Roughing it in comfort

Hotel in Geladan. [Photos by Huang Jianguo/For China Daily]

"Glamping serves travelers' spiritual needs to explore, challenge themselves, commune with nature, and engage different cultures and lifestyles," says Dong Qiuyun, chief media officer of the Lijiang-based glamping company Kingsway Tented Resort.

"We offer the chance to escape modern life's hustle and bustle and encounter exotic folk culture and history, and see what rustic life truly is."

Kingsway Tented Resort's business grew 60 percent from 2013 to 2014 compared to the year prior, Dong says.

Perhaps China's most common glamping is traveling by a recreational vehicle. Other glampers explore wild areas on foot from fixed base camps.

The most adventurous travelers sojourn from destination to destination in mobile tents like nomads along themed routes. (Many who glamp this way often stay among actual nomads.)

The Geladan prairie's fixed-glamping site opened in May 2013.

It has since developed specialized routes for guests to explore more remote areas.

Dong explains that even the basics are pricey to provide in far-flung locales - let alone luxury amenities.

"The high costs come from electricity, pollution alleviation and top-level services in remote areas, plus the large investments required to develop logistics and travel routes," Dong says.

Since most glampsites are isolated, they lack infrastructure, including transportation. That vastly increases overhead, he says.

Typical facilities include portable tents, hot water and sewage treatments. Guests dine on organic fare.

But despite the expenses, most glampsites aren't more comfortable than garden-variety starred hotels.

Glampers must understand a luxury campsite isn't the same as a luxury hotel.

And Geladan prairie's visitors should understand they may experience altitude sickness, Dong says. So the hotel advises travelers with such physical conditions as heart disease and hypertension not to take the trip.

Glamping is new in China but has long been a tourism mainstay in South Africa, North America, India and Thailand. Most glampsites are located in national parks and nature reserves.

China's luxury campsites are concentrated in Yunnan, and the Tibet and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions.