Papua New Guinea and other countries have recently stepped up their promotion efforts in the Chinese market According to Red Star News
"Hello everyone, I'm Jenny, welcome to beautiful Papua New Guinea...", a 24-year-old PNG girl welcomed the first Chinese tour group to PNG with a fluent Chinese. Then I repeated this sentence in Cantonese, and as soon as the words fell, I received warm applause and laughter from everyone.
Jenny was sent to Guangzhou by her family at the age of 10 to study, stayed in China for more than a decade, and has now returned to her hometown of Rabaul, a freelancer and an environmentalist. Rabaul is an outer island in Papua New Guinea and a popular tourist destination, famous for its original tribes, World War II sites, volcanic landscapes, diving sites and more. It is also the first stop on the itinerary of the first Chinese tour group in Papua New Guinea, and Jenny is the tour guide of the tour group in Rabaul.
The Belt and Road Initiative bridges
The Chinese group entered the PNG in-depth tour
When it comes to Papua New Guinea, it's hard for most people to have a concrete impression of the country in their minds, and some even think it's in Africa. In fact, PNG is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and is the largest and most populous Pacific island country. Papua New Guinea was officially established in September 1975 and established diplomatic relations with China in October of the following year.
In June 2018, PNG became the first Pacific island country to sign a memorandum of understanding with China on the Belt and Road Initiative, and in November of that year, Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to Papua New Guinea to attend the APEC summit and paid a state visit to Papua New Guinea, marking the first state visit to Papua New Guinea since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It was also the only state visit hosted by PNG during the APEC summit in PNG.
During the summit, Xi Jinping held a collective meeting with the leaders of Pacific island countries that have established diplomatic relations and reached an important consensus on the hosting of the 2019 China-Pacific Island Countries Tourism Year. On April 1, 2019, the "China-Pacific Island Countries Tourism Year" opened in Apia, the capital of Samoa, and the South Pacific island countries including Papua New Guinea and major destinations have increased their promotion efforts in the Chinese market, hoping to attract more Chinese tourists.
In June, the Immigration and Citizenship Authority (ICA) officially opened its e-visa to all APEC economies. With the closer relations between the two countries and the facilitation of visa policies, PNG is also increasingly entering the vision of Chinese tourism practitioners, becoming a tourist destination full of potential.
Papua New Guinea's national bird "Bird of Paradise" picture according to Red Star News
The "Papua New Guinea 7-Day In-Depth Tour" tour route of Bird of Paradise Tourism Company, the first Chinese travel agency in Papua New Guinea, was born in the above background. After more than a year of preparation, the first Chinese tour group finally departed from Hong Kong, China, and entered Papua New Guinea on July 18. Red Star News, as the only invited media in the country, visited this country of birds of paradise, which is known as "unique and mysterious", together with the tour group.
Diverse tribal cultures are a selling point
Tourism offers hope for improved survival
It is no exaggeration to describe PNG with the words "unique and mysterious", especially for Chinese tourists who have never set foot in this land before. A diverse tribal culture is one of the characteristics of Papua New Guinea, with tribes that have existed since the Stone Age scattered throughout PD's valleys, highlands, jungles, caves, and many tribes living along papua New Guinea's longest river, the Sepik River. Most tribes live self-sufficient lives because they live alone in remote areas.
Each tribe in PNG has its own unique culture, and although the total population is only about 8 million, there are more than 820 tribal languages, the largest in the world. Two visits to isolated tribes are also the itineraries that Red Star Journalists most look forward to.
The small island of Mioko near Rabaul is pictured according to Red Star News
The first tribe visited by the tour group lived on the small island of Mioko outside Rabaul and was one of the five major local tribes. Isolated from the rest of the world, with no Internet, no television, no computers, it is a world completely different from modern civilization.
As the cruise ships gradually approached the island, the cell phone signal disappeared. What appeared in front of them was a group of curious, shy and enthusiastic faces, who lined up on the shore and sang a welcome song in the tribal language, a small welcome ceremony specially prepared by the tribal village chief Simon Robin to welcome Chinese tourists. The women in the procession wore traditional local floral dresses, while the children were mostly topless and wore only a pair of shorts.
Here, the original is the biggest feature. The vast majority of the island's people live indigenous lives, surviving on coconuts, cocoa, bananas and betel nuts gifted by nature. But Simon, the village chief, wants to improve this living situation for the islanders, hoping that the arrival of tourists can bring some clothes, books, books, etc. to the children on the island, and also hopes to get income and improve the situation that the whole island has no electricity and candles to illuminate.
Tribal girls dressed in traditional costumes according to Red Star News
Surrounded by the sea on all sides and with clear blue waters, the small island of Mioko is an ideal snorkeling spot, and these natural advantages attract some tourists. Before the first Chinese tour group visited, most of the people who came here were individual travelers from some Western countries. Simion's tribe earns income by providing services to tourists, such as the welcome ceremony specially prepared for the first Chinese tour group, providing fresh coconut water for everyone, arranging people to perform traditional tribal dances, climbing tens of meters of coconut trees with bare hands, and now picking and peeling coconuts with bare hands, etc., showing the most original characteristics of the tribe to tourists.
Whenever a guest arrives, many women on the island bring out shells, pearls, necklaces and other handicrafts to sell, so as to get some income. Simion told reporters, "They can use the money to exchange for some food and clothes."
Simion told reporters: "We very much welcome the arrival of the Chinese tourist group to come and stay with us. Hope they can bring us more tourists when they go back, thank you for coming. ”
Children of the Mioko island tribe picture according to Red Star News
In the afternoon, the water is more clear and transparent under the sun, and many tourists choose to snorkel in the water. A group of photon-upper-body children lined up to climb a dead tree on the shore and jump into the sea. Some tourists lament that tribal villagers do not know the outside world, and some tourists think that their happy outside world does not understand.
In this "world's last paradise"
They are far from modern civilization but warm and friendly
Leaving the island tribes of Rabaul, the tour group visited another Madoguba tribe living in the virgin forest near Port Moresby, the capital of PNG. This virgin forest is owned by Bird of Paradise Tourism and is also a tourist destination that the company will focus on developing in the future. Here, visitors can visit primitive tribes and interact with tribal people, can drive off-road through the primeval forest, experience forest hunting with real guns, etc.
Bird of Paradise Tours has been operating in this forest for many years and maintains good relations with the indigenous people who live here. When the tour group arrived, the whole tribe of young and old came out to greet them, many of them wearing feather decorations, traditional costumes, and oil paint, welcoming The Chinese guests who entered this primeval forest for the first time with enthusiastic tribal songs and dances.
Tattoos and coloured faces are also featured by the PNG tribe according to Red Star News
In the performance team, there is an old man who inserts this wooden stick horizontally in his nose, which is one of the traditional customs of the PNG tribe. Digging a hole in the nose with animal teeth or a wooden stick is a symbol of power and strength, and is the exclusive symbol of the chief. Tattoos and facets are also characteristic of the PNG tribe, which holds an adult ceremony for boys, using a crocodile totem as a tattoo.
The face painting is different from tribe to tribe, and the color and painting method are also different, including red face, yellow face, red with yellow, yellow with black, black with red, etc., which are not consistent. Most of the performers of the Madoguba tribe on that day were painted with red, yellow, and white faces.
Face painting varies in color and method of painting depending on the tribe According to Red Star News
After lunch, visitors take a guided tour of the tribe. Despite being isolated from the outside world in a primeval forest, the indigenous people here are warm and friendly, and according to their guides, speak English. But most of them didn't say a word, just smiling and sending traditional feather headdresses to take photos with tourists. Take out the traditional tambourine and teach visitors to experience the traditional tribal war dance.
When a reporter holds a cell phone to record these scenes. A woman with an oil paint on her face took the initiative to come over and communicate with her hands, carefully asking if she was inviting a reporter to take a group photo with her.
Regarding the imagination of the PNG tribe, many people are probably most curious about the legend of the cannibals. But on this trip, the two tribes far from modern civilization showed warmth and friendliness, and a real experience of PNG tribal culture and characteristics may also be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Compared with Fiji, Tonga, Anuatu and other South Pacific island countries with relatively mature tourism development, Papua New Guinea is a destination that has not yet been visited by many tourists, and is called "the last pure land" by tourism practitioners. During last year's APEC summit, PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill stressed to international and local media that "Papua New Guinea is the last paradise in the world".
Red Star News reporter Jiang Yijin photo report
Edited by Zhang Xun