Chris Barclay and his US guests finish a seven-day walk from Guangxi's Guilin to Yangshuo Mountain Retreat in 2019. CHINA DAILY

A natural progression

Barclay was so impressed with the areas that he would like to bring over his corporate clients, "except that there was no suitable accommodation". The idea struck him to fill that gap in the market, building a place in the Yulong River Valley in 2000, about 9 kilometers from downtown Yangshuo.

"It was fallow land, right near the river, surrounded by paddy fields that all frequently flooded," Barclay says.

After discussions with local government leaders, he created the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat and began bringing clients to the area.

"We offer guests a close experience with nature," Barclay says, adding that no disposable items are used.

"We filter and sterilize drinking water ourselves and use glass containers."

Local government has also been very supportive. "They invested a lot in afforestation and road building," Barclay says.

The retreat became a popular team building destination, and to his pleasant surprise, an increasing number of the participants came back with their families. So the retreat slowly became a full-time hospitality business.

To date, the place takes in about 15,000 guests a year.

"I'm most proud of the way that we kept our promise to help develop village tourism along the Yulong River, and especially in encouraging the creation of the Ten-mile Gallery scenic spot, which restricts building and traffic in this ecologically sensitive area," he says.

Barclay later restored an old mud-brick house and repurposed a local village building as a boutique hotel in the neighborhood, which he says gave him an insight into traditional building reconstruction. Through this work he started learning more about Chinese vernacular architecture.