Trees in blossom along Great Wall

Trees in blossom cluster around the local section of the Great Wall, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), at Huairou District in Beijing, April 18, 2013. (Xinhua/Bu Xiangdong)

H7N9 drives Chinese tourists abroad for Labor Day

As the H7N9 avian flu outbreak spreads in Shanghai and the neighboring provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, Labor Day vacation plans have seen people scramble to catch a plane out of the country, the Shanghai-based National Business Daily reports.

Bookings for Labor Day tours abroad are nearly full for countries in the region such as Thailand. Further afield, Europe and New Zealand are also getaway hotspots, even with tour package prices rising 10% in March.

The number of confirmed bird flu cases in China reached 82 as of April 16, after Shanghai announced one new case and Zhejiang province reported four more, the Shanghai Daily reported. The virus has so far claimed 17 lives.

Wu Qing, a white-collar worker at an international company in Shanghai, said he initially planned to spend his three-day holiday in Sanya in southern China, but now wants to extend his vacation for a 7-day tour to Tuscany, Italy.

According to recent UN tourism statistics, China has for the first time ranked top in the average amount its tourists spent overseas, with total consumption hitting US$102 billion, or 9.5% of the global tourism market, the report said.

Beijing UTS International Travel Service, which specializes in international travel, has seen its Labor Day holiday bookings, mostly 5-10 day tours, already 90% full, said deputy director Wang Zhenyue.

Tours to Thailand are most popular, with the amount of tourists in March rising 60% from a year earlier and
April figures predicted to double, the report said, citing industry insiders.

Prices for regional tourism in East Asia have gone up 10%-20%, while prices for long-distance travel have remained pinned to last year's figures, the daily said. Registered tourist numbers for upcoming holiday rose 100% from a year earlier, and surged 200% during the Tomb Sweeping Festival, an annual Chinese holiday where people pay their respects to their ancestors, the report said.

Source: Want China Times

New entry fees for scenic town

Authorities in Fenghuang county, Hunan province, reduced student ticket prices for its scenic old town and gave more people free entry amid rising pressure from netizens and small businesses who protested the tourist site's new paid-entry requirement.

Tourists have been charged 148 yuan ($23.93) for a ticket to visit the old town since April 10. Entry was previously free.
Cai Long, deputy head of the county government, said on Tuesday that the new ticketing policy will not be abandoned. He said it helps to better protect the site and ensures a more pleasant experience for tourists.

Starting April 20, Cai said, students with a valid ID or student card only need to pay 20 yuan for a ticket to the old town of Fenghuang, which has stood for at least 300 years. The current student admission charge is 80 yuan.

He said the government has also adjusted its free-entry policy, which now applies to two additional counties in Xiangxi in addition to residents of the Tujia-Miao autonomous prefecture, which now applies to all residents in Huaihua, Tongren, two neighboring cities of Fenghuang apart from local residents from Xiangxi
Tujia-Miao autonomous prefecture (Fenghuang was a part of the prefecture).

Cai said the government received 40 yuan from each ticket, adding that revenue from the tickets will go to the town's maintenance work.

He said that the abundance of tourists generated heavy traffic and an excessive amount of trash.

Gong Fuyun, who has been running a hostel in the Fenghuang old town for more than eight years, said he hopes the new entry charge will "bring some positive changes".

Gong said the government has started repairing the roads and banning non-local vehicles from entering the old town.

Cai from the county government added that about 3 billion yuan will be allocated to infrastructure improvement and other management work in the old town by the end of 2015.

Fenghuang is not the first such site to begin charging admission fees. The entry price for the ancient town of Pingyao in Shanxi province is 150 yuan on ordinary days and 160 yuan during Spring Festival.

However, the new policy in Fenghuang has sparked fierce debate and protests since its implementation.

Yuan Yulai, a lawyer who specializes in administrative law, took to his official Sina Weibo account on Saturday to call for a boycott of Fenghuang, which won support of many netizens.

Many shop owners and small traders in Fenghuang closed their shops on Thursday in a strike protesting the decision to charge for entry.

Du Xiaoli, who works for a travel agency in Fenghuang that helps tourists book hotels, said reservations had decreased by at least 70 percent compared with the same period last year despite April normally being the peak season for travel to the old town.

Wang Jianmin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Tourism Research Center, said the government of Fenghuang is defending its ticket policy with "a lousy excuse".

"There are many other available measures to limit tourist numbers, such as asking tourists to make reservation one day before a visit and establishing a maximum daily capacity of tourists," he said.

"Tourists need to pay taxes on accommodation and food at tourist sites, so the government of Fenghuang is guaranteed sufficient money for its preservation work."
Source: By He Dan in Beijing and Wen Xinzheng in Changsha (China Daily)

China Southern Mulls A380 Flights to Sydney as Talks Stall

China Southern Airlines Co. (1055), the nation’s only operator of Airbus SAS A380s, may fly the superjumbo to Sydney as the carrier’s talks with Air China Ltd. (601111) to cooperate on Beijing-Paris services are stalled.

China Southern is studying the feasibility of operating the A380 to Sydney from its base in Guangzhou, Chief Financial Officer Xu Jiebo said in a telephone interview. Services to the Australian city with the double-decker jet may begin as early as October if talks with Air China collapse, he said yesterday.

For more than eight months the carrier has been working to reach an agreement with Air China to gain access to Beijing airport slots and start A380 flights to Paris. Beijing-based Air China (753) has historically controlled routes in the Chinese capital.

“The A380 saga is an embarrassment to China Southern even though it doesn’t hurt much financially,” said Kelvin Lau, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. “They should’ve come up with a contingency plan much earlier.”

In October, China Southern missed its target of introducing the A380 on Paris-Beijing route. The carrier has been flying its five superjumbos mostly on domestic routes from Guangzhou because of the lack of access to the capital’s slots.

Aviation Landscape

Air China has a lock on Beijing routes because of the aviation landscape established by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, according to Li Yanhua, a professor at Tianjin-based Civil Aviation University of China. China Eastern Airlines Corp. (670) similarly controls Shanghai, the nation’s financial capital, while China Southern has Guangzhou.

China Southern fell 0.7 percent to HK$4 at the close in Hong Kong. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.5 percent.

Air China seeks to lease two A380s equipped with cabin crew from China Southern to avoid “cut-throat competition,” Chairman Wang Changshun said last month. Xu didn’t say what are the disagreements with Air China, Asia’s biggest carrier by market value.

“At present, both sides can’t agree on some key terms and therefore the talks have been temporally stopped.” Xu said, without saying when the discussions will resume. “We are evaluating the Guangzhou-Sydney flight as a back-up plan.”

Air China spokeswoman Rao Xinyu didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comments.

Three-Hour Flights

Since China Southern received its first A380 in October 2011, it has mainly used the planes on the about 1,900-kilometer (1,180 miles) flights between Beijing and Guangzhou that take about three hours. The aircraft are designed to fly as far as 15,400 kilometers. The carrier also began A380 flights to Los Angeles from Guangzhou in October.

China Southern has boosted capacity on Australian routes more than 50 percent annually since 2009, the carrier said in an April 9 statement on its website. It currently operates 38 flights a week to Australian cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. By 2015, the airline plans to have 110 flights every week to Australia and New Zealand.

China Southern had 491 planes in its fleet at the end of last year, according to a company statement. It also has 10 Boeing Co. (BA) 787 Dreamliners on order.

Source: Bloomberg News by Jasmine Wang

Stunning Areas of China

Fenghuang County is located in Xiangxi Prefecture, Hunan Province. It has an exceptionally well-preserved ancient town that harbors unique ethnic languages, customs, arts as well as many distinctive architectural remains of Ming and Qing styles. The town is placed in a mountain setting, incorporating the natural flow of water into city layout.


Wulingyuan is a scenic and historic interest area in Hunan Province, noted for its approximately 3,100 tall quartzite sandstone pillars, some of which are over 800 metres in height and are a type of karst formation. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.


Huanglong Cave is a karst cave located near the Wulingyuan district of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan. Covering a total area of 48 hectares, the cave system extends to 15 kilometres in length and is divided into dry and wet levels.


The Black Dragon Pool is a famous pond in the scenic Jade Spring Park (Yu Quan Gong Yuan) located at the foot of Elephant Hill, a short walk north of the Old Town of Lijiang in Yunnan province. It was built in 1737 during the Qing Dynasty and offers a spectacular view on the region's tallest mountain, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, over its white marble bridge.


Pudacuo National Park is a 1,300 km2 national park located in Shangri-La County, Yunnan Province. The park was announced on June 25, 2007, and is notable as the first national park in China to meet International Union for Conservation of Nature standards. It incorporates the Bita Lake Nature Reserve and the Duhu Scenic Area in the Hongshan region. As such they are part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site.


Jiuzhaigou Valley is a nature reserve and national park located in northern Sichuan province. Jiuzhaigou Valley is part of the Min Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and stretches over 72,000 hectares. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls, colorful lakes, and snow-capped peaks. Its elevation ranges from 2,000 to 4,500 metres. Jiuzhaigou Valley was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and a World Biosphere Reserve in 1997.


The Dazu Rock Carvings are a series of Chinese religious sculptures and carvings, dating back as far as the 7th century AD, depicting and influenced by Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist beliefs. Listed as a World Heritage Site, the Dazu Rock Carvings are made up of 75 protected sites containing some 50,000 statues, with over 100,000 Chinese characters forming inscriptions and epigraphs. The sites are located in Chongqing Municipality within the steep hillsides throughout Dazu County, located about 60 kilometers west of the urban area of Chongqing.


Furong Cave is a karst cave located on the banks of the Furong River, 20 kilometres from Wulong County town, Chongqing. First discovered by local farmers in 1993 the cave was opened to tourists in 1994. It became a national 4A tourist site in 2002 then in June 2006 part of the South China Karst UNESCO World Heritage Site ; the only cave in China on the UNESCO list.


The Three Natural Bridges are a series of natural limestone bridges located in Xiannüshan Town, Wulong County, Chongqing. They lie within the Wulong Karst National Geology Park, itself a part of the South China Karst-Wulong Karst UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Chinese, the bridges are all named after dragons, namely the Tianglong (literally Sky Dragon) Qinglong (literally Azure Dragon) and Heilong (literally Black Dragon) bridges. They are the only such group of karst structures in the world.

Source: Fotopedia

Taiwan ramps up its tourism efforts, starting in Thailand

Like many countries, Taiwan is aggressively promoting tourism again despite the global economic recession.

Thailand is an interesting market for Taiwan because the number of Thai visitors is expected to grow by at least 10% this year.

The Taiwan Tourism Bureau forecasts the number of Thai tourists visiting Taiwan will be 107,483 this year, up from 97,712 last year. It also expects Thai arrivals to reach 250,000 in the next few years.

The bureau recently organised a familiarisation trip for 38 Thai travel agents and the media.

Cheng Ying-huei, the bureau’s deputy director for international affairs, said many countries have been shifting their focus to tourism.

It sees potential to increase the Thai tourist market and will introduce its tourism website in the Thai language early next year.

Ms Cheng said the bureau will continue to hold familiarisation trips, not only for Thailand but also Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Australia, with an aim to see a tourism recovery soon.

The bureau is implementing Project Vanguard for Excellence in tourism (2009-2014) and the Tourism Optimization through Quality/Quantity Upgrading portion of the Executive Yuan’s Economic Power-Up Plan with an aim of building tourism environment focusing on both quality and quantity.

Besides, it also uses “Time for Taiwan” as the core promotional slogan to attract international travellers.

Charoen Wangananont, adviser and former president of the Thai Travel Agents Association, said tourism boomed in Taiwan two decades ago but began to slip over the past 10 years when the island shifted its focus to industrial development.

Now that Taiwan is shifting back the emphasis to tourism, it has improved many tourist destinations and Thai travel agents see opportunities in selling tour packages to Taiwan again.

However, Mr Charoen said tour operators believe that the Taiwan government should step up its marketing campaign to attract more Thai travellers because South Korea and Japan are very popular destinations.

He said Taiwan must present its tourism products such as shopping destinations and temples to meet the lifestyle of Thais.

Thai operators wishing to sell tour packages to Taiwanese tourists should present interesting stories related to destinations to attract customers.

Mr Charoen projects that 20,000 to 30,000 packages to Taiwan will be sold this year. Prices start from 30,000 baht for five days and four nights.

Source: by Chadamas Chinmaneevong, The Bangkok Post

Morning scenery of local residence in Hongcun, Anhui province

Photo taken on April 13, 2013 shows the morning scenery of local residences in Hongcun of Huangshan City, Anhui Province. (Xinhua/Guo Chen)