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Building gateways to China, Asia and the global community

Observations from the Whistler Forum's Harmony Tour II to Shanghai, Kunming and Shangri-La
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Reading about this year's Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Chinese political dissident Liu Xiaobo, I felt cognitive dissonance. How Mr. Liu's experience must differ so drastically from the freedom of expression we saw and participated in last month in Shanghai.

Come on a misty Monday afternoon for a walk from the landmark Shanghai Museum with its immense treasure trove of Chinese history, inventions and culture, out through the expansiveness of People's Square. Turn left and meander through green parks, soft ponds with the biggest water lilies you will ever see, and go to the Shanghai Art Museum. On the way you will see modern street art with the gorgeous and the grotesque, bizarre phalluses and sweeping sculptures. Get lost and wander into MOCA Shanghai (Museum of Contemporary Art) for its "ReFlections of Minds" exhibit. Find your way to the Art Museum itself. In its old architectural splendour are preparations for the eighth Shanghai Biennale, the largest culture, art and design event in Asia, corporate sponsors and all.

At Kathleen's Rooftop Restaurant and Lounge above the Art Museum, a few of us from the Whistler Forum's Harmony Tour II group met. With gin and tonics, overlooking this "Jewel on the Sea" and Shanghai surprises, the constant refrain was "This is China?" It is land of silk and money, full of cultural, political, economic and social contradictions. It's a people, now more than 1.3 billion, that for centuries have been invaded, walled off and for whom "face" is everything. Canadians without a history of empire, imperialism and hegemony, are 40-year-long friends with China - with MOCA Shanghai and with Liu Xiaobo. From the Sea to Sky we came to listen, learn and share our stories and life here.

But what to do with cognitive dissonance? Take sides, shut down, retreat to a simpler place? Or ask questions, seek understanding and engage more deeply? We decided that as Whistlerites in China, with the international community gathered for the Shanghai World Expo, engagement is the path to the 21 st century future. What follows from our experience are 10 lessons learned from China and 10 things China can learn from us. Then, looking forward are five strategic considerations for our "Gateway to China, Asia and the Global Community" turning around us.

 

Lessons we can learn from China

1) Delicious Food, Creative Cuisine, Healthy Eating

There are many cuisine cultures the world over. In Vancouver and Whistler we delight in many of them. But the food in China and the restaurants we ate at in Shanghai, Kunming and Shangri-la are uniquely creative, delicious and nutritious. At Ye Shanghai, South Beauty, Three on the Bund, sample a few of the thousands of dishes served up from the many diverse regions of China.

And if breakfast is the most important meal, we rose to each new day with the morning buffet feasts that are the norm with major hotels. We shared healthy food at round tables, not set-plated individual meals at square tables. Cultural differences and personal preferences abound, but there is a lot we can learn from the delicious food, creative cuisine and healthy eating in China.

2) Hospitality and Respect: Nine out of 10

Of course as Canadians, we are known to be polite and we are keen to recognize traits of hospitality and respect in others. In China the customer service we experienced was nine out of 10. At restaurants and tourism sites, in hotels and taxis, at the Shanghai Expo pavilions, the sense of welcome and hospitality was genuine. Like volunteers here at the Olympics, at the Expo they were ever pleasant and helpful. But that ethos of hospitality was evident all over. Perhaps it is in their DNA from centuries of Confucianism. Or is it from the sipping of tea rather than the downing of coffee? This deferential posture with a respect for family, for the "other" is a Chinese characteristic from which there is much to learn.

3) Flows of Energy and the Concept of "Shi"

How to explain the urban vibrancy, gymnastic prowess, productivity gains, the mega success of the Beijing Olympics and now the Shanghai World Expo? In Taoism there is an enigmatic Chinese word: "shi." Of its various mystic meanings, one describes shi as the force and flow of water flowing down through rocky terrain to find its way. Others describe shi as that source of advantage, authority, self-doing. A fascinating parallel may be the force or energy we feel skiing or riding down fresh powder mountains. Taking that energy, that flow and bringing it to work, to projects, to community and nation-building... we don't do it everyday but in China something like shi is at work.

4) Using the Olympics and Expo to Strengthen International Relations

We saw other international visitors passing through the four security gates into the Expo grounds on their way to the Canadian and more than 90 other national pavilions. But the majority of visitors at Expo were from China. As with the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games two years previously, the participants were cream of the global crop, the spectators were largely domestic. They welcomed the global community to experience China, and also educated their own people about the excellence in sport, culture and technology in the international marketplace of ideas.

Whistler as an international resort destination and Olympic and Paralympic host is on the world map. Strengthening and diversifying international relations in an ever-changing global community has its challenges.

5) Valuing Education, Learning, Mentoring - Teachers' Day in the Sea to Sky?

We arrived in Shanghai on Sept. 12 just in time to witness a street parade for Shanghai Tourism Week. Two days earlier Teachers Day was celebrated throughout China. Many claim that much of the China boom we saw is a result of their emphasis on education and learning. Sophisticated guides, retailers and restaurateurs we saw first hand. The urban planning, design, transportation and architecture, the more than 300 million Chinese who speak English, are all evidence of a learning culture.

From our day at the Canada Pavilion, we saw that Chinese love to learn, especially from case studies, the experiences and examples of others. They value elders, mentors and teachers - even celebrating Teachers Day. Would we ever have a Teachers Day in the Sea to Sky?

6) Financial Tools - China's Green Credit Policies

If financial tools work to boost Whistler's tourism economy, keep a watchful eye on the systematic implementation of a suite of financial tools the Chinese use to build a green economy. Their green credit policies include a green tax, green procurement and green banking/investment incentives. It is early days but with continued success in implementation, China will lead the world in how financial incentives drive environmental change.

With the B.C. Government's carbon tax and other provincial and local governments in Canada experimenting with financial incentives for greener businesses and communities, we have much to learn from their green credit policies.

7) Balancing Spending with Saving, Debt with Credit

China, like many other East Asian countries, is a society that has esteemed personal financial prudence for centuries. From news reports and economic data we know that China is the world's greatest creditor nation while the US is the world's largest debtor. We did not go to China to study macroeconomic theory, state capitalism, currency wars and analyze geopolitical and economic tensions. But China's Sovereign Wealth Fund made us reflect on the world's balance sheet, and our own savings accounts.

8) Travelling to Shambala, Tourism in Shangri-la, No Plastic Bags Allowed

Travelling outside the big cities to rural and remote lands is for many a search for Shangri-la. Where do travellers go to find peace and tranquillity, personal meaning and fulfillment? Whistler for many of us is that place - balancing the commodified tourist product with a soul-satisfying space.

In China it is Shangri-la, from its Buddhist root "shambala," a place of balance, harmony, utopia. Near the source of the three great rivers flowing down from the Tibetan Plateau, Diqing Prefecture was officially renamed Shangri-la in 1990. There with high mountains, expansive barley fields and ethnic minority groups, we were tourists and yet travellers feeling at home. Buying souvenirs from the Tibetan Woman's Heritage Foundation, they placed the hand-woven shawl in a red see-through bag. "We are proud - in Shangri-la we banned plastic bags three years ago."

9) Long- term Planning - Toward An Official Community/National Plan

Where China is today is no accident. There is a sense that it is harnessed to something bigger. Hosting the Olympic Games and a World Expo takes years of careful visioning, planning, leadership and execution. Meeting many of their Millennium Development Goals took the mobilization of requisite resources and motivation of many groups. Now look at China's 12 th Five-Year Plan 2011 to 2016. We have our own OCP processes in Pemberton, Squamish and now Whistler. It is not clear what the provincial and especially national "official plans" are for the next five years, except for a balanced budget.

In the West we are too often victims of our own short-termism and immediate gratification. From China we can learn the values, skills and disciplines of long-term planning.

10) Moving Beyond Walls to Opening Up

It was a dazzling time in China, full of cognitive dissonance. But we experienced what former Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping famously called "an opening up." For the Chinese in the 1980s, that meant coming out from behind great walls of insecurity and an insular past. It was a central message, launching them on a globally-engaged trajectory we saw evidenced in the eye-popping and jaw-dropping realities of Shanghai and the World Expo.

We too need to "open up" to a fast changing world where we both showcase who we are and yet listen and learn from what others in the global community are doing.

Lessons China can learn from us

1) Resort Planning

We heard of the new one million-plus cities springing up all over China. Urban development is huge and the Expo theme "Better Cities Better Lives" is China's way of learning from the latest most efficient urban planning systems. However, three times on our week-long visit to Shanghai we heard that a Whistler model of resort development was high on the radar of recreational planners in China. With a growing and sophisticated middle class looking for safe, clean, accessible resorts to re-create in, we have much experience and expertise to offer.

Many central policies are now also aimed at reversing the mega-trend of urban migration. The push is on to encourage skilled, educated families to return to the countryside. Meeting these social needs together with land use and environment concerns are more than familiar to Whistler and the Sea to Sky corridor.

2) Community Planning and Sustainable Development

Despite the best intentions of authoritarian, top-down systems and structures, local community officials often push back. Canadians resent Ottawa. Americans have a disdain for Washington. So too, many Chinese, at provincial and local levels, tend not to comply with every edict from Beijing. Hence support for training and empowering local officials to meet local and national goals. Canadian rural development projects know this, supporting projects to improve town planning.

In the Sea to Sky we know the challenges of local and regional government to pull together divergent interests on highly contested terrain. We have monitoring systems and metrics to tell us how we are doing in meeting our goals and community vital signs. To many local officials in China schooled in "scientific outlook" and an engineering background, this is easily embraced. With increasing public participation and village elections, the skills of effective stakeholder and community engagement are coveted.

3) Winter Sports and Recreational Cycling

Our Canadian Ambassador to China, David Mulroney, told a Vancouver audience recently that because of the Vancouver Olympics the interest in winter sports in China has never been higher. (At a recent conference in Scotland, Whistlerite Harry Measure saw data projecting that the number of skiers in China will reach 40 million in 10 years*). And Justin Downes and his wife Kirsten who spent years in Whistler and other B.C. ski towns, now assist recreational enterprises to get established in China through Axis Leisure Management. Many opportunities exists to capitalize on this emerging market for winter sports in China, and to fill Whistler beds, chairlifts and ski schools with young Chinese.

I cycled Shanghai, discovering new parts of the city and ChinaCycleTours.com. Check out their cycling programs including mountain biking weekend adventures and trekking adventures for corporate team-building. In Yunnan province and Shangri-la, trail building and cycling is in its infancy but ready to expand. Ask Andrew Webster, who went from Michigan to Shangri-la starting Thin Air Trails.com. Given the renowned Chinese flair for gymnastics and acrobatics, can bike parks be far off?

4) Eco Tourism and other Niche, Sustainable Tourism Innovations

The Whistler Centre for Sustainability TEDx conference on sustainable tourism during the Olympics was the last time I heard an informed discussion on eco-tourism. The term still has various meanings and can often be confusing. But with a commitment to and understanding of quality eco-tourism with standards, accountability even certification, local leaders in this field have a huge emerging market in China. The more traditional, "industrial" forms of tourism with tour buses and trinket shops may still be the norm for Chinese domestically and internationally. But niche markets and more sustainable travel experiences, like everything else in China, is growing apace.

5) From Growth to Value - Moving up Brand Reputation

It is arguable that growth and sprawl is relatively easy. The hard part comes when the limits of certain growth patterns are reached and the task is to add value, to increase efficiency, density and innovation. Those who are figuring this out - and there are many in our region in all sectors - have much to teach others. The language of leaders in China today has shifted remarkably away from unbridled growth and a market economy to "harmonious society," "balanced development" and "green innovation" - and for good reason. A glimpse into China's 12th Five-Year Plan shows that more is coming.

Also for China and emerging Chinese firms, brand is as important today as "face" is historically and culturally. Knowing how to continually add value, build trust, respond to customers' changing needs and show leadership is an exportable asset.

6) Sustainable Co-managed Forestry

The architecture and design of Expo Pavilions was a feast for the eye and a global showcase of green building technology. Our Canadian Pavilion stood out with its B.C. wood exterior and Cirque du Soleil-inspired interior. The Vancouver Pavilion reinforced the creative and sustainable uses of wood products for daily living now and into the future.

In contrast to more energy-consuming and earthquake-prone brick concrete construction, wood building and design has many advantages. There is tremendous Chinese gratitude for the contribution of Canadian wood in the reconstruction after the devastating Sichuan earthquake. Sino-Forest, a major Canadian company, is a leader in exporting wood products to China as well as developing sustainable forestry practises there.

Meeting with a Shanghai investor, we discussed the co-managed Cheakamus Community Forest. His response was full of curiosity. With the green credit policies and financial incentives in China for sustainable enterprise, every option is being examined, every model explored.

7) Environmental Advocacy and Education

Thirty kilometres from Shangri-la is Pudacuo National Park, the first national park in China. In planning, establishing and managing the park, local officials with the Nature Conservancy consulted internationally and in the process forged links with Parks Canada. It is so successful that there are now plans for more parks throughout China.

The World Wildlife Fund has been one of the leaders in environmental advocacy in China. Panda bears, of course, are ubiquitous throughout the land, but as a brand, as a symbol of environmental protection, WWF is doing outstanding work on so many fronts.

AWARE in Whistler, CAN in Squamish and others involved in community education and stewardship, have allies in China who are eager for partnership, collaboration and exchange. And the Shangri-la Institute for Sustainable Communities has a Water School for a Living Yangste, School-based Community Education for a Sustainable China. They work with global sponsors, volunteer supporters and the Ministry of Education and welcome support from environmental educators, student exchanges and sustainable community planning experts.

8) Charity, Philanthropy and Community Foundations

We read in the China Daily of the visit to Beijing of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to meet with the millionaires and billionaires. Despite cultural and historical differences, the emerging Chinese wealthy and even the middle class are stepping up to a new generation of giving and philanthropy.

Here at Quest is Blake Bromley, an expert in charity law and practise. Together with his expertise and the experience of Community Foundations, the Whistler Blackcomb Foundations and other leading corridor examples, further knowledge that can be shared, exchanged and examples showcased.

9) Canada-China Global Sustainability Forums

Reported recently in the Pique , the Aspen Enviro Forum brought together a who's who of environmental thinkers and leaders. But only one was from China. Yet as a leading commentator at the Canada Pavilion said, "we will never have a sustainable world unless we have a sustainable China." To be sustainable locally means we need to share with China all that we have learned, knowledge we have gained and policies we have developed - case studies, best practises and examples of what it takes to have economic and environmental health, both social and natural "harmony".

We host the world's winter athletes and international conferences, forums and events and have the bandwidth for streaming shared knowledge and expertise. We can also do events that help shape the future and ensure that our children enjoy a legacy of generational justice.

10) Community Ambassadors - the Footsteps of Bethune, Dashan and Cirque du Soleil

The citizens in both Harmony Tour I and II showed the largely untapped potential of local citizens to be "community ambassadors." Sure it is important to have "officials" and designated spokespeople. And yet in the history of our relations with China, and with other countries, the human face, the cultural, social and educational connections are vital.

In China we followed in the footsteps of Norman Bethune, Mark Roswell (Dashan) and now Cirque du Soleil - all social and cultural ambassadors. Throughout the week and especially at the Canada Pavilion, citizens of Whistler and Squamish were engaged in telling our stories, inviting guests to come here, proudly speaking up for the advantages we have in the Sea to Sky. They were community ambassadors putting a human face on Whistler and Squamish. It is great marketing overseas, and develops bench strength back home.

 

Strategies for engaging China, Asia and the global community

October 13 marks Canada's 40-year anniversary of establishing official relations with China. 1970 was also the early days of Whistler's development.

Today for Canada and the corridor in the age of increasing globalization and international relations, the world continues to spin around us with new changes and challenges. What do the next 40 years hold? How do we shape our engagement with the future?

As Canada increasingly becomes a Pacific nation, and the Gateway to Asia intensifies, what strategies do Whistler, Squamish, the Sea to Sky corridor have moving forward? With the "rise of China" and with ADS what relationships will maximize connections in the areas of sport and recreation, of education and learning, of business and investment? Based on lessons learned, Harmony Tours takeaways and a commitment to dialogue and engagement, here are five strategic directions:

1) Building our Regional Asset Profile

In one of our preparatory meetings Joseph Caron, now retired Canadian ambassador to Japan, India and China, told us to actively build our relationships in Asia, while messaging a clear picture of our strategic and competitive advantages.

We have many, and in various silos and sectors exist the experience and expertise to put this together. But with a lack of lateral coordination, busy short-term pressures and no office for regional economic development, it's all helter skelter.

Thankfully we made a first step through the efforts of many in Harmony Tours I and II. The joint presentations made at the Canada Pavilion to hear our story and our competitive advantages are a catalyst for further strategic coordination. The B.C. Government's Ministry of Small Business and Economic Development, responsible for the Asia Pacific, is working with communities throughout B.C. to develop a "Regional Asset Profile." With the Okanagan, the Kootenays, the Cariboo, we in the Sea to Sky can step up collectively to showcase what we can offer the world.

2) An Emerging Markets Strategy - Beginning with our Gateway to Asia

In tough times the tendency is to focus on core markets and traditional, reliable customers. But leadership requires continually scanning the environment for surprising trends, new opportunities and emerging markets. It is an essential part of long-term strategic thinking.

Now that we are in the post-Games, "what's next" period of planning, emerging trends, opportunities and markets need to be taken into account. Our MP, MLA, mayors and various government resources can help. Both the federal and provincial governments have stated commitments to the Gateway to Asia. This commitment can find its way from the Lower Mainland up the Sea to Sky. Our "regional asset profile," once completed, is one tool for reaching out in more concerted ways internationally. Leadership Sea to Sky with our alumni and connections to Asia, and our current "Leadership for the Long Term Value Creation" seminar speaker series, is a resource; a catalyst for collective action.

3) International Visitors Centre and Multicultural Network

Both the Visitors Centre in Whistler and the Adventure Centre in Squamish are in the direct business of welcoming visitors from Canada, the US and around the world. They are usually the first point of contact for first-time guests.

We need to build on these platforms with a strategy for welcoming overseas, international visitors in their own language, embracing multicultural contributions and ensuring they return for more of what we have to offer. Tourism Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton, and the chambers of commerce already have an eye to this. LOKL is working to provide corridor services in 10 different languages. Our arts councils regularly program for multicultural and creative artistic expression. Grants are available through Canadian Heritage and Embrace B.C. for providing opportunities for wider inclusion and celebration of the world's cultures here at our doorstep.

Networking all these resources to highlight and promote our "Welcome To The World" is made easier with new technologies. An International Hospitality House may be premature, but is a Multicultural Food and Film Festival far off?

4) International Events, Forums, Conferences

We can't do another Olympics, or host a World Expo, or a Davos-like World Economic Forum. But building on regional strengths, international contacts and global challenges of the 21 st century we are perfectly positioned to convene leaders and thinkers from around the world.

Such conferences and events drawing international visitors already occur. Yet there are still unused local capacity and untapped global connections that can be realized.

From our Whistler Forum work we know of the need for a Canada, US, China Conference on Green Energy and Technology, a Canada-China Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility, an International Leadership Association Summit. The Whistler Center for Sustainability could host a Global Environment Forum, or other TEDx related events. Using the fibre optic network and enormous bandwidth we have, global IT-related conferences and events are a natural fit. International sport policy, eco-tourism and peace through tourism events can be hosted.

From the Britannia Mining Museum to Quest University to the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre to Pemberton's Slow Food Cycle, we have the venues and the expertise to convene leaders and add value to global issues.

5) Global Partners, Community Ambassadors and International Projects

One of the repeated questions is "why are you taking people to China and overseas? We need beds filled here."

We are a destination resort and want in-bound visitors, students and investors. And yet messaging and marketing is largely about relationship-building. Myopic wishful thinking that we have it all and they will just come doesn't cut it in an increasingly changing and competitive world. Nor is it smart to leave all the external relationship-building on the shoulders of a few.

The Whistler Forum, like Rotary and many organizations in the corridor, is developing relationships and partnerships with allied organizations. Many in government, business and education sectors have an international contact list. Informally, many locals travel overseas and, as with our Harmony Tours, are community ambassadors meeting a range of interesting people abroad. Even the twin or sister-city relationships are being rethought and renewed.

The potential of harnessing and nurturing these relationships with a range of regular communication tools is huge.

 

 



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