A former South African resident has featured on over a dozen national, provincial and local Chinese television channels for investing his time and money into uplifting a small village in South East China.
Five years ago, Ian Hamlinton quit his job as a China tour guide in Yangshuo, and moved to the small village of Jiuxian in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Here, he rented six Qing Dynasty houses that he had discovered on a tour.
At this time, local villagers couldn’t understand why he would want to rent these old houses, as they had deemed them worthless; therefore, they gave him the nickname, “Fengzi”, which means “crazy” or “madman”.
Later, Ian renovated the houses and created his own boutique hotel called, The Secret Garden Hotel. Ian has helped bring tourism to Jiuxian, and he is fully integrated into the community; he’s somewhat of a celebrity in the area. Ian now considers Jiuxian his home, and he finds it hard to see himself living anywhere else in the world.
Ian left South African for China 12 years ago to be a tour guide with an international travel company.
The hotel started to attract tourists to a village which had never featured among travellers’ stops. Being a qualified architect, Ian transformed an old traditional Chinese house into a beautiful hotel, without losing the magic of the old building.
As tourists started to visit the hotel, the local villagers were now able to make an income selling souvenirs and locally made produce. Ian’s hotel grew in popularity and he procured more old houses which he also converted into hotels.
“I rented the first building in 2010 and opened with six rooms in 2011, then expanded by roughly a building a year. Now we have six houses with 18 guest rooms, a restaurant and small art gallery,” explained Ian.
The village’s popularity grew as the hotels were more frequently visited.
“I support the village’s farmers and promote local businesses, recommending guests rent bicycles and scooters from neighbours and eat at local restaurants,” said Ian.
Seeing the foreigner’s success, several of the enterprising locals decided that they could turn their old houses into restaurants or B&Bs and asked Ian to help them do so. Being a qualified architect and by now an accomplished expert on old Chinese houses, he helped them convert their old dwellings into modern businesses.
“I try to promote the whole village as a tourist destination and help friends in the village preserve and protect their own houses,” said Ian.
Watch the video about his story below:
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