The next time you’re in the mood for an ice cold beer and head to Qingdao, a huge city in Eastern China where German settlers built the Tsingtao Brewery, constructed Bavarian-style beer gardens and created an International Beer Festival. FATHOM contributor Adam Graham checks out the scene.

Did you hear the one about the Chinese-German fusion restaurant? An hour after you eat, you’re hungry…for power. Two cliches in combination create a third. Still, Qingdao, a former German colony dangling off China’s Shandong Peninsula — and the home to not a few German-Chinese fusion restaurants — is more of a testament to unpredictable cultural mixes than to the simple addition of stereotypes.

Seven hours north of Shanghai and six hours south of Beijing, Qingdao has made itself a posh summer resort city for China’s emerging bourgeoisie, and claims some of the republic’s highest living standards. It’s nestled on a fertile and hilly crook of land between the Yangtzee and Yellow River deltas and has regular auto ferry service to nearby Japan and Korea.

Also spelled Tsingtao, the modern but soulful metropolis has a complex history that involves a founding by the Dongyi peoples over 6,000 years ago. Next came the mighty Zhou Dynasty (China’s longest-running), followed by German and Japanese colonial occupations in the late 19th-century. In 2008, the city experienced a pre-Olympic boom (the sailing regatta was held here) and a subsequent post-Olympic bust, though blocky high-rise construction and commercial developments on the outskirts of town are erecting at a pace that make Westerners nervous. The metro population is already at eight-and-a-half million and growing.

But the city center of this summer resort “town” remains a peaceful enclave and a world away from assembly line China. Any Hamburg native might feel right at home when pulling over Signal Hill in Qingdao’s Old Town, graced with cherry blossom trees, quaint red-tiled roofs, and storybook Bavarian and neo-Romanesque architecture. A twin-spired church sits atop a cobbled lane that winds up the densely wooded hill to a gorgeous Bavarian Governor’s Mansion (where Mao once stayed) surrounded by observatories and museums. From the blustery summit, a vista of the city’s port, its numerous beaches, and wooded parks give way to futuristic skyscrapers in the distance. The image suggests an immense and sprawling Teutonic city — or perhaps a deferred utopia of the Hanseatic League.

The port city’s plan was revised by Hamburg architects in 1897. The city had then been taken over by the Imperial German concession of Jiaozhou Bay after the murder of two German missionaries. Much to the chagrin of 19th-century locals, these city planners laid the final blueprint for Qingdao. But today, Qingdao’s architecture heritage is celebrated as part of China’s diverse history.

What to Do
Visit the Tsingtao beer factory, which was built in 1903 and is housed in a manicured red-brick Bavarian house as a testament to the krauts’ homesickness for beer. Take the tour of the bottling plant and be sure to enter the “Tipsy Room” — by turns cheesy and inexplicable. The crooked walls and floors simulate being drunk and are reminiscent of something Bart Simpson might lumber through at Duff Gardens. The beer-tasting room at the end of the tour is a great place to sample the real deal and purchase photos, maps, and other Tsing Tao paraphernalia.

Afterwards, take a step out onto Deng Zhou Road (aka Beer Street) to peruse the brewski-related tschotskes and beer halls that some of the city’s 32 million annual tourists experience each year. The city swells for the annual Qingdao International Beer Festival, held the last two weeks of August. In addition to beer, Qingdao is known for its prized mineral water from the legendary Mount Lao Springs, and is also one of China’s four ancient sea salt zones. Chardonnays and Rieslings from Huadong Winery, just 20 minutes away, are becoming increasingly reputable among wine aficionados.

The city’s six beaches are the main summer draw. Unfortunately, trash is a problem at some of them, and last year saw an outbreak of blue-green algae bloom (though a naturally occurring phenomenon, it doesn’t exactly make for ideal swimming conditions). Nevertheless, summer weekends in Qingdao’s city beaches bulge with crowds. The cleanest, least populated ones can be found from Zhanqiao Pier to Shilaoren Beach in the eastern suburbs. Laoshan Beach (at the entrance to Laoshan National Park, about a 30 minute drive east of the city limits) is one of the most beautiful in the region and sits under the protection of the verdant Taoist holy mountain, Lao Shan, which contrasts nicely against golden sand.

The clean, broad, and surfable Old Stone Man Beach is another one within close proximity to the city. Beaches 1, 2, and 3 are crowded with locals but not always the most pristine. Starting from (Taipingqiao) Cape of Peach, the most beautiful sections of the beach include Fushan, Zhanshan, Taipingshan, and Huiquanjiao. The warm water and soft sand make it ideal for sunbathing and swimming. Leafy Lu Xun Park is an ideal seaside picnic grounds called “a fairyland by the sea” by beloved Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai.

The city’s fashion district (Minjiang) is a great place to explore real everyday Chinese life. Yes, there’s a Wal-Mart and Starbucks, not to mention a slew of luxury stores like LV, Gucci, Prada, Carrefour, and Hermes. Nobody loves luxury brands more than the Chinese, regardless of their authenticity. Jimo Lu market is the Canal Street of Qingdao, and the best spot to score knock-off designer goods for cheap.

An increase in population has meant the clean-up of shanty towns, a refurbished Commercial Street in the Shi Bei District, and a freshly painted and picturesque Tai Dong Street. Qingdao Atrium City is an old work shop converted into a sort of a nocturnal canopy of dining and entertainment venues. Most interesting is the development of Wine Street, capitalizing on the area’s promising wine future and sure to put Qingdao’s vines on every oenophile’s radar.

Where to Stay

Major four and five star hotel chains have unfurled all over Qingdao. Most notable is the service-forward Shangri La — it is hands down the best bed in town. Be sure to get in on the complimentary breakfast at uber-modern Café Yum, stocked with every genre of cuisine you can imagine. Breakfast alone has a Japanese miso station, a stir fry and noodle wok, a western spread including crisped bacon, beef wellington, and an omelet station, twelve different juices including kiwi and strawberry, dozens of sweet breads and fruits, dim sum, and two six-foot pots of congee.

Head to the concrete Zhanqiao Pier originally built in 1890 by Emperor Guan Xu. There’s an ornately carved two-story octagonal wooden pagoda called the Wave Stopping Pavilion, particularly popular among romance-seekers when moonlit. The walk to the pier is filled with vendors selling everything from sausage to illegal red coral. To actually stay on the beach, check in to Seaview Garden Hotel, an expansive quasi-Victorian property which offers sweeping views of the water and impeccable service, and is ranked the number one Qingdao hotel on Tripadvisor.com.

What to Eat
Foodies should note that there’s a real stratification to the food in China. In total, there are eight principal cuisines and Qingdao’s falls under the Shandong umbrella but in the Jiadong style, one of two culinary regional methods within Shandong. Like many coastal Chinese areas, seafood is a mainstay. The Yi Qing Lou Seafood Restaurant is a vegetarian’s worst nightmare. Before you sit down at your table, you are guided by pink fur-clad hostesses through a cold stock cellar, which is equal parts zoo and kitchen. There, you choose your meat from a selection of live rattlesnakes, crabs and turtles, filet of alligator, shark fin, sea urchin, rabbit, or giant prawns. Monnemer Eck’s is a lively German restaurant frequented by ex-pats, locals, and tourists in the mood for bratwurt, schnitzel, and draft beer. It’s the ideal place to tell your German-Chinese fusion joke.

Good to Know
Unlike many rapidly developing cities in China, Qingdao, which means The Blue-Green Island in Cantonese, is positioning itself as an eco-leader in China’s industrialized east. After all, its success as a tourist destination relies on cleaner beaches, safer water, and an overall healthier environment. The city has been greening itself and continues to exceed the conditions found 50 years ago.

Micro blogs abuzz with tales about tourists to Hainan being overcharged

SANYA, Hainan – Visitors chased the warm sunshine to Hainan province, the tropical resort island during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, but many came back in a bad mood after being overcharged and swindled.

A family of three had a meal at a street restaurant in Sanya, a major tourist destination in Hainan. Three ordinary dishes cost them 4,000 yuan ($630). 

A worker puts up a notice saying “business closed” outside the Fulin Fishing Village Seafood restaurant in Sanya, Hainan province, on Sunday, after it was accused by tourists of overcharging customers. Zhang Yu / for China Daily 

A man at the next table asked the restaurant owner what a fish cost. He was forced to pay more than 6,000 yuan for the fish, weighing about 5.5 kilograms, because the owner killed it to serve him even though he hadn’t ordered it.

After the story was posted on Sina weibo, a popular micro-blogging website, on Saturday by Luo Di, a friend of the family’s, thousands of netizens commented on it, claiming that they have had similar experiences in Hainan.

There are many tales of tourists to Hainan being cheated, especially in winter, when the sunshine attracts people from colder parts of China.

Wang Youdu, who worked in Hainan for three years, said non-locals always had to pay higher prices.

“The owners always did some trick with the scales. Once at a street stall in Sanya, I found my cell phone weighed 2 kilos on the scales.”

He added that he was once pressured into having his fortune told and after being surrounded by seven people who made him pay more than 600 yuan for the service.

Ma Yili, an actress, said on Saturday on her weibo account that two of her assistants were asked to pay 800 yuan for two simple dishes this winter.

Strange enough, the Sanya government’s official Sina weibo site said on Sunday that it had not had any overcharging complaints from visitors during the holiday. However, after receiving a flood of ironic comments and complaints from netizens, it corrected itself on Monday to say they had not received complaints about street seafood stalls.

“Some shop owners would prefer to cheat foreigners,” said Wang Xingbin, a former professor at Beijing International Studies University’s School of Tourism, adding that once he paid more than 5,000 yuan for a regular supper with his three Spanish friends in Sanya.

“Usually, individual visitors and those guided by unqualified travel agencies might be subjected to more cheats,” said Zhuo Mengsi, who has been a tour guide on trips to Hainan for three years. “We (guides from authorized travel agencies) give our tourists tips on how to avoid being cheated.”

The local administration bureau for industry and commerce started an investigation into the case of Luo Di’s friend on Sunday. Although the owner denied the accusation, business was suspended at his stall.

An official surnamed Sun, who is in charge of publicity in Sanya, said the government will further investigate and it will conduct more inspections to prevent similar cases.

“Strict inspections and harsh punishment after visitors’ reports only work for a short period,” said Wang Xingbin. “The root of the cheating visitors lies in that local people didn’t get what they deserved during the rapid development of tourism.”

“Ticket revenues go to the government and some property developers get huge benefits from the rising real estate market, leaving local people little money to make. They have to get illegal money from the visitors pouring in,” he said. “That can also explain cases of overcharging in tourist resorts in other areas of China.”

More than 1 million tourists flooded to Hainan during the Spring Festival holiday, bringing more than 4.3 billion yuan in tourism-related revenues, up by 61 percent year-on-year, according to Hainan’s tourism office.

Hainan island [File Photo] 

China’s Hainan Province has seen over 30 million tourist arrivals in 2011, and tourism revenue grew 25 percent from the previous year to 32.2 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion), according to statistics released by the province’s tourism committee.

These statistics show that the project to built Hainan into a top international tourism destination by 2020 has made great strides in the last two years.

Duty-free trip a hit in Hainan

Haikou duty free shop [File Photo]

Since the first duty-free shop opened in Sanya on April 20, 2011, it received daily averages of 11,000 visitors and 6 million yuan (US$950,119) in sales.

At the Haikou Meilan International Airport duty-free shop, duty-free goods with a total value of 1.4 million yuan (US$219,000) were sold on the opening day to more than 6,000 customers.

The customs duties in Haikou reached 10.601 billion yuan (US$1.67 billion) in 2011, up 57 percent from the previous year, according to local customs statistics.

“The duty-free shop will bring greater convenience to tourists and boost the province’s tourism-related industries,” Hainan Province Vice Governor Tan Li said, “It is a delightful achievement brought by opening-up policy.”

Yacht rides increasingly popular

According to media reports, demand for rental yachts during the Spring Festival exceeded supply in Hainan Province. Yacht rides is becoming more and more popular as a tourist attraction. The province’s yacht industry has seen rapid development. By the end of 2011, Hainan has built four yacht marinas that meet international standards, a total of 372 berths. So far, this upward trend has spawned 35 yacht clubs and more than 260 yacht-related companies.

“Yachting can strongly propel tourism and the local economy in a sustainable way,” said Lu Zhiyuan, director of the Hainan tourism development commission. “Developing yachting will promote the development of related industries such as hotels, catering and manufacturing.”

Cultural tourism cooperation

Hainan Province is aiming to transform itself into a platform for economic cooperation and cultural exchange.

In the last two years, Hainan held more than 10 high-level exchange activities such as the Boao Asian Forum, the BRICS Cities Forum, and the BRICS Leaders Meeting. It also hosted international sporting events such as Hainan international cycling race, Golf World Cup, International Snooker Classic and Asian Beach Volleyball Championship. These events took full advantage of Hainan’s favorable policies and environment, which in turn constantly expanded the province’s international influence.

In addition, festival activities promoting the local culture and folk specialties such as the Hainan Merrymaking Festival and March Third Festival attracted a lot of visitors.

“These festivals were vigorously promoting the organic combination of tourism and culture,” Lu said. “Hainan will further strengthen coordination in tourism and culture and maintain efforts to built Hainan into a top international tourism destination.”

I recently met with the latest group of China Future Leaders university students coming through Boston. There were 140 of them this time — reflecting the growth of Chinese tourism to the US — and I had to divide up my appearance into two meetings, because the room we had couldn’t fit more than 100.
 
As I always do (faithful blog readers may recall earlier posts on these student visits), I asked them a bunch of questions at the beginning of each session. I started by asking them a version of a question I had asked in the past. First I asked them what the best thing about the US was, and the worst thing. Then I asked them the same question about China — what were the best and worst things.
 
What was interesting was that there was very strong agreement, for both the US and China, about the best thing about each country, and much less about the worst thing. For the US, by far what the students shouted out was that the best thing was “freedom,” with “education system” in a fairly distant second place as the best thing.

(Critics of US education take note, though — the Chinese were probably thinking more about universities than elementary or secondary schools). For China, two answers dominated the best thing — Chinese history and Chinese culture, with Chinese food in distant third place. Anybody who looks at the popularity of historical dramas, involving long-ago dynasties, on Chinese television would not be surprised about this answer. Things were relatively silent — maybe due to politeness? — about the worst thing about the US, and no real consensus, but individual answers included arrogance and high crime. For China, again there wasn’t as much shouting out about the worst thing, but the most common answer was “too many people,” with pollution in second place.
 
Then, as I have frequently asked them before, I asked them whether they thought the US government was on the whole friendly or unfriendly to China, and then whether the Chinese government was on the whole friendly or unfriendly to the US.

The response was the same as it has been every time before: Most students thought the US government was unfriendly to China, but that the Chinese government was friendly to the US. This time I asked the majority why they answered the way they did. On the US being unfriendly, the good news was that the students pointed to very concrete issues, such as the value of the Chinese currency, trade relations, and Taiwan. Nobody suggested anything more broad. Why did they think the Chinese government was friendly to the US?  One answer dominated:  “They buy US government debt.”
 
At the end — in the context of inviting interested students to “friend” me on Facebook — I asked them how many of them were on Facebook, which is of course blocked in China and can be accessed only using special software to “jump the wall” (the so-called “Great Firewall of China”). To my surprise, about a quarter to a third of the students raised their hands — though this number probably isn’t a good guide to guess the number of people who have managed to get and use this software, since some of these students are studying in Hong Kong, where the Internet isn’t blocked.

I then asked them, “If Facebook were allowed in China, would you participate?”  Essentially every student in the audience raised a hand. This is interesting, since just about all of them are already on Facebook’s Chinese knockoff Renren, so this suggests they want to be able to communicate with foreigners. These students aren’t necessarily typical of all Chinese students — they come from families rich enough to afford this trip, and they have chosen to come to visit the US — but their responses suggest a continuing desire by young Chinese to cultivate contacts with us.

MONDOLKIRI, Cambodia, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) — Cambodia on Tuesday inaugurated a 127-kilometer China-funded road here, aiming at developing eco-tourism in Cambodia’s far northeastern provinces.

The inaugurated national road No. 76 stretches from Kratie province’s Snuol district to Mondolkiri province’s Sen Monorom city.

The inauguration was presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen and Pan Guangxue, Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia, and was also attended by top government officials, diplomatic corps, some 6,000 local people.

Speaking at the inauguration, Hun Sen said the construction of the road was begun in February 2007 by the China Road and Bridge Corporation as a cost of about 52 million U.S. dollars under the soft loan from the Chinese government. “The road not only contributes to the development of Cambodia’ s eco-tourism provinces, it also helps develop the triangle development area with Vietnam and Laos,” he said. “On behalf of the government of Cambodia and Cambodian people, I’d like to express sincere thanks to the government of China and its people for providing both grants and loans to Cambodia for social and economic development”, said the premier. “Today’s achievements come from the close and sincere cooperation between Cambodia and China,”he said.

Pan Guangxue said that the road inauguration was a new symbol of good cooperation between China and Cambodia. “We believe that the road will help boost economic development and poverty reduction in Cambodia’s eastern provinces,”he said. “China will still continue supporting Cambodia in infrastructure development projects.”

The ambassador said that since 1992, the government of China has provided a total of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in soft loans to Cambodia.

With the loans, more than 1,500 kilometers of roads in Cambodia have been constructed.

Meanwhile, the premier and the ambassador also broke ground for the construction of an extended national road No. 76 in the length of 172 kilometers from Sen Monorom city to Rattanakiri province under China’s soft loan of 91.7 million U.S. dollars.

It will take 42 months to complete.

The hilly province of Mondolkiri is located some 386 kilometers northeast of Cambodia.

Shoppers walk past a Bloomingdale’s sign at the Santa Monica Place mall in Santa Monica, California, U.S. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg

Bloomingdale’s Chief Executive
Officer Michael Gould is a fan of President Barack Obama’s
efforts to speed up tourist visas for Chinese and Brazilian
shoppers.

Doing so would create an “immediate” surge in retail
sales as foreign shoppers clamor for Marc Jacobs and Kate Spade
designs, Gould said in a telephone interview Jan. 27. The
department store chain is preparing for a potential boom by
tailoring merchandise assortments to Brazilian and Chinese
tastes and advertising outside of the U.S. for the first time.

“We’re expecting an enormous uptick in growth,” Gould
said from the Bloomingdale’s New York headquarters. “We have
the kind of brands that are highly respected by these visitors,
and the faster they can get here the better.”

Obama signed an executive order Jan. 19 giving the
Department of Homeland Security and Department of State 60 days
to come up with a plan to process visa applications from China
and Brazil more quickly. The order recommends shortening the
process to three weeks from four months. Visa processing
capacity in China and Brazil must be increased by 40 percent in
the next year, according to the order.

The resulting increase in U.S. tourism could create 1.3
million jobs and add $850 billion to the economy by 2020, the
National Retail Federation said in a Jan. 19 report, citing the
U.S. Travel Association.

The Washington-based Federation for American Immigration
Reform said Obama’s order, which calls for less stringent
screening, increases potential for “terrorism and visa
overstays,” the group, which advocates tougher border patrol,
said in a statement on its website.

Cautious Spending

Americans are spending cautiously amid slow wage growth,
limited job gains and depressed real estate values. Consumer
spending stalled in December, with purchases little changed
after rising 0.1 percent the prior month, Commerce Department
figures showed.

For years, retailers from Saks Inc. to Macy’s Inc. (M)’s
Bloomingdale’s have watched as Chinese and Brazilian shoppers
traveled to cities such as Paris and Rome, where the wait time
for a visa is about 10 days.

“It’s really stupefying to see the number of Chinese
tourists in Paris,” Gould said. “We find it frustrating to see
business going elsewhere.”

From 2000 to 2010, the U.S. Share of global tourism fell to
11 percent from 17 percent, spurred by stricter security
following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said David French,
head of government relations at the Washington-based NRF.

Sagging Dollar

Obama’s plan could help U.S. gain back its share of the
global tourism market, Stephen Sadove, chief executive officer
at Saks Inc. (SKS), said in an emailed statement. The New York-based
luxury department store could see quick surges in business at
its gateway city locations such as New York, San Francisco and
Chicago locations, he said.

“Currently, the process is very difficult for citizens
from countries such as China, Brazil and India to obtain tourist
visas,” Sadove said. “Additional tourists in the U.S. would
lead to increased revenues in retailing and hospitality.”

The sagging dollar has also attracted foreign tourists to
the U.S. as they seek to buy clothing and jewelry on the cheap,
French said.

“Demand for U.S. visas from Brazil, China and India have
spiked immensely as these economies boom,” French said in a
telephone interview. “This is a winning situation for retailers
because a key reason overseas visitors want to come is to
shop.”

Lobbying Congress

The NRF has spent the past year lobbying Congress to
support loosening the visa wait time. NRF President Matthew Shay
visited U.S. officials in Beijing in October to ask for their
help in making travel to the U.S. easier for Chinese tourists.

“Speeding up the visa process is one of the quickest ways
to boost the U.S. economy,” Shay said in the Jan. 19 report.

To appeal to overseas tourists, Bloomingdale’s is preparing
to tailor assortments to include flashier name brands and logos,
Gould said. Many tourists prefer prominent logos on iconic
American brands. Bloomingdale’s is currently planning its
overseas marketing campaign.

“We mainly advertise at airports and through concierge
services at various cities,” Gould said. “But we’re planning
ways to also advertise overseas.”

Visa applications in China went up 34 percent in 2011 from
a year earlier, while Brazil’s requests went up 42 percent,
Obama said.

Flashy Logos

U.S. brands including Tiffany Co., Coach Inc., and
Abercrombie Fitch Co., with flashy logos and luxury appeal,
could benefit from the boost in tourism, Omar Saad, analyst at
International Strategy and Investment Group, wrote in a report
Jan. 20.

Mall of America, the biggest shopping center in the U.S.
with 520 stores, attracts about 3 million international tourists
annually, said Doug Killian, director of tourism marketing.

The average receipt for a foreign tourist is 2.5 times
higher than a domestic visitor’s, Killian said in a telephone
interview from Minneapolis, where the mall is located.

With the current increase in Chinese visitors, Mall of
America has focused on opening stores for luxury brands
including Michael Kors, Armani and Hugo Boss, Killian said. The
mall has also hired staff with language fluency in Chinese,
Japanese and Spanish.

Killian said the mall has also successfully worked with
airlines to offer more flights from China and Japan.

“We’re seeing real increases from China and Brazil, which
would only be higher if the U.S. were to ease visas,” Killian
said. “We’re prepared to see a big boom in business if that
happens.”

ATHENS, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) — Greece and China reiterated on Monday their commitment to enhance bilateral economic ties during a visit to Athens by a Chinese delegation, headed by deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Zhang Xiaoqiang.

The delegation expressed China’s interest in Greek efforts to tackle the country’s debt crisis, said Greek Development, Competitiveness and Shipping Minister Michalis Chrissochoidis in statements to media following a meeting with the visiting Chinese officials focusing on shipping, tourism and exports.

Regarding shipping, Chrissochoidis noted that Chinese shipping company COSCO, which operates one pier at Piraeus port, is interested in expanding its business in Greece, while in the tourism sector the Greek government facilitates the issuance of visas for Chinese visitors.

Chryssohoidis underlined the potential to boost exports, pointing to a 55.9 percent increase in Greek exports to China in 2010, according to Greek Statistical Authority’s data.

On the Chinese part, Zhang stressed Beijing’s commitment to further strengthen Sino-Greek ties, noting that China encourages Chinese businesses to invest in Greece, creating new jobs in the recession-hit country, and import Greek products.

“China will support Greece and the EU to overcome the financial crisis,” said Zhang during a joint press briefing at the Greek ministry.

The intercity bus industry has Chinatown to thank for its remarkable revival. The popularity of bus travel fell dramatically in the mid to late 20th century, as air fares became cheaper. But the mode began to rebound with the advent of the Fung Wah bus, in 1998, which traveled between the Chinatown districts of New York and Boston for unbelievably low fares and with unbelievable frequency. The success of Chinatown curbside buses led to the creation of “corporate” curbside buses like the BoltBus, co-owned by Greyhound, and together these modes helped intercity bus travel more than double in the Northeast Corridor between 1998 and 2007 — with ridership levels topping 7 million passengers.

Even with low-priced, high-amenity alternatives like BoltBus, many riders remain loyal to the Chinatown service, as Graham Beck wrote in a 2010 issue of Next American City:

My first trip on a curbside bus was nasty, brutish and long. Boarding had more elbows than a pickup basketball game, a spring in my seat seemed set on my prostate, and traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike shaped dreams of train tracks and engine whistles, which turned out to be the congested exhalations of a man behind me. Still, it was the cheapest way to get from New York to Philadelphia, and I was a college student. That’s all it took to get me on board.

Ten years later I’m still a curbside bus rider, and as I’ve grown up, so have the bus companies. Back then, we’d depart from the eastern edge of New York’s Chinatown, and it wasn’t just the low fare that drew me: Those trips were an adventure. There was the nice hot-pot lunch, a tall olive juice, a rickety bus whose passengers were hardly part of my liberal arts cohort. I was charged by the juvenile excitement about foreign tongues, and the very real possibility that I’d arrive with a story to tell.

Beck’s fidelity is hardly unique. In research published in the latest issue of Urban Geography, Rutgers doctoral students Nicholas J. Klein and Andrew Zitcer examine the source of this enthusiasm among regular Chinatown bus riders. After conducting five focus groups with riders, Klein and Zitcer discovered that Chinatown curbside devotees see the service not just as a means of transportation but as an “authentic urban experience, a thrilling and danger-enhanced departure from daily life, and as an engagement with the multicultural city.”

The focus groups were conducted in 2009 — four with English-speaking passengers, one with those who spoke Mandarin. They each lasted 1.5 to 2 hours, and a total of 37 people participated. These passengers regularly chose Chinatown bus service despite other intercity travel alternatives, either similarly priced buses or even more expense modes like Amtrak. Two-fifths of the participants made between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, Klein and Zitcer report, while another fifth made over six figures.

A primary takeaway from these discussions was that riders consider the Chinatown bus something closer to an attractive cultural experience than to an objective travel choice. The focus group participants described corporate curbside bus companies like BoltBus in terms of pricing, station location, onboard amenities — “traditional travel metrics,” the authors write. Chinatown bus travelers, on the other hand, typically compared the service to travel in other countries. As one rider put it: “you’re in China when you’re in the Chinatown bus,” one said. In the words of another:

“It is not just like a company who said ‘Oh, we’re just going to transport people from Philly to New York’. [The Chinatown bus] has more to do with that it comes from Chinatown to another Chinatown.”

To that end, many focus group participants considered Chinatown riding experience a bit thrilling. Recognizing, as Beck did, that some aggressiveness is often required to secure a seat, one girl said she intentionally wears sneakers and comfortable clothes on Chinatown bus travel days — a sort of elbow-throwing, bus-boarding athletic uniform. Many travelers had safety concerns — the Chinatown traffic record has always been a point of public scrutiny; just last week, for instance, federal officials moved to stop one Chinatown service for hazardous practices — but they were willing to endure the risk nonetheless. Klein and Zitcer believe this behavior reflects the idea that Chinatown bus riders see themselves a little like tourists.

The researchers also discovered the prevalence of sensational stories emerging from the focus groups: of fellow riders sparking up cigarettes mid-ride, for instance, or drivers singing karaoke. Klein and Zitcer call these fantastic tales “chicken moments,” named for a prejudicial mindset that would expect Chinese travelers to carry caged chickens on the bus with them. While such stories might not be true, the researchers acknowledge, their persistence has a value of its own among regular riders, helping them to claim the Chinatown bus as an exotic experience that exists outside conventional urban norms.

(It must be noted that the researchers recognize the peril of sensationalizing Chinatown, especially as ethnic outsiders, and insist they’re attempting to “analyze what we encountered in the focus groups, not to sensationalize it.” The work is just a slice of a broader line of study Klein is pursuing for his doctoral dissertation on intercity bus travel.)

For these reasons, Klein and Zitcer conclude that many regular Chinatown bus riders have come to see the service as a “stand-in” for Chinatown itself:

The Chinatown bus represents an important new lens through which Chinatown is understood in contemporary cities. The bus joins other carriers of culture such as food and media that are consumed by outsiders and form knowledge about immigrants and immigrant communities. Further, it has expanded the space of Chinatown, becoming a moving representation of the social relations and the idea of Chinatown. Finally, for many of the individuals who take the Chinatown bus, the bus strikes at the heart of the contemporary preoccupation with authenticity and what [Lionel] Trilling calls “our anxiety over the credibility of our existence and of individual existences” (1972, p. 93).

Chinatown districts may be shrinking, as our Nate Berg recently reported, but as long as they’re here, many regular intercity travelers will continue to lace up two sneakers and ready two elbows to board the buses they provide.

Figure from Klein and Zitcer, “Everything but the Chickens: Cultural Authenticity Onboard the Chinatown Bus,” Urban Geography, 33 (1), Jan 1 – Feb 14, 2012, DOI: 10.2747/0272-3638.33.1.46. Many thanks to Klein for providing a full copy of the paper.

Top image courtesy Flickr user kirinqueen

The Chinese Student Organization (CSO) held a Chinese New Year’s event Friday in the Student Union, and shared their culture with American students as well as other international students.

President of CSO, Wenyi Li, a sophomore mathematics major of Jiangsu, China, said the Chinese New Year is the most important national holiday for Chinese people because it signifies the beginning of a new year.

According to chinatravel.com, the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, starts on the first day of the first lunar month and is usually in late January or early February, and ends on the 15th day of the first lunar month with the Lantern Festival.

Wenyi said in 2012 the Spring Festival began Jan. 23 and will end Feb. 6.

He also said during the holidays all Chinese people come back to their home and eat dinner with their families.

Chinese people celebrate this holiday with fireworks and dancing. Traditionally, many northern Chinese people eat dumplings.

“For the Chinese students, we don’t have the time to be with our family (on the holidays) so we’re here to put all the Chinese students together and have a very good New Year’s event,” Wenyi said.

“ASU Chinese students are excited about this event. I appreciate the leadership of CSO that has worked tirelessly and many students who have been involved to make this event a success,” said Jie Miao, an advisor of CSO.

“The celebration and performance organized by CSO will bring the holiday spirit to all ASU Chinese students and increase the cultural vibrancy on our campus.”

The Chinese New Year is not meant to be just for Chinese students to celebrate. It is also for American students and other nationalities to experience an important part of Chinese culture.

“It’s like a cultural exchange for the foreign students, but especially for the American students,” Wenyi said.

CSO featured many different types of shows to celebrate the New Year.

There was a fashion show in which boys and girls wore traditional Chinese clothes.

There was also a hip-hop dance show and a music show featuring Chinese songs, and an American woman performed a Chinese song wearing a traditional Chinese dress.

CSO also had a dating show named “A Chance to Love.”

In this show, the boys showed up on stage one by one and the girls tried to decide which of boys they wanted. In the end, a girl who was acting like a boy and a boy who was acting like a girl became a couple.

One of members of CSO, Pei Yang Li, a junior international business major of Chengdu, China, said he enjoyed the dating show the best among all the shows CSO performed.

Pei Yang said this show originated from a popular Chinese television show.

“I really like to organize a show that makes many people happy and it makes me satisfied and happy,” Pei Yang said.

American students enjoyed the event equally as much as the Chinese students did.

“The Chinese New Year event was very entertaining. I felt that everyone from any background could enjoy it.

The Chinese student organization did a great job at presenting many forms of entertainment,” said Jenny Veal, a junior international business major of Bono.

Veal said she recently came back from a study abroad in China, so while she was at the event she felt like she was back in China.

Veal also said she enjoyed that the program was presented in Chinese as well as English.

“This event really gave students the opportunity to experience another culture as well as the language,” she said.

Wenyi said the Chinese Student Organization might be putting on another festival on Feb.6, to celebrate the end of the Chinese New Year holiday.

A new generation of kids isn’t likely to be inspired to see the world, as I was, from watching or reading The Adventures of Tintin. The movie by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson — just as the books it’s based on — hasn’t garnered much interest by American audiences. That’s too bad as both could possibly spur people to travel more.

Growing up as a French-Canadian, I was lucky to be exposed to Tintin comic-style books from an early age. I couldn’t wait to grow up and be just like him — a news reporter and world explorer. Living in a northern Canadian town of 5,000 before the age of cable TV and the Internet, I was able to travel the world along with him: China, the Middle East, South America, Africa, Egypt and all over Europe.

Belgian author George Remi, known by pen name Hergé, knew how to draw in readers starting with colorful covers that never failed to make my pulse race. Tintin and his faithful companion, Milou the dog, were always front and center on the cover. But the background images were truly intriguing: atop a camel surrounded by sand dunes, inside the Egyptian pyramids, in the African bush, floating down the Amazon River, and in front of a black Chinese dragon on a striking red background. Who wouldn’t want to go there?

I truly believed, despite everyone’s ridicule, that one day I would see all these settings for myself. Forty five years and 55 countries later, I still remember the colorful covers when I visit these countries and part of me still searches for Tintin in the crowds.

A Few, uh, Caricatures Thrown In

Hergé, according to his biographers, took great pains in researching the areas of the world he portrayed. Not surprisingly, his stories and the depiction of the characters within them reflected his upbringing as shaped between the two World Wars. At a minimum, he showed few women, they were given no important role, and so provided we girls with little in the way of inspiration.

At worse, Hergé represented anyone with a racial, cultural, political or religious background different from his own as villains in various models: Africans with big rubbery lips, Arabs with large hooked noses, atheist Bolsheviks, and greedy Jews. If they weren’t evil, they were at least idiots who required the help of Tintin’s team to sort out their problems.

Despite the lack of female role models, countries fraught with dangers, and the illustration of wicked foreigners out to harm good, white men, I — in my youthful naiveté — still managed to see past the author’s weaknesses and dream my travel dreams. I saw beyond the limitations of the author’s mind and found inspiration for life-changing experiences I would make come true.

I would be the first female Tintin and, like him, would manage well despite great odds. But, unlike him, I would find the good in the foreigners who crossed my path. What I learned from Tintin is that my own sense of adventure and imagination were all that was needed to realize my dream of seeing all the countries of the world. Whether or not the books or movie do it for you, find your own personal Tintin that will inspire you to travel.