5 Places where Americans should probably avoid Family Travel

Despite political tension between Western governments and the Communist Party administration in Beijing, once you’ve arrived in China as a traveler – and especially for families with children – you’ll find that many people you encounter are genuinely glad to see you, are kind, and eager to help. We’ve found ourselves in unexpected conversations (in English!) in parks and grocery stores with parents who want to tell us about their child studying in the U.S., or a trip they took there, or once they know where we’re from, ask about the chances this year for the Minnesota Timberwolves (they’re never good.)

So while we enthusiastically promote Americans to travel to China with their kids, we still have to acknowledge there are some areas too sensitive for Westerners to roam around, or on the edge of danger to bring children to. If you’re in-country for a week or two, and especially if you don’t have strong Mandarin skills, these are areas that would have the potential to ruin your trip.

Image by Max-Leonhard von Schaper; CC 2.0 license

Anywhere near the North Korean Border

Amazingly, during the 1990s-mid 2010s, there was a not-small tourist trade in Liaoning Province to take Westerners right up to the Yalu River border with North Korea to look across and try to make contact with people on the other side, based out of the Chinese border city of Dandong. Oh yes, some people got arrested and thrown in North Korean prisons, forcing their governments to make deals with the regime there to get them released. And there’s still a market for Chinese tourists to look across the border…

Image by Shinsuke Ikegame; CC 2.0 license

More recently, the Chinese government has started cracking down on these activities as Beijing is growing more uncomfortable with the belligerent government in Pyongyang, and trying to weed out Westerners on their side of the border who they think might be trying to agitate the situation.

Liaoning and Jilin Provinces are also uncomfortably close to the North Korean nuclear test site; Chinese media has started talking about health and safety risks of fallout and radiation-tainted pollution should an accident or an attack take place there. Should the North Korean regime collapse or launch an attack against the South, this border is also expected to be overwhelmed with refugees.

The “Nansha” Islands

For many years the ocean south of Hainan Island and north of Singapore has been contested, with Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and the People’s Republic all making claims on some part of it, often overlapping. From the mid-2010s, Chinese forces have occupied many shoals and reefs in the South China Sea and have converted a number into airfields and small naval bases.

In 2016, a number of chartered airline flights were sent to these islands, and cruise ships have begun runs with tourist groups. The Chinese government has stated they want regular travelers visiting the islands (bolstering their claims and making it less likely in the future for other countries to try to take the bases by force.)

Not that it’s likely, because the PRC really doesn’t want Americans wandering around the South China Sea, taking pictures of military outposts – but if you are vacationing on tropical Hainan Island (lots of resorts and beaches there), “just say no” to any off-island overnight cruises.

Image by Dennis Jarvis via Flickr; CC 2.0 license — Image by Dennis Jarvis via Flickr; CC 2.0 license

Tibet

I’m not going to try to give you a briefing on the Tibetan situation, and I’m not going to express my personal opinion on the matter on this site. This is probably the situation that Beijing is most sensitive about, and they’ve made it clear they want no Western involvement in the issue.

To ensure that ‘undesirable social elements’ do not get introduced to the local native population, the Chinese government requires an “internal visa” for travel up to the plateau, over and above the tourist visa to China itself. The process for getting this visa is complex, and the government strictly limits how many are issued- and to which nationalities. Which means if you’re an American just wanting to travel to Lhasa with your family outside of an organized group, it isn’t happening (and probably not in an organized group either.)

Image by Mondo79 via Flickr; CC 2.0 license

The Chinese government has been spending heavily on airports, has set up a new airline for the region, built a high-speed rail line there, and has been promoting internal tourism (Han ethnic group) to the region, so the travel infrastructure is getting put in place. Perhaps someday the only issue for Westerners' visits will be altitude sickness...

Image by Marc van der Chijs; CC 2.0 license

Xinjiang

China’s western-most province borders the Central Asian “-stans”, including a tiny piece of Afghanistan. For the 19th and 20th centuries, this region was guarded to prevent the Russians or roving bandits from invading the Chinese heartland, but otherwise the mostly-Muslim people were left to trade with their neighbors and practice their faith. Being in the remote middle of the historic Silk Road, Xinjiang’s Uyghur residents were a mix of all the peoples who traveled and traded it for a thousand years – speaking a Turkic Arabic, sprinkled with elements of Eastern Han and even European culture: definitely a people apart from the coastal cities. Post-Revolution Chinese government policy changed this approach by sending industry, rail and highway links, and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Han settlers westward into the capital Urumqi and the other main cities. In the 1990s this area was lauded for its domestic and international tourism potential, for its unique culture as well as wildlife and unique ecosystems.

After the Middle Eastern wars of the late 20th-early 21st century, local frustration with the Han colonization, which could not be resolved through Communist Party channels, started to mix with people who had been fighting the Russians and Americans in Afghanistan and beyond – and their radical ideologies, and their weapons. Predictably, violence came. Terrorist attacks against Chinese government and industrial interests became frequent.

To try to stop the terrorism, Beijing has sent many troops into the region, restricts where Xinjiang Uyghurs can travel and what they can access on China’s local Internet, and has imposed regulations on Islamic practices. Big, explosive attacks have largely ceased, but smaller incidents have happened here and troublingly in other parts of China. While foreigners have not been targeted, places like train stations, markets, public squares, and mosques are under tight security, and your passport won’t get you privileges if a police action takes place.

Remote parts of Qinghai

If not for the deserts, harsh weather, near-total lack of English signage… and being the jumping-off point for both Tibet and Xinjiang and all the ethnic tensions those two areas engender, Qinghai would *still* be a heck of a long way from anywhere. Slightly less of a long way with high-speed rail links being constructed, but out past the main cities of Golmud, Xining, and Baotou, just the right kind of huge, uninhabited place where you’d put a nuclear test site. The giant nature preserve of Qinghai Lake is on the main highway and rail line, and a legitimate (and safe) tourist destination – just don’t decide to rent off-road vehicles and try to do some exploring in this Texas-sized area.

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