may interfere with other devices that are operating at the same radio frequencies and may create unwanted dis-
Selfie sticks can be helpful in getting great photos as it gives more control to the photographer
22 Travel Girl
of ₩30 million Won or ¥170 thousand Yuan. While legally speaking, South Korea is setting up laws and regulations in controlling unregistered selfie sticks, but the actual situation does not seem to be the case. According to Seuol resident Junhee Co, the outrageousness of selfie stick bans just have not caught up with the locals. “I see shops selling selfie sticks and Bluetooth remote controls on the street every-where and they don’t seem to be registered,” said Co. “I have never seen people getting pun-ished for selling selfie sticks.” With the lack of any major raids and without any evi-dence that South Korea’s reg-
ulation against selfie sticks are being rigorously enforced, it is tough to say whether the coun-try’s newly added law is just backless policies. Although not heavily enforced, at least for Co, some good might come out of this policy. “I think it is about letting people realize they need to be careful,” said Co. “I heard in some countries, they banned selfie sticks at certain places because they can be quite dan-gerous.” However, the big question still remains: Would these bans against selfie sticks discourage visitors from using them in tourist destinations? For veteran tour guide Yi Liu, the answer is a definite no.
Liu, who have led tours with Mainland Chinese tourists around Southeast Asian coun-tries like South Korea, could not be more familiar with selfie stick weilding tourists running around various attractions. Even after the introduction of selfie stick bans in South Korea, the phone apparatus have not left the tour scene one bit. “Aside from special events like fan gatherings and special events that guarantee much at-tendence," said Liu, "we don't expect the sticks to be banned. But even with the new regula-tions, the scene in tourist areas are not going to change. Hon-estly, what are Chinese tourists ever afraid of?”
Liu believes selfie stick bans would not discourage visitors from using them in tour sights
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Travel Girl 23
Reality Show Style
Traveling
Much tourism-related Main-land Chinese reality shows have been popping up over
the past few years. For examples in Zhejiang TV’s ‘Running Man’, famous singers and stars would go to different cities to play games, while in Hunan TV’s ‘Dad, Where Are We Going?’, fa-mous stars would go to farms, valleys and other tourist attractions to fulfill various tasks with their children to-gether. These kinds of reality shows have won great ratings. According to the official site, ‘Dad, Where Are We Go-ing?’ Season 2 got the rating of 4.2 percent and the share of 16.58 percent when it was premiered on 2014 June 20th, which broke the records of do-mestic TV show’s premiere rating. Travel Girl picked up 20 young peo-ple between 16 and 30 years old off different professions in the Hong Kong Airport and Shenzhen Airport. Now let’s have a look at how those reality shows affect their choices in traveling.
By Jacqueline Qiu
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24 Travel Girl
I have watched every episode of ‘Running Man’ and I really liked that one time when they went to South Korea and ate many local snacks in a very crowd-
ed market. I am taking a flight to South Korea and I am go-ing to enjoy the same food in the same place. I think reality shows have affected me quite a lot. It is re-ally fun to look for the same food the stars have eaten on the same streets they have been at. Because of those shows, my trip have become more interesting and have more things to be excited about. I also like watching ‘Divas Hit the Road’. Maybe after my trip to South Korea I will plan another trip to Europe. I
like traveling overseas a lot.
Vivian ZhaoFemale
24 years oldFoshan, Guangdong
DesignerTaurus
TRAVEL GIRL INTERVIEW
Alice YeFemale
21 years oldChongqing
Student Gemini
I am always affected by traveling programs. There were some traveling programs hosted by Arthur Chance on The Travel Channel several years ago. My first self-planed trip
to Beijing was totally under the guidance of his programs. Today’s reality shows have changed. They are kind of weird, superficial and sometimes false. The real meaningful things in traveling are put aside while the reality shows are paying much attention on highlighting the character of the TV stars and the conflicts between them. I wish there could be more and more TV shows that talks about traveling seriously, introduces more useful information and tells people more cultural things.
Frank WuMale
29 years old Taipei, Taiwan
LawyerSagittarius
The most popular Chinese reality show in Taiwan might be Dad, ‘Where Are We Going?’. I like the Taiwan star Jimmy Lin and his cute son Kimi.
Many of my friends are watching this show. We have learned much about the beautiful scenery in mainland China like the snow country in Heilongjiang and Tiankeng (heaven’s hole) in Chongqing. If time permits I would like to bring my family to go there.
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Travel Girl 25
HottestDesitinations
-Picked up from reality shows
Travel Girl has counted three most popular attractions among our interviewees that led by reality shows. Let’s have a look at which places that have appeared on the reality shows appeal to today’s young people most.
126 Travel Girl
ITALYFeartured on: Divas Hit the RoadCity: Rome, FlorenceFood: Pasta
Europe gains the most popularity among our interviewees in response to the ques-tion “which place do you want to go for
a travel most in reality shows” and Italy ranks the first among European countries. The Republic of Italy mainly consists of Apennine Peninsula, Sicily Island and Sardinia Island. Italy covers 301,338 km2 area and has population of 61,049,883. Playing as the role of the cradle of European culture, Italy was the or-igin and the center of Renaissance. Today, there are also a lot of historical constructions and art-work being kept in Italy, reminding people of the long history of the old nation including the symbolize of Ancient Roman: Empire Roman amphitheater, the forth biggest cathedral in the world: Florence Cathedral, etc. By the way, you can also drop by the mini country inside Rome city: Vatican. The Vatican Museum is an important place you cannot miss.
2.Roman amphitheater3.Inside Rome: The Vatican Museum
4.Italian couples on the street.
1.Florence, Italy
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All photos provided by Elaine Hu
Travel Girl 27
SOUTH KOREAFeatured on: Running ManCity: Seoul, BusanFood: Fried rice cake
Republic of Korea covers 100,210 km2, have a pop-ulation of over 50 million, and is one of the Newly Industrial Economies. When talking about South
Korea, most people might think of kimchee, idols, plastic surgery and Samsung. Seoul, the capital of South Korea also the biggest city in South Korea, cannot be more befitting for young ladies. You can buy any skin care product and cosmetics you like at a relatively low price. In addition, the popular SNS App LINE’s headquarters is located in Seoul. Busan is the second large city and also the biggest coastal city in South Korea. In here you can enjoy the most locally featured seafood. Haeundae is a typical tourism attraction of Busan. Young visitors also like taking photos in Gam-jeong culture village. Reality show Running Man is originated from South Ko-rea. Thus, in the special episode, the whole crew went to South Korea and introduced many characteristic foods to audiences like fresh shredded beef and fried sweet cake.
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1.2. Busan Gamjeong culture village3. The cake store appeared in 'Running Man'4. The owner is adding sugar into the cake. 5. The molecule ice cream Photos provided by Angelina Yang, Jacqueline Qiu and Jennifer Chiu
28 Travel Girl
Featured on: Dad, Where Are We Going?City: Shuangfeng forest farm, Xiahailin city (Snow country)Animal: Siberian roe deer
Shuangfeng forest farm, which is also called ‘snow country’, is located in north-ern China. ‘Snow country’ covers 500
hectares areas and has an average elevation of over 1000 meters. In here the snow period is up to 7 months and the thickness of the snow can reach 2 meters. Reality show ‘Dad, Where Are We Going’ season one made its last episode here. In this episode the children have played with the sil-ly-looking, but cute ‘Paozi’. Actually the scien-tific name of ‘Paozi’ is Siberian roe deer. Sibe-rian roe deer are mainly distributed in areas like Siberia, Europe, Mongolia, and Northeastern China. It is listed as protected animal by Chi-nese government. After this episode premiered on TV, the ‘snow country’ had suddenly gained much popularity. In the following Chinese New Year holiday, ho-tels here were full in a very short time.It is hard to say whether the increasing tourists will destroy the ecotope in ‘snow country’, but it is indeed a place that worth visiting. The most suitable time for visiting this place is January, February, March, November and December. Do not forget bringing your thickest clothes, gloves, cap and sunglasses.
HEILONGJIANG(CHINA)
1. The country is covered by snow.2. ‘Snow country’ is surrounded by forest.3. Sled is the main transportation for ‘snow country’ residents.Photos provided by Cecilia Luo and Tony Liu
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Travel Girl 29
TRAVEL GIRL
