In China, tourists are offered to be convicts (6 photos)

In Ninguta, in northern China, tourists are offered the strangest experience yet. Namely, to be a chained prisoner.





Will they feed you?

That's what they called their program in Ninguta - exile tourism. You are invited to step into the shoes of an ancient prisoner in China, because ancient routes for exiling criminals once ran near the city.

Tourists are even given prisoner uniforms and put on shackles and chains, for a full immersion in the experience, so to speak.



This tradition has survived even to the advent of photography

Ninguta is a place of exile in China, known as Siberia for us, or Omsk. It is believed that 1.5 million people were exiled here for serious crimes during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Many in China know that prisoners walked here on foot - a long and painful journey, many died on the way or were enslaved by local officials.



There is a museum of exiles in the city, but no one goes there - it's boring

This place became famous thanks to the popular historical drama "The Empress in the Palace", in which Emperor Yongzheng exiles his wife's family there. For some reason, some people wanted to experience not the experience of an emperor in the palace, but the experience of a prisoner in a wooden collar and shackles.

Hired animators will go with the group, they will act as guards-drivers. So that the recruited group does not get lost along the way (or so that the nomads do not drive it into slavery, probably). Well, they will also shout and threaten the "damned" criminals so that they will experience the full weight of the crimes themselves.



The Chinese chronicles describe many types of executions (but my article about them was banned)

And at the end of the path, you will be able to jump off a cliff (base jumping, of course) to simulate that you threw yourself off a cliff out of despair and melancholy. Because in Ancient China, by the way, they often did that.

When the new prisoner-exile program was first announced, the Chinese were delighted on the Internet - this is something unusual! Moreover, not just a boring excursion will attract many more young people.



They were supposed to go into exile together, but what if one of the people in the group doesn't want to go?

There are also grumblers who say that this is disrespectful to the prisoners who died. They say that not only criminals were exiled there, but also overly daring poets, intellectuals and officials who fell into disgrace.

I don't understand this at all, because this is a chance to once again touch the history and suffering of those people who died because of someone else's whim.



In India, you can become a prisoner in a real prison for a day for about $25