Jingyugou

This guide to Jingyugou, known in English as Whale Valley, outside Xi'an traces how a farmers' drainage ditch on the border of Chang'an and Baqiao districts turned into a ticketed resort. It follows the 2009 investment by a construction firm that fenced the land, laid new roads, and planted cherry, peach and apricot orchards where crops once grew for market. You'll hear what changed for the bamboo forest restaurant, the boating lake and the orchards that farmers once worked for free. Listen for how much of that older, unticketed landscape you can still make out today.