The 3rd Tianjin Harbor Travel Culture Festival Opening Ceremony, the 10th Anniversary of the Construction and Development of Tianjin Dongjiang Port, and the Chinese Hockey Association’s “‘Send the Happiness to the Grassroots’ Thank-you Performance” will debut on June 26 at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port. The events are jointly hosted by the Publicity Department of Tianjin Municipal Commission, Binhai New Area government, Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Cycles and Tianjin Port Group Co Ltd

At the opening ceremony of the event, famous Chinese singers, cross-talk artists and dancers including Jiang Kun, Dai Zhicheng, Yang Hongji, Dai Yuqiang and Qizhi will perform. The host and hostess of the event will be Niu Qun, a well-known crosstalk artist and first class Chinese, and Ju Ping, a famous anchorwoman from China’s CCTV.

In addition to the opening ceremony performance, there will be other events during the five month festival period, such as the photography competition, beach rock music concert, beach light music concert, beach amusement sports meeting, beach cross-talk, international Miss Bikini contest, beer carnival, contemporary international art exhibition, exhibit and auction of excellent works from contemporary Chinese artists, sailboat and sailboard championship contest, and water golf contest.

As one of the key projects that Tianjin offers in revitalizing its culture industry, Tianjin Harbor Travel Culture Festival will be rooted in the Binhai area and aims to be an international culture festival with an aquatic theme; carrying forward the special ports and sea shore culture and transforming the cultural resource of the Binhai New Area while adding a special touch to the tourism and culture markets of Tianjin.

Ireland should be targeting affluent Chinese holiday makers, a move which could have significant potential for the tourism industry here.

That’s according to the keynote speaker at a tourism seminar which will be held in Shannon on Tuesday.

Mr Jim Paul, who has responsibility for China in his capacity as Head of Developing Markets for Tourism Ireland, believes: “Shopping, dining and sightseeing are the three most popular activities for affluent Chinese people travelling abroad. Visiting historical places and theme parks are next in line for outbound Chinese tourists.”

Mr Paul will be the main speaker at a Shannon Chamber of Commerce seminar “Chinese Tourism on the Move – Targeting the Affluent Chinese Consumer”.

The event is supported by Shannon Development, Shannon Airport Authority, Tourism Ireland and the Shannon College of Hotel Management where the event will be hosted.

China is the leading single source of tourists worldwide with the number of outbound tourists expected to soar from 70 to 100 million by 2020.

Speaking ahead of the seminar, Mr Paul stressed that China is an increasingly important market, with significant potential in the medium to long-term for Irish tourism interests.

He said: “The granting of Approved Destination Status for Ireland and the UK in recent years, plus the Irish Government’s visa waiver scheme enabling Chinese visitors who hold a valid short-term UK visa to travel freely to Ireland, have made travel to Ireland much simpler and less expensive.”

“In the early years, Tourism Ireland focused on establishing relationships with influential intermediaries such as the travel trade, airlines and media. However, the focus has shifted today to a comprehensive consumer marketing programme, aimed directly at potential visitors,” he said.

In February, Chinese Vice-President Mr Xi Jinping visited Ireland, an event which was broadcast across China and which showcased some of Ireland’s greatest tourist attractions including the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare.

Just a few weeks earlier, Mr Luo Linquan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China, visited a number of North Clare locations as part of his first trip to the county.

The Ambassador expressed the belief that Chinese visitors would appreciate the stunning vistas of the Cliffs of Moher and the spectacular landscape of the Burren which he also visited.

A panel of distinguished academics will also speak at the half-day event which will be next Tuesday.

They include Professor Fan Hong, Director of School of Asian Studies, Irish Institute of Chinese Studies and the Confucius Institute at UCC; Dr Lu, School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, NUI Maynooth; Professor Lin Xu, Visiting Lecturer in the Irish Institute of Chinese Studies.

ZHONGWEI, China — Even in the depths of isolation under Mao, one element of Chinese culture allowed its people to travel abroad and glimpse an alternative way of life: sport.

As capitalism, albeit run under communism, has consumed Chinese life, sport remains a huge part of the national ethos and the country will field one of the largest teams at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. But China has of late increasingly had its eye on traditionally western sports like Formula 1, “extreme sports” and winter games. Four-time British snowboard champion Dom Harington has for example noticed more Chinese competitors on the slopes.

“There are more and more Chinese who are into snowboarding and other adventure sports,” says Harington, who lives and trains in Colorado each summer. “I’ve seen some Chinese guys training in America. They’ve got a really good half pipe team, and they’re really keen.”

“What I would say about the Chinese is that they’re really brave,” Harington says. “They’re not afraid to give something a go, or really go for something. There are lots of tricks in snowboarding which are quite scary to try, and they’re really keen to give it a go.”

Harington is on the slopes as we are talking. But we’re not in the Rockies. Or even on snow. We’re 900 miles west of Beijing, sliding down a piste of sand.

A half-mile-wide wall of desert dunes plummets 600 feet to the banks of the Yellow River. The Chinese have played on the sand for years, but the run at Zhongwei has been groomed as one of the highest sand-skiing slopes in the world. The big daddy of sand runs, at more than 1,000 feet, is Sossusvlei in Namibia, but Zhongwei remains impressive.

Harington is here for Land Rover’s 8,000-mile Journey of Discovery, an expedition from the United Kingdom to Beijing that’s allowed us to explore a secret Soviet submarine lair and hang out with an avalanche control team in Italy. Now the bosses in Gaydon want Harington to race a Land Rover LR4. So here we are, practicing among a crowd of avid sandboarders with Chinese adventure sports nut Simon Chen.

As a parasailer soars overhead and someone on a zip wire flies toward the river, Chen uses one of the toboggans you can rent for little more than a dollar to bat down the 50-degree slope. Harington rides an old snowboard, lubricated heavily to speed his descent on the hot sand. It’s midday on a Thursday, and the slopes are sparsely populated.

“I’ve not sandboarded anywhere like this,” Harington says. “This is incredible. It’s got steep sand dunes so you can pick up lots of speed. There is quite a lot of friction on sand so it’s not as fast as snow, but you can get some speed.

The transition from snow to sand is not tricky. Harington says the trick is to keep your weight back, kind of like surfing. Don’t lean too far forward, and don’t put too much weight on the edges or you’ll fall.

“The technique to sandboarding is really similar to snowboarding,” Harington says. “If you can snowboard, you can sandboard.”

Forget cute alpine cafes with hot chocolate and glühwein to warm you after a few hours on the mountain. Zhongwei is authentically Chinese. A sole parasol at the foot of the slope shields a mask-wearing woman selling warm soft drinks. A small army of men in quasi-military outfits collect toboggans and run the single chairlift. To a man, they all stop and stare as Harington blasts down the hill.

“One of the guys working here just said you are the fastest down this slope,” Chen tells him.

Everyone we see on the slope is using a toboggan, but Chen says the weekends draw a lot guys racing on sandboards. We’re due in Beijing and can’t stick around for that, so Harington races the Landie. The rules are simple. Harington takes position at the lip of the dune. The LR4 needs a running start to avoid bottoming out. Once the truck hits the lip, it’s on. First to the bottom wins.

As the sound of the V8 approaching breaks the silence, Harington is bouncing up and down like a coiled spring. The rest of us are down below, watching. As soon as the car hits the lip, Harington leaps into the air and zips headfirst down the dune.

The car weighs three tons and must churn through, not surf over, the sand. Despite its inertial advantage, Harington’s fleetness of foot quickly has them neck and neck. The driver and snowboarder eye each other for a moment as they barrel down the slope. In the end, horsepower beats manpower, but only by a couple of feet.

“It was awesome. Like a James Bond stunt,” Harington said. “I could see the Yellow River as I was flying down, so it was just incredible. Hopefully next winter I’ll some and snowboard in China. That would be amazing.”

Photos, video: Incworld.com