Chinese threat: tourists from the Middle Kingdom are killing Baikal? Chinese tourists go wild on Olkhon. Chinese on Olkhon.

Subjective observations of a Baikal guide-photographer.
Although now I don’t live on Baikal itself, I am there 6-7 months a year. Working as a guide, on my own photo expeditions, just visiting, on tours with my guest photographers. So, I'm stewing in this soup.

The situation with the tourism business on Lake Baikal is very strange.

Several problems converged into one point. Chinese tourism expansion, an attempt by law to reduce the water protection zone of Lake Baikal, the explosive growth of anthropogenic pressure on small areas, problems with toilets in winter on the ice and throughout the year on the shore, when the most beautiful grottoes of Olkhon are littered to the extreme, traditional garbage, inspections tourist centers with their subsequent closure, incomprehensible “attacks” on Russian guides by law enforcement officers.

Petitions are signed and sent to various government agencies. structure of the letter, complaints are written to the prosecutor's office. But the chaos is only gaining momentum.

According to the Chinese.

Just three years ago, the number of Chinese tourists was small. Of course, due to their national characteristics, groups of Chinese stood out because of the noise, commotion and dust they made. In 2015-16 Chinese tour operators began to actively enter the tourism industry of Lake Baikal. They turned to Irkutsk and other Russian tour operators with tour orders. Many began to rub their hands, saying, this is happiness. Now there will be a flow of money, we will live gloriously and richly. But you need to know the psychology of the Chinese. They are strictly focused on obtaining maximum benefit for themselves. They will be friends with you if you are irreplaceable at some stage of the business process. Indispensable for now. Due to your hellish efficiency and ability to learn, over time your Chinese partner will exchange you for one of his own, whom he will train and teach everything that you know. They watch, observe, assign their people who learn from you, making your participation in the business process no longer necessary. And at one fine moment you are in flight. That's it, you are nothing to your Chinese partner-brother, with whom you were almost already bosom friends, making plans and enjoying the prospects. Now your place is taken by a Chinese.

That's what happened with Russian tour operators. At one point they found themselves overboard. Having quickly gotten used to it, the Chinese created their own travel agencies (through dummies and executive chairmen). These companies have their own Chinese personnel, often working illegally in Russia, their own buses, their own guides, their own hotels and tourist centers, their own ships, their own shops for tourists. Our southern neighbors have a lot of money. And they are ready to invest it in what is profitable now. And in Siberia, the tourism business on Lake Baikal is profitable. By the way, it is worth noting that this situation also exists in other tourist-attractive places. Now the Chinese are sending their Cossacks to the Kola Peninsula. There is already a stream of groups. For now through Russian tour operators. But this is for now...

And naturally, almost all the money remains in China. The Chinese travel in groups. The percentage of individual tourists from China is extremely small. They buy tours in China. The money that tourists spend in stores (furs, cosmetics, jewelry, honey and its components, souvenirs) also goes to China. Believe me, a Chinese businessman knows how to minimize costs on foreign territory and direct cash flow home.

An example from my practice. In the fall of 2016, Irkutsk tour operators received a flood of calls from the Chinese. We urgently want to order photo tours for Chinese groups of photographers! Tour operators began to pester photographers working in similar programs around Lake Baikal. They called me too. And I admit, I fell for the bait. I made programs, sent them and waited for calls that it was time to pack my things and go as a photo guide with Chinese groups. But everyone was lost. The Chinese put together high-quality and detailed programs and brought their own groups with Chinese “photo guides”. What a Chinese photo tour looks like is a separate story. Thank God that the Chinese still do not have enough capacity to properly implement the burnt programs. Well, to hell with them. All the same, making a high-quality and effective photo tour on Lake Baikal is not an easy task. For those who are not in the know, this is unrealistic. But the Chinese already know how to drag groups of 12 people led by the “chief photographer” in formation, lining them up on a spot in the direction of who knows where.

At the same time, neither tour operators nor tourists themselves are concerned about the state of the environment, garbage and other “nonsense”. Also, Chinese tourists are not interested in the history or culture and traditions of the place they visit (well, not only the Chinese are guilty of this). “Must have” photos, contemplation of landscapes, screaming a song at dawn on a shaman, getting drunk in the evening at a hotel or camp site. Although, in principle, they are ordinary tourists. Only very noisy and waste-generating.

By the way, about the flexibility of Chinese business. Due to the huge flow of Chinese during the Baikal ice season, they have a lot of bells and whistles for such trips. Very high-quality “ice melts” for shoes, chemical warmers for smartphones and cameras, and a lot of other little things. They are great at this! Although every time I came to Shamanka and other places this year, I took with me in a garbage bag a dozen or two used heating pads, which after use are simply thrown onto the ground or ice.

Why is there such demand for the Baikal destination in China? Why is the Chinese tourist flow turning into a very aggressive expansion?
There are several reasons. The main one is ideological. The Chinese, for the most part, consider Baikal to be their northern sacred sea. And that's it. In the fall, I did a tour for a photographer from Israel, and our program included a trip on a steam locomotive along the Circum-Baikal Railway. There were three of us. Opposite us, in fourth place, was a young Chinese boy. He sat and read some book almost the entire way (and the trip along the Circum-Baikal Railway lasts more than 10 hours). Well, I went to the toilet, got something to eat, and went out in the parking lot to look down at the carriage. That's all. Already in front of the port of Baikal we asked him. Isn’t he really interested in nature (the golden Baikal autumn floated past the windows of the carriage), beautiful views? He replied no. His parents bought him a tour to Lake Baikal. Because he, like any normal Chinese, must visit Great Wall and on Baikal. "Must have" and nothing personal.

Transport accessibility and low cost (by Chinese standards) of tours to Lake Baikal. There are flights to Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude from China and Mongolia (many groups come from Mongolia), there is a railway connection. Chinese expansion takes place in those places where roads lead. I won’t say anything for Buryatia, but in the Irkutsk region these are Listvyanka, Circum-Baikal Railway, Olkhon. For some reason, there are almost no Chinese tourists on the mainland of the Small Sea, except perhaps “vagrants” who came from the Island as part of an excursion. The construction of a normal road to Bolshaya Goloustnoye also opened this place to the Chinese. Those. where there is a road to Baikal - expect Chinese tourists, Chinese hotels and camp sites.
Lack of legislative regulation of the tourist flow to Lake Baikal. Yes, specially protected natural areas strictly limit the possibility of visiting them. Especially in large groups of tourists. And the whole flow flows into those places where there are no such restrictions. I am not calling for the opening of protected areas. It is necessary to regulate the flow of tourists to other territories of Lake Baikal. The state must decide. Baikal is unique natural object, requiring security or a tourist site for scooping up money.

In places with huge tourist flows (in the small tract of Uzury on Olkhon, on one day almost 100 UAZ loaves of bread were counted at the same time. That’s at least 700 people at the same time in Uzury, in the Haga-Yaman Bay and the surrounding grottoes!) there are no toilets. All the shit ends up in the grottoes (for which they go). Yellow spots on the snow, used heating pads, and other garbage do not add beauty and do not bring any benefit to Lake Baikal.

Early morning at the office of the national park on Olkhon. The first UAZ cars arrive for permission to visit Khoboy.

Yes, organizing toilets and garbage collection and removal will solve the problem a little.
The main thing, without which toilets and waste collection areas are ineffective, is a special service that monitors the order and frequency of tourist routes. For example, as in US national parks, there are Visitor Use Assistants, guides, rangers, and support workers. We have wonderful guides on Lake Baikal, but they work with isolated groups, independently or from tour operators. And with protected areas there is often not just interaction, but also mutual understanding. Our guides are more interested in preserving Lake Baikal than anyone else.

What else is going on lately? In the fall, a large-scale audit of tourist centers and hotels was carried out by various supervisory authorities. Various orders were issued, some of the bases were closed or promised to be closed in the near future. Lawsuits were filed.
The most interesting thing is that this movement did not affect large hotels and tourist centers, incl. and Chinese. Strange?

At the height of the winter season, law enforcement suddenly showed a passionate interest in Russian guides. They stopped buses and checked the docks for groups. Moreover. Often this was done by traffic police officers. IN international airport Irkutsk, guides meeting their groups with signs, the airport security service took them to a separate room, where they held “conversations”, more like an interrogation. But the Chinese guides (almost all of whom were illegal immigrants) were not touched. Why?

The fuss about changing the water protection zone of Lake Baikal? For what? Legalize tourist centers and private buildings and plots that have already been built illegally and illegally? For whom?

In the fall, with the proposal of the GDP, the movement to build a road on Olkhon began. It is clear that this is a lot of money that needs and can be cut. I won’t say anything about the expected quality of the road. But is an asphalt road from the crossing to Khuzhir really necessary? What will be more beneficial or harmful? What damage will the construction itself cause to the nature of Olkhon? Now there is a road, a terrible stone ridge. It at least somehow deters motorist tourists. Will asphalt add hundreds, if not thousands of cars to the tourist flow on Olkhon?

For the current gravel road to be in good condition, it is enough to simply maintain it. Sprinkle and grade regularly. And without huge financial expenses, which could be reasonably used to create a normally functioning common tourism infrastructure on Olkhon. For the organization of trails and routes, for the creation of appropriate guide and ranger services, for the organization of toilets and the removal of waste to the mainland. In fact, this travel money can be spent with great benefit. But something is wrong again in the Danish kingdom.

In fact, it seems (not only to me, but also to many of my fellow guides) that someone is coming to Lake Baikal, and primarily to Olkhon, with a lot of money in order to take over the tourist industry. Displace small tourism businesses, private carriers, and guides from the market. Taking into account the peculiarities of national business and the presence of Chinese players in the Baikal tourism market, the most interesting things are yet to come!

“The Chinese politician traveled to Siberia. They ask him about his impressions.

Irkutsk - beautiful city. Krasnoyarsk is a beautiful city. And we’ll leave Omsk to you.”

Once upon a time they laughed at this joke, but now they almost cry. Residents of the tourist village of Listvyanka on the shores of Lake Baikal wrote a petition to Vladimir Putin asking for protection from Chinese expansion. It’s as if businessmen from the Middle Kingdom have already bought a tenth of the local land and are building it up with hotels. The entire village is plastered with advertisements with hieroglyphs, and guides tell tourists that Baikal is the northern sea of ​​the Chinese, where their tribes used to live, and simply temporarily belongs to Russia. KP correspondents understood the situation.

“Baikal belonged to the Celestial Empire 200 years ago”

“Two Chinese hang a banner on the fence without hesitation,” writes Evgeniy Kravkl, director of the art song theater on Baikal, on his social media page. - A year ago, this scene began the struggle of local residents against the future Chinese enclave on our land. The ad contains a so-called QUAR code. Chinese tourists point a smartphone at it and receive a complete database of plots that can be bought on Lake Baikal. We didn’t immediately realize what was happening...”

Listvyanka resident Evgeniy Kravkl: “Omul fishing has been banned and locals can only sell their lands”

And it's true. Already at the entrance to the tourist village next to the cemetery you can see the walls of what is probably a future Chinese hotel. A dozen foreign workers are trying to grow a reinforced concrete monster.

What will happen here? - we are trying to establish international friendship with one of the builders, but he is hiding in the corridors in English.

We drive further and after ten meters we see a huge banner in Russian and Chinese"For sale land plot" Immediately another sign invites you to a Chinese restaurant, from which a crowd of tourists emerges with ice cream in their hands - almost like native Siberians!

Isn't it too cold for you to eat ice cream? - we ask and hear a roaring laugh in response.

This is what I suggested to them,” admits the Chinese guide, who has been working in our area for three years now. - They came from the south of China - from Guangzhou. In winter, tourists are mainly from there, and in summer - from Hong Kong. My fellow countrymen miss the snow and ice. There is no ice in Listvyanka yet, so I thought that I could compensate for this with ice cream.

Do you like the living conditions?

You can live! Of course, it’s worse than what we have in China, but better than it was here before.

While we were talking, a tourist bus drove by. There was no doubt - it was carrying passengers from Asia. We say goodbye to some guests from the Middle Kingdom and set off in pursuit of others. Surprisingly, the bus parked next to... a Russian hotel. And who then stays in Chinese ones?

Where are the guests from? - we ask the guide.

From the province of Wenzhou,” he tries to explain himself in broken Russian. - Do you know? South of China.

Chinese man in Listvyanka: “All our people know their history... about Baikal”

Who came? Businessmen?

Yes, businessmen, pensioners, students. They will rest here for a week and look at the snow.

What do you tell them about Baikal?

That it belonged to China 200 years ago. But they already know our history.

They buy land for houses and build hotels

Both in Russian hotels and in Chinese - the living conditions and prices are the same. We were convinced of this when we crossed the threshold of the Asian hotel. Although how can you say Asian: the name is Russian, the building is built of wood in the best Russian traditions, and the cuisine is European. Only the interior gives away the Chinese owner: paintings with landscapes of the Middle Kingdom, hieroglyphs at the reception.

Doctor from Ust-Ilimsk Denis Matveev: “Let the Chinese build hotels, but ours will work in them”

I’m happy with my vacation, the conditions are comfortable, I’ve been coming here for several years now. Maybe the Chinese are an eyesore for the local population, but they don’t bother me,” Denis Matveev, a guest and general practitioner from Ust-Ilimsk, surprised us.

“Called” is not the right word. In Listvyanka there is only talk about the invasion of foreigners. We went to the local museum, and there three employees, like conspirators, were discussing an accident caused by a Chinese man.

Do you remember the accident on Ostrovskaya? He rushes along in a truck, sees no one. He crashed and said that it was not his fault. But the police arrived and decided that he was guilty.

Well, he didn’t deliberately crush people.

Still arrogant Chinese. Don’t you know how they block the street with their suitcases and don’t react when you honk at them...

Were there any clashes? - we intervene in the dispute and say that we are from the newspaper.

Mathematics teacher from Listvyanka Lidiya Korovyakova: “Every second resident has cancer”

“Not yet,” answered math teacher from the local school Lidia Korovyakova and explained the situation in the village. - The main problem is this: the Chinese are buying land for individual housing construction (individual development), and building hotels. At the same time, they dig up the entire earth and open up the mountains. But under no circumstances should you do this! Radon radiation comes from under the rock layers and that is why every second resident here suffers from cancer. I’ve lived here for 20 years and haven’t plucked a single twig from the forest. But for foreign businessmen, the main thing is money. And it doesn’t matter how they are earned. Again, there is no central sewerage system in the village, and the hotel is located 15 meters from the shore. And where will all the waste go? To Baikal!

The answer to how much land was purchased this year was given to us by the administration. It turned out that local authorities have nothing to do with the sale, since they have no free space in their property.

We have nothing to do with the sale of private lands and cannot influence the owners, assures the head of the Listvyanka administration, Alexander Shamsudinov. - I know that on paper these are residential buildings, but in fact they are commercial properties that are not officially registered anywhere. And all because in Russia citizens of other states have the legal right to buy land (except for farmland). During this year, Chinese citizens purchased 27 plots in Listvyanka. However, we do not intend to turn a blind eye to this, and have sent out an appeal to various structures. Our main goal is to bring Listvyanka's business into compliance with the law.

P. S. The day after our trip to Listvyanka, the director of the Art Song Theater on Lake Baikal, Evgeniy Kravklyu, published a new post about the fight against illegal construction by Chinese businessmen: “Two hours ago, a detachment in uniform and with machine guns arrived at the illegal construction site. Looks like riot police or FSB. The arrival was sudden. I am pleasantly surprised by the determination of the security forces. According to eyewitnesses, attempts to resist by Chinese workers were abruptly suppressed. After some time, a team of electricians arrived here. Obviously, to disconnect the construction site from the network.”

The emergency happened back in July 2017, but the authorities are still trying to hide this information.

In Olkhonsky district local residents continue to discuss the emergency that happened in late July 2017. At the same time, regional authorities, through law enforcement agencies, are taking all measures to ensure that information does not spread.

Let us remind you that on July 29, the third ferry to Olkhon “Semyon Batagaev” was out of order. The breakdown occurred at the height of tourist season, as a result of which the queue to the island instantly grew to 700-800 cars.

Considering that the Dorozhnik ferry transports only local residents and regular buses, only the Olkhon Gate ferry remains for tourists. Tourists, stuck in line for several days, in the heat and without any service, naturally became nervous and tried by any means necessary to get on the ferry.

Antonina Sizikova, the daughter of the captain of the Olkhon Gate ferry, helped the sailors arrange their cars on the ferry. According to the rules of ferry transportation, cars are arranged first, and only then passengers on foot are allowed on board. These are obvious safety requirements.

However, the moment the cars began to load onto the ferry, a huge crowd of Chinese tourists, arriving on several buses, literally began to storm the ferry.

Let us remind you that Chinese hotels located on Olkhon, back in 2016, created a fairly convenient way to transport tourists from the Middle Kingdom. Large buses bring them to the mainland part of the crossing, tourists cross the strait on their own, and on Olkhon they are met by minibuses belonging to hotels. As a result, Chinese tourists practically do not linger at the crossing, since there are no restrictions on the number of foot passengers on the ferry.

The crowd of Chinese who poured onto the ferry actually blocked the passage of cars. Antonina Sizikova ordered not to let the Chinese in until all the cars were loaded. In response, one of the Chinese began to beat her with a stick, after which the rest of the Chinese began to beat her with their fists.

The captain of the ferry, Sergei Sizikov, came down to help the girl. However, the Chinese beat him too.

The beating of the girl took place in front of a police patrol ensuring security on ferry crossing. Subsequently, when asked why they did not intervene in the fight, the police calmly replied that their task was to ensure order on the shore, and not on the ferry.

Immediately after the incident, Sergei Sizikov was fired without explanation. He worked on the ferry for 38 years, from the very first ferry designed for two cars, and is considered one of the most experienced captains on Lake Baikal.

All attempts by the Sizikov family to file a complaint with the police are blocked by the authorities. The family is also being intimidated by Chinese hotel owners who do not want publicity. The situation is completely incomprehensible, as are the actions of Chinese tourists on Lake Baikal in general.

The fact is that the Irkutsk region does not receive a penny from the influx of tourists to Olkhon. The hotels are owned by Chinese citizens and are designed like garden houses. Tourists pay for transportation, service and accommodation directly to the card of the hotel owner, thus the entire flow of money bypasses the Russian budget. Meanwhile, Chinese tourists feel like masters of Olkhon and regularly get into fights with local residents. By the way, the hotel charges about five million rubles from one group of Chinese. Not a penny is paid in taxes.

The situation is aggravated many times over by the fact that there is only one (!) local police officer on Olkhon. The island has an area of ​​730 square kilometers, a population of about two thousand people and hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.

Almost the entire territory around Lake Baikal is a protected area; nothing can be built there. “And in villages and towns, please, you can buy plots, for example in Bugulteyk or Khuzhir,” says travel blogger Anastasia Emelyanova. “No one is stopping you from buying land from local residents and building houses, even if not 20 meters from the water, but also very close. So, in fact, the Chinese ended up on the shores of Lake Baikal, to whom, however, local residents and tourists are quite tolerant and friendly."

So far, the arithmetic is simple: the money of Chinese tourists, which could go to the Russian budget and work for Russian business, returns to China, and Baikal water, land and air Foreign citizens almost free to use.

Problems of tourist Baikal

In any case, the main problems of the tourism industry around Lake Baikal are not related to guests from China. Yes, from time to time indignant comments appear on social networks about the fact that our compatriots refuse to check into hotels after Chinese tourists have rested there (they allegedly cook their own food there, the specific smell of which does not disappear from the wooden cottages). And the owners of Chinese “hotels” do not pay for garbage removal.

But the same garbage dumps appear in protected areas in much larger quantities precisely after Russian tourists, of which in these places there are an order of magnitude more Chinese.

For comparison: over the nine months of this year, about 120 thousand tourists from China visited the Irkutsk region. “This is 10% of the total number of tourist arrivals in the region,” the press service of the government of the Irkutsk region reported to RIA Novosti. “As for waste collection, this is now one of the most intractable problems. As noted at a meeting in the government of the Irkutsk region in June 2017, “the current situation remains extremely tense and requires immediate intervention and consolidation of all available forces and means. The only landfill in the Olkhon region is virtually unable to accommodate the accumulated volume of waste."

According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Baikal in August this year, “the lack of control of the so-called wild tourists leads to spontaneous landfills on the shore and garbage in water bodies,” and “the desire of entrepreneurs to make the most of the demand for Baikal travel often leads to their ignoring environmental standards."