As I write this, I am in my final days of the two-week trip to China, and my thoughts are on ecotourism. During these last few days of the trip, UL’s Confucius Institute Director Dexter S. Sumo, our Chinese colleague Mr. William Ye, a retired linguistics professor from Changsha University of Science and Technology who has previously worked with students from UL’s Confucius Institute, and I were treated to a three-day, two-night excursion to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan Province, about two hours away from Changsha by train.

Zhangjiajie was China’s first national forest park and today can boast UNESCO Global Geopark (GGp) status. This is an elite designation for parks of global geological significance that also meet certain criteria for sustainability and community economic development. The purpose of such parks is to preserve Earth’s geological heritage, support geological research, and create value and improved livelihoods for concerned communities, such as those traditionally established in the park area. There are just under 200 such parks in the world across nearly 50 countries, most of which, currently, are in China and Europe. Only two Global Geoparks – one in Morocco and one in Tanzania – are classified as African, although Portugal claims one in the Azores and Spain claims one in the Canary Islands.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is famous for its quartz-sandstone pillars and columns, naturally formed eons ago when the area was under the ocean and, over time, through natural erosion processes. Anyone who has seen classical Chinese nature art has probably seen depictions of these strikingly unique mountain-like formations. The park boasts over 3,000 such peaks. In person, these formations are visually stunning and majestic; they are a sight one will never forget. Across our three days of touring, we were able to see these natural wonders from a variety of angles, from a distance and up-close.

Chinese people treasure these mountains and their associated forest as part of their national identity and heritage, and people from all over the world come to visit them. During our tour, we observed large groups and families from South Korea, India, Pakistan, the United States, Russia and various other European nations, and various Arab nations. While most signage in the park is in Chinese and English, there was a significant amount of signage in Korean and Russian, letting us know that these tourist flows were well established and profitable.

Lest you think this was just walking around big stones and tall trees, I must describe the other attractions that have been added to the park to add interest to the experience and value to the enterprise. One our first day, we walked across the famous Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge, which is the world’s longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge. Spanning Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, this 1,411-foot-long bridge allows tourists to look down over 900 feet into the canyon floor below. Not for the faint-hearted! This bridge is made of 99 panes of three-layer tempered glass and can hold up to 800 people at a time. For the daredevils amongst us, it is the world’s highest bungee jump point. This part of the park also had cable cars, a very long and winding sliding board, a slow-moving river ferry ride, and a zip-line ride. I was only brave enough for the first three!

The most beautiful thing in this part of the park was a long, well-constructed boardwalk inside the canyon where visitors could stroll for about an hour along the jade green river at the bottom of the canyon, amidst the trees, and close enough to the rock formations to touch them. Along the path were waterfalls, caves, and other intriguing natural features. This experience was not just stimulating to the senses; it was also great exercise in an inspiring setting – the essence of ecotourism. And did I mention that this park – and all the parks – had plenty of stairs and steps?? We probably walked thousands of steps per day!

On the second day, we went to a different part of the park where the main attraction was wide views of the rock formations from a distance. Many of the rock formations had been given traditional descriptions, such as “The General,” “The Three Sisters,” “The Ship,” “The Puppy,” “The Old Man Collecting Traditional Chinese Herbs,” “The Fairy Blowing Flowers from Her Basket,” “The Old Lovers,” etc., denoting that thousands if not millions of people over the centuries had studied and contemplated these ancient structures and brought them to life with imagination. A famous attraction that had been added to this site is the world’s longest elevator. This elevator, constructed on the side of one of the cliffs, was glass on three sides so that spectators of all kinds could take in the view. The three of us rode on this elevator with our tour guide.

A major claim to fame for this park is that it inspired the scenery for the movie Avatar, a science fiction fantasy film and global blockbuster with rich depictions of an alternative world. Some of the rock formations in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park had been used as a prototype for the computer-enhanced scenery in the movie. For movie buffs and fantasy fans, this was a genuine motivator for visiting this nature area. Plenty of signage in the park detailed the connection to Avatar, but it was done tastefully so as not to detract from the natural vistas.

On the third day, we visited Zhangjiajie’s highest peak, Tianmen Mountain. To get there, we had to take a cable car up to one point on the mountain, then a bus through miles of narrow and winding mountain roads to the next level, then twelve (12!) long escalators, each taking two minutes each, to the next level, then lots and lots of stairs to the peak. The scenery was stunning every step of the way, and it was remarkable to see the city of Zhangjiajie down in the valley, with all the winding roads we had traveled in view.

The most famous feature of Tianmen Mountain, known as Tianmen Cave, is a huge oval-shaped cutout in the mountain itself that looks like a keyhole. In 1999, a stunt pilot successfully flew an airplane through this keyhole and lived to tell. This mountain is well-known as a home to extreme sports and daredevils – those who like to jump, fly, parachute, rollerblade, mountain bike, drive (racecars or SUVs), walk a tightrope, or engage in parkour, under extreme conditions. Photos of successful feats and those who performed them appear throughout the park, particularly at the official launch points for these extreme sports. However, I was sad to learn that, for some of the sports, 30% of people don’t make it. A safer alternative for us regular people was to traverse the famous glass-bottomed walkway along the edge of one of the cliffs, which we ourselves did and lived to tell!

For me, just climbing the all the steps was an extreme sport. I was impressed by all the people far older than me who were pulling it off with ease. This told me that, in a place with such natural beauty, well-developed so that people can enjoy it regularly, a health benefit accrues to the population. It made me wish there were more sites like this in Liberia!

Given that, as UL President, this trip inspired me further to establish tourism studies – especially ecotourism studies – at the University of Liberia. Not only do we need courses in hospitality management for those who will be interacting with tourists, but we need courses that connect other disciplines to tourism. For example, environmental studies must have courses that contribute to a deep, shareable understanding about Liberia’s natural wonders so that scientifically accurate materials can be developed to educate tourists, whether local or international, in the form of signage, brochures, documentaries, and the like. Engineering courses that relate to the construction of safe and sustainable tourist attractions, particularly those that go “beyond nature” to add value (and revenue) to an ecotourism site while blending into – even enhancing – the site need to be designed, tested, and constructed. UL’s arts courses need to be enhanced – both in terms of creating culturally meaningful and durable souvenir items for tourists of all income levels, and also in terms of digital arts that enable us to create the kinds of videos, digital graphics, and animations that today’s consumers expect. And, of course, we need entrepreneurship courses so that all these students can start their own businesses and become job creators upon graduation!

This trip really got my head spinning. While people may think I was “just enjoying” (and it was an enjoyable experience) because I was traveling out of the country, the truth is, I was “at work” the whole time, constantly thinking about how to take UL to the next level by learning about how things are done elsewhere and thinking about how to inspire our students to take Liberia to the next level. Because I am inspired to develop an educational program that supports tourism, especially ecotourism, at UL, I am continuing to imagine how it might be built. I am also thinking about the potential ecotourism sites we have on our own campus and how to develop them into exciting and memorable destinations for visitors.

To help me with this exercise, I looked back over all the photos I took in Zhangjiajie and analyzed what made it a good experience. Here goes:

Begin by identifying an iconic site. For Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, it is the iconic mountain-like sandstone pillars, unique in all the world and legendary in Chinese culture and art. In Liberia, our rainforest is iconic and our wildlife are iconic. Already, we have protected areas like Lake Piso and Sapo National Forest, with many others coming online as they are developed. We also have areas like Kpatawee Waterfall, East Nimba Nature Reserve, and Robertsport that are distinctive for their own reasons. On the UL Fendall Campus, we have the Lakeview Wetlands and a future botanical garden. So, once an iconic site has been identified, what next?

An iconic site generates a “wow factor” for visitors. The natural features, whether geological, botanical, or wildlife-related, are memorable and inspire awe at creation. They engage all of the senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. When people visit these places, ideally, their spirits are rejuvenated and they learn something new and interesting. Stories are generated by their visit that they can tell over and over to friends and family, creating connection to the natural environment and sparking care and concern about nature and sustainability. Nature alone can create a “wow factor,” but enhancements to a site can also contribute to this.

Some enhancements, such as informational signage about plants and animals, site maps, and historical markers, contribute to the learning factor. Other enhancements, like the glass bridge, zipline, glass walkway, cable cars, and riverboat in Zhangjiajie, add a “thrill” factor to the already amazing natural wonders—and, importantly, these generate revenue. However, they also increase the responsibility for making sure visitors have a safe and secure experience at the site. Many sites can enhance their value by promoting their claims to fame, whether unique superlatives and statistics (e.g., “the smallest hippos in the world,” “half the remaining primary rainforest in West Africa”), famous feats or famous visitors (“that time when a pilot who flew a plane through Tianmen Cave”), or other popular connections (“the rock that inspired the movie Avatar”). Well-identified photo op sites are also a valuable enhancement, because everyone wants to post spectacular photos from their visit to their social media feed, and this is an important part of the memory-making.

Grand ecotourism sites should have something for everyone – not only fit and able-bodied young people and nature lovers, but also children, the elderly, people with disabilities or sensory differences, and people of diverse literacy levels. They should be places people can go solo, as couples, as families, as groups of friends, or groups of students or co-workers, and as shared interest groups, such as fitness enthusiasts or bird watchers. They should be places where people who love nature can bring their friends and family who don’t love nature as much as they do and everyone still has a good time.

Many successful (eco)tourist sites are adjacent to “tourist towns” that have all the amenities that visitors need for an extended stay, from hotels or other forms of lodging to restaurants, entertainment venues, tour guides and transportation vendors, and shopping areas. These amenities cater to all kinds of tourists, from the luxury traveler to the traveler on a budget, with suitable options for all. On our first night in Zhangjiajie, for example, we went to the theater to enjoy an amazing acrobatic musical show showcasing several of China’s minority ethnic groups. It was dazzling – and the perfect end to a day when we were physically tired from all the climbing up and down mountain steps. Our tour guide was a local resident of Zhangjiajie who worked for a tour guide firm based there, and she arranged comfortable transportation for all our treks to the forest and back. These are the kinds of business ideas that help (eco)tourism sites become economically successful, and engagement of the communities already attached to the site is essential to success.

How can our educational programming at UL help our students become the entrepreneurs and experts that bring Liberia’s ecotourism sites to life? What role can UL play in boosting Liberia’s economy through ecotourism while also preserving and conserving our natural wonders and all the ecosystem resources that they provide? The University has a role—our environmental scientists, our engineers, our foresters and wildlife specialists, our artists and creatives, our business administration specialists, even our food scientists, are all needed. And we still need a hospitality management curriculum. How can UL work with partners in Liberia’s burgeoning ecotourism industry, whether governmental, private sector, or NGO, to collaborate on projects, create internships, and engage in research that helps the industry, and UL’s tourism-related educational programs, grow? These are all questions we will begin to answer together, and I find the prospect exciting!

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