Book Chapter

Rippa, A., Norum, R. 2021. “Environing the Tourism Frontier: Infrastructure, Nature and the State in China’s Dulong Valley.” In: M. Mostafanezhad, C. Azcarate, and R. Norum (eds.), Tourism Geopolitics: Assemblages of Power, Mobility and the State. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.

Abstract

This chapter explores tourism in the Dulong valley at the convergence of two broader processes of state territorialization in China’s ethnic frontiers: infrastructure development and environmental preservation. Both processes have been carried out through the resettlement of local Drung into newly built villages, the implementation of two conservation programs and the establishment of a nature reserve. The chapter pairs this analysis with an ethnographic account of how the tourism industry has concretely developed in the valley since the opening of the road, showing that the nexus of conservation policies, infrastructure, and tourism development have become yet another driver of the marginalization of local ethnic minorities.