INTERVIEW JIM SPEAR
Katie Barnes talks to the man behind The Schoolhouse, a sustainable tourism enterprise – including a boutique hotel and spa – that he’s established in a remote village near the Great Wall of China
I
n 1986, American Jim Spear and his wife Liang Tang moved with their daughter to Beijing. Spear had a master’s degree in political science from UC Berkeley and took a
consulting job in the city at an exciting time of rapid development. On a weekend trip to a remote part of the Great Wall of China in Mutianyu, 70km north of Beijing, they purchased a peasant’s house on a whim with a view to turning it into a country retreat. Since then, they’ve turned an abandoned
primary school into a restaurant and glass factory, old homes into designer rentals and a brick kiln into an eco-lodge and spa which has welcomed guests from over 100 coun- tries. The businesses, known collectively as The Schoolhouse, have put Mutianyu on the tourist map. And they’ve done so while supporting the local community. Here, Spear tells Spa Business about
his inspiration for The Schoolhouse, how the project grew and what it’s like doing business in rural China.
Where did you get the idea to develop The Schoolhouse? Not long after I moved to Mutianyu full-time, the mayor called me to the village hall and gave me a lecture – the community had a declining and ageing population, low incomes and
a food product development centre, three Slow Food restaurants, rental homes, meeting facilities and, of course, the Brickyard boutique hotel and spa. Overall the goal was to help Mutianyu at
the Great Wall become a more recognised tourism destination – and now it ranks 14 in the top 25 landmarks in the whole wide world on TripAdvisor!
Spear was asked to create a business to support locals by the village mayor
lack of investment. He asked me to give something back to my adopted home. He really got me to open my eyes to what was happening around me.
What was your vision? To make an invest- ment that would provide jobs to local employees and suppliers while running an ethical, sustainably-designed, operation. Today our businesses include a gallery, general store, orchard, several farm plots,
What’s it like doing business in China? Like most other foreign investors we’ve been granted ‘national treatment’ – mean- ing we get treated like a Chinese-owned business. That’s not always a blessing, as there are strict rules and laws to abide by. But overall it’s fairly transparent. People who fail here often blame corruption or culture, but sometimes that’s just an excuse for not doing a good enough job.
Why did you build the Brickyard? My wife found a working tile factory in Beigou, the village next to Mutianyu, in 2006 and thought it would be a great site for a new project. It was a desert and the chimneys belched out horrible acrid, black smoke. I was appalled and thought ‘no way’ until she told me to turn round and I saw the incredible view of forested ridges topped by the imposing Great Wall.
How did you design it? My aim was to keep the factory buildings and comple- ment them with rooms, all 25 of which have views of the Great Wall. I redeployed every scrap of building material, including used bricks and broken glazed tiles. I think the Brickyard is a happy marriage of traditional and vernacular building styles with a modern aesthetic.
The Brickyard supports the Slow Food movement and meals are based on homegrown produce 76
Tell us about your book Great Wall Style which launched last year. I have a passion for design and as well as the Brickyard, I’ve refurbished dozens of homes in or near Mutianyu including nine that we rent out. After these were featured in
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