KEY POINTS:
It's raining and misty in Wogu, a village in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, and the only sound you can hear are the Tibetan prayer flags flapping in the wind alongside elegant houses perched on the foothills of the western Himalayas.
This hidden valley is an area
of amazing beauty but trouble is brewing in this paradise. Since 1998, the local people have not been allowed to grow crops commercially because of reforestation, so they need something to do and some way of earning money beyond the subsidies they receive from local government.
At a meeting beneath a canopy of prayer flags, villagers are debating whether to allow a tarmac road to come here and give tourists access to Wogu, or to preserve the ancient lifestyle of their home.
Chinese people have more money in their pockets and they are spending it on travelling for leisure, turning tourism into a £180 billion ($464 billion) industry.
During the country's three annual week-long holidays around national day, international labour day, and spring festival, 200 million people went travelling. By 2015, China is expected to be the world's second-biggest tourist economy.
One of the biggest challenges China faces is weighing the wishes of these millions of tourists, who are keen to visit some of the country's most beautiful spots, against the needs of the local community, who need sustainable tourism if their traditions and livelihoods are not to be destroyed.
In Wogu, the traditional is evident in the Tibetan reds and yellows of the clothes, the harsh tobacco smoked in old-fashioned pipes, and the knives the men wear. The red flag of China flaps among the prayer flags - this is a diverse area.
Baijie Shujie, a Tibetan who is also the local Communist Party official, is keen to attract tourists to the comfortable lodge he built for hikers as they walk along the valley.
Later that day, Tibetan music carries across the Zhongzhagou valley to Baijie Shuji's house. Despite the din from the local dance, there is a real peace that feels a million miles away from the burgeoning China of the east coast.
But change is coming to Wogu - it looks as if the road will be built. People have to live.
There is a lot to protect from mass tourism - the hills are home to more than 300 species, including black bears, golden monkeys, pit vipers and Tibetan cobras. In the higher areas are big cats, Tibetan lynx, snow leopards, Bharal or blue sheep and Tibetan antelope.
One of the great natural wonders of the world, Jiuzhaigou is around 450km north of the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu, and it's a holy valley to the Tibetans.
The features in the valley have wonderful names - Double-Dragon Lake, Tiger Lake or Rhinoceros Lake, many of them dreamy azure pools, served by beautiful waterfalls, such as Shuzheng Waterfall or Nuorilang Waterfall.
Though the valley is beautiful, it has witnessed a lot of development since 1978 and Jiuzhaigou has been designated the most-popular tourist destination in China for young travellers.
With around three million visitors a year visiting the park, the challenge is to balance tourism and the needs of the local community and environment.
Some development has been sensitive. You walk through the stunning forest on boardwalks to avoid damaging the earth. No private cars are permitted, and conservation programmes are in place.
Jiuzhaigou, which serves the park, stands in sharp contrast. Dozens of enormous modern hotels line the streets, emblazoned with monstrous Tibetan kitsch, including giant prayer wheels.
Andrew Scanlon, a young Irish geologist who is employed as a park ranger at Jiuzhaigou and two other national parks under a German-funded development scheme, is a committed conservationist.
He is passionate about the area but is realistic about what needs to be done if the area is to survive as a natural wonder while encouraging tourism.
"You need a central point like Jiuzhaigou for eco-tourism to work. Backpacking is not eco-tourism. The Chinese have the capacity to do a good thing on a massive scale. If they co-operate with the locals and do it properly this could be a wild but well-managed area with biodiversity," he said .
The park is packed with tour groups. A tour guide waving a flag yells "pengyoumen" [friends] through a megaphone and the tourists storm the shuttle bus. On board, a guide wearing dark purple Tibetan robes conducts proceedings.
One passenger spends the entire journey on the mobile phone discussing the cost of some commodity. He is wearing a Decathlon hiker's hat, Merrell shoes, and a Timberland shirt, and occasionally sucks from a portable oxygen container.
Li Shaojian, a director of the national park of Jiuzhaigou, said tourism has been developing rapidly since 1984, when things started to open up.
"We had the road in 1997 and the airport in 2003. Now we're seeing direct flights from Beijing and Shanghai.
"We are looking at sustainable development of the park, other activities than just visiting the park, such as things to do at night, and improving service to make things work better," he said.
He wants to develop the international side of the tourism business here.
"The park is a window for people to see China, not just a nature reserve. You know, 80 per cent of foreign tourists who come to China have a university degree or higher. We're very interested in this," said Li.
Scanlon says: "We're looking at high-end tourism, rich Chinese from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, as well as Europe and America, to a lesser extent."
The region's tourist potential has been truly opened by the airport, but not everyone is happy.
At one point, we pick up two middle-aged women hitch-hiking back from the airport to the historic town of Songpan, an ancient town rich with Tibetan and Han Chinese cultural artefacts popular with backpackers.
The two women wear vivid red headdresses and beautiful purple and black robes, with their hair tightly braided and dyed black.
The women say their land was requisitioned to make way for the runway, and they received no compensation - they had gone to the airport to protest.
The men have gone to the regional government to complain about it, but nothing has been done, they say.
While the Tibetans and other local minorities have benefited, and stand to benefit, from tourism, many unresolved tensions remain about development in paradise.
- INDEPENDENT
