Detour

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Tired of group tours to the summer Palace and Great Wall? Would you prefer a peek at ancient Ming villages? Or to seek Shangri-La in Himalayan valleys, where century-old Catholic churches still vibrate to Christian hymns sung in Tibetan.

Such trips are a stark contrast to those run by the staple of state-run Chinese agencies that have long dominated and dictated the direction of mainland tourism. But things are opening up, as evidenced by the offbeat offerings of Internet travel company (www.wildchina.com). While its director, Mei Zhang, hails from remote Yunnan province, she obtained a Harvard M.B.A. and worked for high-profile consulting firms before deciding that better returns could be found tapping the tourist potential of her homeland. A six-month backpacking trip spurred the idea. "I realized what I wanted to do was work in western China, where I was from. I could see that tourism there could go either way. It could develop good service or become like the rest of China—mass tourism with cable cars and all that. It was on the verge."

WildChina was launched last November and so far most bookings come from corporations and expats in China. But the site is also developing trips to appeal to increasingly affluent mainlanders. "The China market will be huge," she says. "But that's in the long term." In the meantime, WildChina is living up to its name, with birding excursions deep into the northwestern Mt. Gaoligong to track down the laughing thrush, and treks to the remote Catholic churches of Tibet. It's a hard hike—four days to climb 4,000 m. And if the views don't knock you out, there's always the wine from vines planted by French missionaries nearly a century ago.