American Meghan Cochran (left) and Jenny von Reiche from Germany learn how to make dumplings at The Hutong's cooking school. The rising number of expatriates and tourists to Beijing has had a hand in helping businesses that target foreigners flourish. There were an estimated 110,000 expatriates living in Beijing in 2010. Wang Jing / China Daily

Beijing Hikers leads groups on more than 70 self-made trails. Their original target was the expatriate community, but the company is finding that foreign travelers now make up over 60 percent of their clientele. Provided to China Daily

 

A number of companies have shown how they can successfully sell Chinese culture to English speakers in Beijing.

BEIJING - On a recent brisk afternoon, Meghan Cochran swung by one of China's few remaining hutong areas in Beijing's Beixinqiao district. Huddled around a large kitchen table with a handful of other foreigners, the medical intern set out to master the art of making dumplings.

"It's on my list of things to do before returning to the United States," she says.

The cultural education center she visited, aptly named The Hutong, has been attracting English speakers like Cochran who seek a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.

The company offers a range of workshops and other classes including tea workshops, tai chi, kungfu, traditional Chinese medicine, photography, writing and painting. Classes range from 60 ($9.46) to 240 yuan.

"We've noticed other cooking schools opening up and other people offering similar services. I mean, it keeps us on our toes," says The Hutong's general manager Morgan O'Hara.

What began in 2007 as a creative space for the company's founders, Australians Mark Thirwall and Stacey Shine, has grown into a steady source of income. "We're quite a humble business. We're profitable. We're sustainable, I mean we have nine full time staff now," O'Hara says.

The number of expatriates and tourists to Beijing has had a hand in helping the businesses that target foreigners flourish. Last year there were an estimated 110,000 expatriates living in Beijing. The number of overseas tourists to the capital city reached more than 4.9 million in 2010.

"Each year we have at least 100,000 people (come through our doors)," says Feng Cheng, who claims his company China Culture Center (CCC), based in Beijing's Chaoyang District and founded in 2000, is the longest-running operator of cultural programs.

CCC offers a variety of programs including feng shui, Chinese handicrafts, calligraphy, and even cricket fighting. The majority of the participants are aged between 35-60 and comprise expatriates and their friends.

"My husband is working, so I had to find something creative to do with my time," says one participant who took part in a Chinese knot-tying class.

Although these cultural programs are popular, they rarely make ends meet. In fact, they're sometimes heavily subsidized by the company's other division - travel tours.

"In the beginning my goal was to organize only culture classes, not to organize travel or trips. But just a year later, I had to reevaluate. All the classes that we ran and our off-the-beaten-track tours of the city couldn't cover the cost of running the company," Feng says.

Other companies also smell success off the beaten track. Beijing Hikers, for example, leads groups to mountains around Beijing three days a week. Sun Huilin, the company's founder, began by leading regular hikes on the weekends with friends. The company started by "pure accident", sparked by a lot of interest from outside the group.

"To start the company we needed no money. It was just a group of people going out and we were covering the fees and I was covering a bit of my own expenses," says Sun Huilin, 42, who has since handed over most of the company's duties to her younger sister, Sun Huijie, 32.

The sisters, both art degree holders, have seen their company grow three to four-fold since its inauguration.

"We're running twice as many hikes compared with when we started, plus we specialize in trips for schools, companies, embassies," Sun says.

What has allowed cultural companies to prosper, especially in Beijing, is the demand that comes from foreigners interested in the heart of Chinese culture.

"Beijing is different. It's the cultural center of China. Secondly, the foreigners make you feel the culture," Feng says.

Another factor is that each of the companies, regardless of whether they're run by a native Chinese or foreigners, have fluent English-speaking staff. CCC classes are held with the help of a translator. Beijing Hiker's head tour guide Sun has a good grasp of English.

"The tour guide was really nice, she led us on the Silver Pagoda Loop that took us away from the usual tourist spots through the countryside and small villages" says 22-year old Australian Kelvin Tjia.

"There was definitely a niche. Looking back I realize what we did and I realize why Beijing Hikers has become so successful. The niche is that it's an English-speaking organizer of hiking trips for English speakers," Huilin, the older sister, says.

Beijing Hikers leads groups on more than 70 self-made trails. Their original target was originally the expatriate community, but the company is finding that foreign travelers now make up over 60 percent of their clientele. Competitors who want a share of the niche market have copied some of their maps, the younger sister claims.

"I think the main challenge for other similar companies is the following, which we have but they don't have as much. We built our following by being the avant-garde on this hiking scene. We're always developing new trails. If something becomes too popular we'll abandon it," Sun says.

Since the popularity of China as a travel destination dropped off soon after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the focus for cultural companies has been on refining and improving their services. Some are also thinking of expansion.

The real challenge for The Hutong at this point, according to O'Hara, is branching out, trying not to just cater for the expatriate market, but also to a Chinese market.

"It's kind of easy to get access to the expat market, I guess it (Chinese market) is the next goal for us," he says.

Another way of expanding the business is to open up a base in Shanghai, offering similar services, although discussions are only in their initial stages. "A place like this in Shanghai would do quite well," O'Hara says.

Beijing Hikers is looking at expanding through more long-distance hikes outside of Beijing, such as Xinjiang's Silk Road, Shanxi's Pinyao and Yunnan province.

The challenge for CCC, Feng says, is to look at how to compete with other travel companies that have proliferated since laws were relaxed one to two years ago that enabled foreigners to run tourism companies in China.

"We're not very ambitious in the sense we want to make a big company. We want to make this into a true cultural center," Feng says.