A handcycling team called Krankin'thru China is currently in the midst of its tour around China which started in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, and will end in Beijing later this month.
Over the last three months, the team has cycled more than 5,500 kilometers through 10 provinces in China including Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui.
We hope to reach every corner of China in the future, and to introduce the sport of handcycling to more people with disabilities, inspiring them to lead a positive and healthy lifestyle,Joshua Dominick, a team member from the United States, said after the team arrived in Shanghai over the weekend from Ningbo, Zhejiang province.
This is not the first time Krankin'thru China has attempted such a tour.
The first was from Shangri-la to Hongkong in 2015 while the other was from from Dali to Jinghong, both of which are in Yunnan province, in 2016. The distance of this year's tour is the longest they have attempted.
Some of the team members have suffered injuries during the arduous journey.
Pan Yifei, a handcyclist from Beijing, said he once got seriously injured after skidding on a slippery mountain road because his brakes had failed.
But despite the challenges, the team is determined to complete this year's tour.
Although the journeys are full of challenges, we will continue to cycle with disabled individuals and organizations and help people push their own limits, said another team member named Wang Feng.
Tourism Observer
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Tourism, Travel, Hospitality, Conservation: News,Stories And Experiences From Allover The World
Showing posts with label China Tourism News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Tourism News. Show all posts
Sunday, 9 July 2017
Saturday, 1 July 2017
CHINA: Huangling Attracts Visitors From All Over The World
Located in Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province, China, Huangling attracts visitors from all over the world. The quaint and elegant village has preserved and maintained its ancient Hui-style architecture and offers an authentic Chinese countryside travel experience.
Praised as the most beautiful countryside in China, the unique view of shaiqiu can only be found in Huangling, where baskets of colorful harvest bask in the sunshine.
Huangling, China's most beautiful countryside, has embarked on a journey to promote the village's unique cultural heritage and folk customs across Eurasia as part of The Tea Road (China), which is holding a series of events to highlight the influential history and modern potentials.
The first TRC roadshow took place in Ulan-Ude, capital of the Republic of Buryatia in the Russian Federation during the 2nd China-Russia-Mongolia Tourism Ministers' Meeting, and will be followed by sessions in Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Huangling's folk heritage belongs not only to China, but to the world.
Visitors to the village have much to explore, from the unique shaiqiu custom inspired by the distinctive landscape to the traditional handcrafts and festival celebrations, we hope to show the beauty and charm of Huangling to tourists worldwide as we travel along The Tea Road, said Cao Jinzhong, executive vice president of Wuyuan Rural Culture Development Co., Ltd.
Huangling is most known for its shaiqiu spectacle, where the locals sun dry harvests like chili peppers and pumpkin slices in bamboo baskets on rooves to preserve the foods in the humid climate. The vibrant scene of colorful produce against the quaint Hui-style architectures attracts crowds of visitors from around the world every year.
Strolling through the ancient village, visitors can also find celebrated ancient handcrafts like inkstone engraving, paper umbrellas, classic wood oil, and embroidery.
Huangling will also take part in the Sino-Foreign most beautiful shooting location contest at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. The competition will highlight the village's serene natural scenery, rich history and folk traditions.
Huangling offers a grandiose view of rapeseed flowers in spring, outdoor adventures like creek rafting and mountaineering in summer, peak shaiqiu viewing in autumn and nostalgic festival experiences in winter. The one-of-a-kind experiences that visitors encounter are a combination of farming traditions and cultural heritage, said Cao.
Tourism Observer
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Praised as the most beautiful countryside in China, the unique view of shaiqiu can only be found in Huangling, where baskets of colorful harvest bask in the sunshine.
Huangling, China's most beautiful countryside, has embarked on a journey to promote the village's unique cultural heritage and folk customs across Eurasia as part of The Tea Road (China), which is holding a series of events to highlight the influential history and modern potentials.
The first TRC roadshow took place in Ulan-Ude, capital of the Republic of Buryatia in the Russian Federation during the 2nd China-Russia-Mongolia Tourism Ministers' Meeting, and will be followed by sessions in Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Huangling's folk heritage belongs not only to China, but to the world.
Visitors to the village have much to explore, from the unique shaiqiu custom inspired by the distinctive landscape to the traditional handcrafts and festival celebrations, we hope to show the beauty and charm of Huangling to tourists worldwide as we travel along The Tea Road, said Cao Jinzhong, executive vice president of Wuyuan Rural Culture Development Co., Ltd.
Huangling is most known for its shaiqiu spectacle, where the locals sun dry harvests like chili peppers and pumpkin slices in bamboo baskets on rooves to preserve the foods in the humid climate. The vibrant scene of colorful produce against the quaint Hui-style architectures attracts crowds of visitors from around the world every year.
Strolling through the ancient village, visitors can also find celebrated ancient handcrafts like inkstone engraving, paper umbrellas, classic wood oil, and embroidery.
Huangling will also take part in the Sino-Foreign most beautiful shooting location contest at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. The competition will highlight the village's serene natural scenery, rich history and folk traditions.
Huangling offers a grandiose view of rapeseed flowers in spring, outdoor adventures like creek rafting and mountaineering in summer, peak shaiqiu viewing in autumn and nostalgic festival experiences in winter. The one-of-a-kind experiences that visitors encounter are a combination of farming traditions and cultural heritage, said Cao.
Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com
Friday, 30 June 2017
CHINA: China’s Surpluses Could Be More Than Assumed
Tales of Chinese tourist largesse providing a big boost to destination economies are legend.
They may also be incorrect, with China’s current account surpluses understated as a result.
Anna Wong, a senior economist with the US Federal Reserve, reckons the money spent overseas by Chinese tourists,some $215bn last year, according to one industry estimate is not all it is cracked up to be.
Wong says a large amount of the money designated as having come from Chinese tourists globally should actually count as investment in assets.
Financial outflows concealed as travel imports are large and significant, growing to about 1% of China’s GDP in 2015 and 2016, and account for a quarter of recorded net private financial outflows.
This would mean that China’s current account surpluses over the past few years are actually larger than reported, and possibly as big as before the financial crisis.
China’s capital controls make it difficult for wealthier Chinese to invest abroad, but the implication of Wong’s findings is that there are a plethora of ways for the country’s "tourists" to buy property and other assets overseas.
Factors suggesting this is happening come down to the amount of money being reported as tourist-related versus the actual macro-economic conditions surrounding it.
One example is that China’s travel expenditure as a share of GDP was reported to be higher than Britain’s in 2014, even though the latter’s per capita GDP is seven times China’s.
Similarly, in the same year, spending by Chinese tourists abroad was reported to have increased four times faster than the actual number of tourists.
The way that money designated as tourist inflows ends up as asset-buying is mainly anecdotal.
Wong cites purchases of insurance saving and annuity products, real estate properties, and cash-back through a cover-up jewellery transaction, as examples.
None of this is to say that Chinese tourism is not a huge boom to some countries, or that the phenomenon of a new wave of tourists is not real.
But it does have some impact on both tourist economies and China’s finances.
For the former, it means tourist expenditure may not be adding to jobs, revenues and manufacturing in the way that has been assumed.
Instead, a lot of the money designated as Chinese tourist inflow may simply be pumping up asset prices in real estate, for example, that do not necessarily benefit the economies, or the locals, of the destination countries.
For China, it suggests that official current account surplus data may have been distorted, that far more money is escaping capital controls than believed, and that China’s services deficit has been inflated.
Alex Wolf, senior emerging-markets economist at British fund firm Standard Life Investments, says the main implication of Wong’s report is that the current account surplus is larger than implied by official statisticsa hot potato politically.
Transactions that appear as travel imports actually should have been on the capital or financial account, he said.
If, then, the services deficit is smaller than implied, the overall net surplus would then be larger.
China’s current account surplus is likely as large as a percentage of GDP as it was before the global financial crisis.
Wolf noted that the US Treasury has recently cited progress in China reducing its external balance.
If Wong’s analysis is correct, the Treasury’s assessment may not be.
Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com
They may also be incorrect, with China’s current account surpluses understated as a result.
Anna Wong, a senior economist with the US Federal Reserve, reckons the money spent overseas by Chinese tourists,some $215bn last year, according to one industry estimate is not all it is cracked up to be.
Wong says a large amount of the money designated as having come from Chinese tourists globally should actually count as investment in assets.
Financial outflows concealed as travel imports are large and significant, growing to about 1% of China’s GDP in 2015 and 2016, and account for a quarter of recorded net private financial outflows.
This would mean that China’s current account surpluses over the past few years are actually larger than reported, and possibly as big as before the financial crisis.
China’s capital controls make it difficult for wealthier Chinese to invest abroad, but the implication of Wong’s findings is that there are a plethora of ways for the country’s "tourists" to buy property and other assets overseas.
Factors suggesting this is happening come down to the amount of money being reported as tourist-related versus the actual macro-economic conditions surrounding it.
One example is that China’s travel expenditure as a share of GDP was reported to be higher than Britain’s in 2014, even though the latter’s per capita GDP is seven times China’s.
Similarly, in the same year, spending by Chinese tourists abroad was reported to have increased four times faster than the actual number of tourists.
The way that money designated as tourist inflows ends up as asset-buying is mainly anecdotal.
Wong cites purchases of insurance saving and annuity products, real estate properties, and cash-back through a cover-up jewellery transaction, as examples.
None of this is to say that Chinese tourism is not a huge boom to some countries, or that the phenomenon of a new wave of tourists is not real.
But it does have some impact on both tourist economies and China’s finances.
For the former, it means tourist expenditure may not be adding to jobs, revenues and manufacturing in the way that has been assumed.
Instead, a lot of the money designated as Chinese tourist inflow may simply be pumping up asset prices in real estate, for example, that do not necessarily benefit the economies, or the locals, of the destination countries.
For China, it suggests that official current account surplus data may have been distorted, that far more money is escaping capital controls than believed, and that China’s services deficit has been inflated.
Alex Wolf, senior emerging-markets economist at British fund firm Standard Life Investments, says the main implication of Wong’s report is that the current account surplus is larger than implied by official statisticsa hot potato politically.
Transactions that appear as travel imports actually should have been on the capital or financial account, he said.
If, then, the services deficit is smaller than implied, the overall net surplus would then be larger.
China’s current account surplus is likely as large as a percentage of GDP as it was before the global financial crisis.
Wolf noted that the US Treasury has recently cited progress in China reducing its external balance.
If Wong’s analysis is correct, the Treasury’s assessment may not be.
Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com
Wednesday, 28 June 2017
CHINA: After Accidentally Breaking US$44,000 Jade Bracelet, Chinese Tourist Faints
A Chinese tourist had a panic attack and fainted after she accidentally broke a jadeite bracelet priced at 300,000 yuan (US$44,110) in a shop in southwestern Yunnan province.
The woman, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, tried on the bracelet in a shop in the city of Ruili, a major jade trading centre. But when she took it off, it slipped from her hands and broke in two on the tiled floor.
After being told the cost of the bracelet, she had a panic attack, made a call to her friends, and told shop staff that she felt dizzy.
Woman ends up in hospital after passing out in the arms of bystanders when told how much the broken piece of jewellery cost.
As people nearby tried to calm her down, her lips turned pale and she broke out in a cold sweat before suddenly losing consciousness, the report said.
Pictures of her falling into the arms of bystanders have been circulating widely online.
She fainted because of the shock, but fortunately she is fine after having emergency treatment in hospital Lin Wei, one of the shop’s owners, was quoted as saying.
Shop owners did not report the incident to the police and said they were negotiating appropriate compensation with the woman based on her financial situation.
The broken bracelet was valued at 180,000 yuan by a third-party association under government supervision.
Jade has a special significance in Chinese culture, and is seen as representing purity and having the ability to ward off evil and even to bring long life.
The woman, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, tried on the bracelet in a shop in the city of Ruili, a major jade trading centre. But when she took it off, it slipped from her hands and broke in two on the tiled floor.
After being told the cost of the bracelet, she had a panic attack, made a call to her friends, and told shop staff that she felt dizzy.
Woman ends up in hospital after passing out in the arms of bystanders when told how much the broken piece of jewellery cost.
As people nearby tried to calm her down, her lips turned pale and she broke out in a cold sweat before suddenly losing consciousness, the report said.
Pictures of her falling into the arms of bystanders have been circulating widely online.
She fainted because of the shock, but fortunately she is fine after having emergency treatment in hospital Lin Wei, one of the shop’s owners, was quoted as saying.
Shop owners did not report the incident to the police and said they were negotiating appropriate compensation with the woman based on her financial situation.
The broken bracelet was valued at 180,000 yuan by a third-party association under government supervision.
Jade has a special significance in Chinese culture, and is seen as representing purity and having the ability to ward off evil and even to bring long life.
CHINA: Husband And Wife Fight At Airport, Pilot Declines To Allow Them On The Plane
A man and woman were detained at an airport in southwest China on Tuesday for brawling on the tarmac as they were boarding their flight, which was delayed for half an hour, a local news portal reports.
Couple, who were boarding their flight in Yunnan, said to be undergoing divorce negotiations
The incident happened at Kunming airport in Yunnan province as they were boarding a China Eastern Airlines flight to Chengdu, Sichuan province, that was parked on the tarmac..
Police said the two passengers were husband and wife, who were in the course of divorce negotiations when the fight broke out.
The husband without his shirt, fighting with his wife on the tarmac. The couple late tried to enfer the aircraft but were barred by the pilot.
The couple started to quarrel after stepping off an airfield passenger bus. While other passengers boarded the plane, the pair lingered at the foot of the aircraft steps and eventually broke into a fight, according to witnesses.
The woman was pinned on the ground by the man, whose shirt was torn off by the woman.
When they stopped fighting, the couple tried to board the plane but the captain refused and called airport security instead.
The plane took off at 11.30am following a half-hour delay, and arrived in Chengdu an hour later.
Police said they couple were severely criticised for their behaviour, which violated airport safety, and offered them counselling before releasing them without charge.
Couple, who were boarding their flight in Yunnan, said to be undergoing divorce negotiations
The incident happened at Kunming airport in Yunnan province as they were boarding a China Eastern Airlines flight to Chengdu, Sichuan province, that was parked on the tarmac..
Police said the two passengers were husband and wife, who were in the course of divorce negotiations when the fight broke out.
The husband without his shirt, fighting with his wife on the tarmac. The couple late tried to enfer the aircraft but were barred by the pilot.
The couple started to quarrel after stepping off an airfield passenger bus. While other passengers boarded the plane, the pair lingered at the foot of the aircraft steps and eventually broke into a fight, according to witnesses.
The woman was pinned on the ground by the man, whose shirt was torn off by the woman.
When they stopped fighting, the couple tried to board the plane but the captain refused and called airport security instead.
The plane took off at 11.30am following a half-hour delay, and arrived in Chengdu an hour later.
Police said they couple were severely criticised for their behaviour, which violated airport safety, and offered them counselling before releasing them without charge.
CHINA: Vegetable Vendor Flees After Picking Bag With US$48,500 On The Street
A vegetable seller fled from the city where she works in eastern China after she found a bag containing 330,000 yuan (US$48,500) in the street.
Police were able to identify the woman using surveillance camera footage and traced her to her home town a week later.
The bag was dropped on the road from the back seat of an electric bike when its owner, the boss of a logistics firm, was riding the vehicle to his company in Nanjing in Jiangsu province on May 30.
About a minute later, the vegetable seller rode past on a motorcycle and picked up the snakeskin bag.
Rather than handing it in to the police, the woman fled to her home town in neighbouring Anhui province the same day.
Other traders working at the market where the woman sold vegetables told the police she had not been seen for several days, the report said.
After the police showed up at her home, the woman said she would have returned the bag if she had watched the TV news and known the owner was looking for the money.
Police were able to identify the woman using surveillance camera footage and traced her to her home town a week later.
The bag was dropped on the road from the back seat of an electric bike when its owner, the boss of a logistics firm, was riding the vehicle to his company in Nanjing in Jiangsu province on May 30.
About a minute later, the vegetable seller rode past on a motorcycle and picked up the snakeskin bag.
Rather than handing it in to the police, the woman fled to her home town in neighbouring Anhui province the same day.
Other traders working at the market where the woman sold vegetables told the police she had not been seen for several days, the report said.
After the police showed up at her home, the woman said she would have returned the bag if she had watched the TV news and known the owner was looking for the money.
Sunday, 18 June 2017
CHINA: What Is The Canton Fair?
The Canton Fair is a trade fair held in the spring and autumn seasons each year since the spring of 1957 in Canton (Guangzhou), China.
Its full name since 2007 has been China Import and Export Fair, renamed from Chinese Export Commodities Fair, also known as The Canton Fair.
The Canton Fair is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of China and People's Government of the Guangdong Province, and organized by China Foreign Trade Centre.
The Canton Fair is the largest trade fair in China. Among China's largest trade fairs, it has the largest assortment of products, the largest attendance, and the largest number of business deals made at the fair.
Like many trade fairs it has several traditions and functions as a comprehensive event of international importance.
Fifty product trading categories, being composed of thousands of China's best foreign trade corporations or enterprises, take part in the fair.
These include private enterprises, factories, scientific research institutions, wholly foreign-owned enterprises, and foreign trade companies.
The fair leans to export trade, though import business is also done here. Apart from the above-mentioned, various types of business activities such as economic and technical cooperation and exchange, commodity inspection, insurance, transportation, advertising, and trade consultation are other activities that are also commonly carried out at the fair.
First held: April 1957.
Interval: Three phases per session; two sessions per year.
Spring session: April 15–19 (Phase 1); April 23–27 (Phase 2); May 1–5 (Phase 3). (115th Session)
Autumn session: October 15–19 (Phase 1); October 23–27 (Phase 2); October 31- November 4 (Phase 3).
Industries:
Phase 1: Electronics, household electrical appliances, machinery, lighting equipment, hardware and tools, vehicles and spare parts, building materials, chemical products.
Phase 2: Consumer products,decorations goods, gifts.
Phase 3: Textiles & garments, shoes, office supplies, cases & bags, recreation products, medicines, medical devices and health products
Venue:
China Import and Export Fair (Pazhou) Complex, 380 Yuejiangzhong Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510335
Gross exhibition space: 1,125,000 m².
Number of booths: Over 55,800 standard stands (105th Session).
Varieties: Over 150,000.
Business turnover: 262.3 Million USD (105th Session).
Number of trading countries and regions: 203 (103rd Session).
Number of visitors: 165,436 (105th Session).
Exhibitors: Over 22,000 with 21,709 Chinese exhibitors, 395 international exhibitors, 105th Session.
Its full name since 2007 has been China Import and Export Fair, renamed from Chinese Export Commodities Fair, also known as The Canton Fair.
The Canton Fair is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of China and People's Government of the Guangdong Province, and organized by China Foreign Trade Centre.
The Canton Fair is the largest trade fair in China. Among China's largest trade fairs, it has the largest assortment of products, the largest attendance, and the largest number of business deals made at the fair.
Like many trade fairs it has several traditions and functions as a comprehensive event of international importance.
Fifty product trading categories, being composed of thousands of China's best foreign trade corporations or enterprises, take part in the fair.
These include private enterprises, factories, scientific research institutions, wholly foreign-owned enterprises, and foreign trade companies.
The fair leans to export trade, though import business is also done here. Apart from the above-mentioned, various types of business activities such as economic and technical cooperation and exchange, commodity inspection, insurance, transportation, advertising, and trade consultation are other activities that are also commonly carried out at the fair.
First held: April 1957.
Interval: Three phases per session; two sessions per year.
Spring session: April 15–19 (Phase 1); April 23–27 (Phase 2); May 1–5 (Phase 3). (115th Session)
Autumn session: October 15–19 (Phase 1); October 23–27 (Phase 2); October 31- November 4 (Phase 3).
Industries:
Phase 1: Electronics, household electrical appliances, machinery, lighting equipment, hardware and tools, vehicles and spare parts, building materials, chemical products.
Phase 2: Consumer products,decorations goods, gifts.
Phase 3: Textiles & garments, shoes, office supplies, cases & bags, recreation products, medicines, medical devices and health products
Venue:
China Import and Export Fair (Pazhou) Complex, 380 Yuejiangzhong Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510335
Gross exhibition space: 1,125,000 m².
Number of booths: Over 55,800 standard stands (105th Session).
Varieties: Over 150,000.
Business turnover: 262.3 Million USD (105th Session).
Number of trading countries and regions: 203 (103rd Session).
Number of visitors: 165,436 (105th Session).
Exhibitors: Over 22,000 with 21,709 Chinese exhibitors, 395 international exhibitors, 105th Session.
Tuesday, 6 June 2017
CHINA: Air France Bans Woman Student After Slapping Airport Staff
A woman passenger has been placed in detention for 10 days and blacklisted by Air France after she slapped a member of staff at an airport in central China, Chinese media.
The woman lost her temper after she was told by ground staff that check-in for her flight from Wuhan to Paris had closed fourteen minutes earlier on Thursday morning.
Staff advised her to alter or refund her tickets, but the woman refused saying she was about to go abroad to take part in an important conference.
She then rushed to the staff working area and slapped a member of staff twice after negotiations failed, the report said.
Police were called and arrested the woman, whose real name was not given.. She has now been blacklisted from taking flights on Air France.
The woman, a 36-year-old doctoral student from a prestigious university in Wuhan, was with her husband and child when the incident occurred.
Internet users in China strongly criticised her actions and said harsher punishments should have been enforced.
Domestic flight companies should also blacklist the woman and all flights should refuse to take this kind of passenger, one person wrote.
Another said: So barbarous and wayward. Did she major in kick-boxing for a doctoral degree?
The woman lost her temper after she was told by ground staff that check-in for her flight from Wuhan to Paris had closed fourteen minutes earlier on Thursday morning.
Staff advised her to alter or refund her tickets, but the woman refused saying she was about to go abroad to take part in an important conference.
She then rushed to the staff working area and slapped a member of staff twice after negotiations failed, the report said.
Police were called and arrested the woman, whose real name was not given.. She has now been blacklisted from taking flights on Air France.
The woman, a 36-year-old doctoral student from a prestigious university in Wuhan, was with her husband and child when the incident occurred.
Internet users in China strongly criticised her actions and said harsher punishments should have been enforced.
Domestic flight companies should also blacklist the woman and all flights should refuse to take this kind of passenger, one person wrote.
Another said: So barbarous and wayward. Did she major in kick-boxing for a doctoral degree?
Sunday, 4 June 2017
CHINA: Hong Kong International Airport In Stiff Competion From Mainland China Airports
Increased demand is giving a boost to all five airports in Pearl River Delta region, but mainland hubs are growing more rapidly.
There was joy in the streets of Foshan’s backwater Gaoming district in mid-April when Guangdong Communist Party secretary Hu Chunhua affirmed plans to build an airport there by 2022.
The new, 35 billion yuan (US$5.1 billion) Pearl River Delta regional airport, designed to handle 30 million passengers a year, will be a key piece in the province’s ambitious plan to have 31 big and small airports by 2030.
It will join the delta’s five existing key air hubs – Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai – to serve a dynamic area that’s home 66 million people and has an economy as big as South Korea’s.
While mainland China has many airports with few passengers – three-quarters of its 200-plus airports run at a loss – rapid growth in demand for passenger and cargo services in the delta is giving a boost to all five airports, with Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen accounting for the most traffic.
Concerns about excessive competition between the airports were unwarranted for now, said Law Cheung-kwok, head of the Aviation Policy and Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, because the overall market was still growing.
Passenger numbers can increase in a geometric ratio in the coming years,fuelled by the strong demand of Chinese spenders for travel and the emerging Chinese consumer economy, Law said, while adding that Hong Kong would see “fiercer” competition from mainland airports that were aggressively launching new long-haul flights.
Hong Kong’s role as an international air hub was once highly valued by Guangdong, which saw the city as its gateway to the outside world.
High-value products from factories in the Pearl River Delta used to be trucked into Hong Kong before being flown to overseas markets, but the flow has been changing, especially since the launch of Guangzhou’s new airport in 2004 and Shenzhen’s in 2013.
Hong Kong International Airport, the leading airport in the region, handled 70.5 million passengers last year, up 2.9 per cent year on year.
In comparison, Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport handled 59.7 million passengers, up 8.2 per cent. Shenzhen handled 42 million passengers, up 5.6 per cent, and Zhuhai handled 6.1 million, which represented annual growth of 30.2 per cent.
A record 6.6 million passengers passed through Macau airport last year, up 13.7 per cent year on year.
The five major airports, all within 150km of each other, are all striving to expand. Guangzhou plans to add a fourth and a fifth runway by 2025 and Shenzhen has plans in place for a third. Hong Kong aims to open a third runway by 2023 to boost capacity to 100 million passengers a year.
Guangzhou’s existing Terminal 1 was only designed to handle 35 million passengers a year, but a second, bigger, terminal will open next year.
Expected to handle around 45 million passengers a year by 2020, the new terminal is being built at a cost of about 19 billion yuan.
Shenzhen is also planning a new terminal, with passenger traffic at the four-year-old airport now just 3 million short of its 45 million capacity.
However, Zhuhai, billed as China’s biggest airport when it opened in 1995, has never come close to its 35 million passenger annual capacity.
People like retiree Zhu Yinghua and businessman Huang Honghui are making the most of the leisure and business opportunities provided by the region’s increasing air traffic.
Zhu, a 65-year-old retired teacher from Guangzhou, made three overseas trips last year, visiting Russia, Turkey and the United States with her husband and friends.
The trips cost between 6,000 and 10,000 yuan, quite affordable for retired teachers and civil servants in cities such as Guangzhou who receive monthly pensions of more than 6,000 yuan.
It’s much easier to travel to the other end of the world these days than travelling to Shanghai 20 years ago, said Zhu, who had never flown until 1993, when she was 41, and who made her first overseas trip in 1996 when she visited Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia via Hong Kong.
I have to say now I like the Shenzhen and Guangzhou airports very much. They are more beautiful and modern than any other airport in China, including Beijing or Hong Kong.
The number of tourists heading overseas from mainland China has more than tripled in the past decade, hitting 122 million last year, and Guangzhou and Shenzhen are among the top sources.
The “Greater Bay Area”, a region which includes Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and some other mainland cities, is becoming the world’s biggest market for aviation services.
Passenger numbers in the region will reach 223 million a year by 2020, up from around 175 million last year, according to the China Civil Airports Association, which said such traffic would dwarf other bay areas such as Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo.
Airports in the Tokyo Bay Area, home to 43 million people in 2015, handled more than 112 million passengers that year.
Hong Kong, the world’s largest international air cargo airport, handled 4.5 millions tonnes of air cargo last year according to the Airport Authority, and the China Civil Airports Association predicts annual cargo throughput in the region, presently about 8 million tonnes, will top 10 million tonnes by 2020.
Huang, the 40-year-old co-founder of leading Guangzhou air logistics company R&T Transportation, says business is booming, with the firm handling about 5,000 tonnes of cargo a month, more than triple the amount a decade ago.
I started up my logistics business 20 years ago and most clients are factories in the delta, from electronics giants like Huawei and Samsung to garment processors, Huang said.
In 1997, my company handled an average of 500 tonnes of cargo a month, 90 per cent of which was exported through Hong Kong airport.
He said Guangzhou’s airport now handled three-fifths of R&T’s shipments because it was closer to most clients.
If we pick up a delivery at 6pm, we can catch the flights leaving Guangzhou at 2am it would take about two days to fly through Hong Kong, Huang said.
Meanwhile, airports in Southwest China cities such as Kunming in Yunnan province and Chengdu in Sichuan province were grabbing air cargo business from Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
It took three days to travel from Kunming to Guangzhou by truck 10 years ago, Huang said.
But now, thanks for the rapid development of China’s highway network, it only takes one day. Flying out of Kunming airport would help cut costs by 30 per cent compared with Hong Kong airport.
R&T now handles about 1,000 tonnes of air freight a month in Kunming.
Local authorities in major mainland cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xian, Zhengzhou and Shenzhen were handing out generous subsidies and extra investment for local airports so they could operate more international routes, in line with the central government’s “belt and road” trade and infrastructure initiative.
For example, the government of Zhengzhou, in Henan province, is offering subsidies of up to 300,000 yuan per overseas flight, Huang said.
While Hong Kong will remain a busy airport, its relative regional significance is set to wane as mainland airports get bigger and mainland airlines improve their hardware.
Mainland Chinese carriers bought 164 Boeing planes last year, about a quarter of Boeing’s total deliveries and the most from any country.
The mainland’s three designated hubs – Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou – are trying hard to gain a prominent foothold on the global flight map.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, almost all tour groups from South China flew via Hong Kong, but times have changed. When Zhu, the Guangzhou pensioner, flew to New York from Guangzhou last year she transited in Beijing because it’s 1,500 yuan cheaper than flying through Hong Kong.
Zhou Guosheng, a Guangzhou-based tour guide who has been in the business since the 1990s and now specialises in luxury overseas trips, said: A night in Hong Kong plus shopping time was once standard, but not any more.
Big mainland airports are even trying to lure non-Chinese travellers, who are now offered 72-hour transit visas.
Hong Kong’s airport will see growing challenges from mainland ones, according to Guangzhou-based aviation researcher Peng Peng, who predicted Guangzhou would overtake Hong Kong airport in passenger numbers within 10 years.
There was joy in the streets of Foshan’s backwater Gaoming district in mid-April when Guangdong Communist Party secretary Hu Chunhua affirmed plans to build an airport there by 2022.
The new, 35 billion yuan (US$5.1 billion) Pearl River Delta regional airport, designed to handle 30 million passengers a year, will be a key piece in the province’s ambitious plan to have 31 big and small airports by 2030.
It will join the delta’s five existing key air hubs – Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai – to serve a dynamic area that’s home 66 million people and has an economy as big as South Korea’s.
While mainland China has many airports with few passengers – three-quarters of its 200-plus airports run at a loss – rapid growth in demand for passenger and cargo services in the delta is giving a boost to all five airports, with Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen accounting for the most traffic.
Concerns about excessive competition between the airports were unwarranted for now, said Law Cheung-kwok, head of the Aviation Policy and Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, because the overall market was still growing.
Passenger numbers can increase in a geometric ratio in the coming years,fuelled by the strong demand of Chinese spenders for travel and the emerging Chinese consumer economy, Law said, while adding that Hong Kong would see “fiercer” competition from mainland airports that were aggressively launching new long-haul flights.
Hong Kong’s role as an international air hub was once highly valued by Guangdong, which saw the city as its gateway to the outside world.
High-value products from factories in the Pearl River Delta used to be trucked into Hong Kong before being flown to overseas markets, but the flow has been changing, especially since the launch of Guangzhou’s new airport in 2004 and Shenzhen’s in 2013.
Hong Kong International Airport, the leading airport in the region, handled 70.5 million passengers last year, up 2.9 per cent year on year.
In comparison, Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport handled 59.7 million passengers, up 8.2 per cent. Shenzhen handled 42 million passengers, up 5.6 per cent, and Zhuhai handled 6.1 million, which represented annual growth of 30.2 per cent.
A record 6.6 million passengers passed through Macau airport last year, up 13.7 per cent year on year.
The five major airports, all within 150km of each other, are all striving to expand. Guangzhou plans to add a fourth and a fifth runway by 2025 and Shenzhen has plans in place for a third. Hong Kong aims to open a third runway by 2023 to boost capacity to 100 million passengers a year.
Guangzhou’s existing Terminal 1 was only designed to handle 35 million passengers a year, but a second, bigger, terminal will open next year.
Expected to handle around 45 million passengers a year by 2020, the new terminal is being built at a cost of about 19 billion yuan.
Shenzhen is also planning a new terminal, with passenger traffic at the four-year-old airport now just 3 million short of its 45 million capacity.
However, Zhuhai, billed as China’s biggest airport when it opened in 1995, has never come close to its 35 million passenger annual capacity.
People like retiree Zhu Yinghua and businessman Huang Honghui are making the most of the leisure and business opportunities provided by the region’s increasing air traffic.
Zhu, a 65-year-old retired teacher from Guangzhou, made three overseas trips last year, visiting Russia, Turkey and the United States with her husband and friends.
The trips cost between 6,000 and 10,000 yuan, quite affordable for retired teachers and civil servants in cities such as Guangzhou who receive monthly pensions of more than 6,000 yuan.
It’s much easier to travel to the other end of the world these days than travelling to Shanghai 20 years ago, said Zhu, who had never flown until 1993, when she was 41, and who made her first overseas trip in 1996 when she visited Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia via Hong Kong.
I have to say now I like the Shenzhen and Guangzhou airports very much. They are more beautiful and modern than any other airport in China, including Beijing or Hong Kong.
The number of tourists heading overseas from mainland China has more than tripled in the past decade, hitting 122 million last year, and Guangzhou and Shenzhen are among the top sources.
The “Greater Bay Area”, a region which includes Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and some other mainland cities, is becoming the world’s biggest market for aviation services.
Passenger numbers in the region will reach 223 million a year by 2020, up from around 175 million last year, according to the China Civil Airports Association, which said such traffic would dwarf other bay areas such as Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo.
Airports in the Tokyo Bay Area, home to 43 million people in 2015, handled more than 112 million passengers that year.
Hong Kong, the world’s largest international air cargo airport, handled 4.5 millions tonnes of air cargo last year according to the Airport Authority, and the China Civil Airports Association predicts annual cargo throughput in the region, presently about 8 million tonnes, will top 10 million tonnes by 2020.
Huang, the 40-year-old co-founder of leading Guangzhou air logistics company R&T Transportation, says business is booming, with the firm handling about 5,000 tonnes of cargo a month, more than triple the amount a decade ago.
I started up my logistics business 20 years ago and most clients are factories in the delta, from electronics giants like Huawei and Samsung to garment processors, Huang said.
In 1997, my company handled an average of 500 tonnes of cargo a month, 90 per cent of which was exported through Hong Kong airport.
He said Guangzhou’s airport now handled three-fifths of R&T’s shipments because it was closer to most clients.
If we pick up a delivery at 6pm, we can catch the flights leaving Guangzhou at 2am it would take about two days to fly through Hong Kong, Huang said.
Meanwhile, airports in Southwest China cities such as Kunming in Yunnan province and Chengdu in Sichuan province were grabbing air cargo business from Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
It took three days to travel from Kunming to Guangzhou by truck 10 years ago, Huang said.
But now, thanks for the rapid development of China’s highway network, it only takes one day. Flying out of Kunming airport would help cut costs by 30 per cent compared with Hong Kong airport.
R&T now handles about 1,000 tonnes of air freight a month in Kunming.
Local authorities in major mainland cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xian, Zhengzhou and Shenzhen were handing out generous subsidies and extra investment for local airports so they could operate more international routes, in line with the central government’s “belt and road” trade and infrastructure initiative.
For example, the government of Zhengzhou, in Henan province, is offering subsidies of up to 300,000 yuan per overseas flight, Huang said.
While Hong Kong will remain a busy airport, its relative regional significance is set to wane as mainland airports get bigger and mainland airlines improve their hardware.
Mainland Chinese carriers bought 164 Boeing planes last year, about a quarter of Boeing’s total deliveries and the most from any country.
The mainland’s three designated hubs – Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou – are trying hard to gain a prominent foothold on the global flight map.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, almost all tour groups from South China flew via Hong Kong, but times have changed. When Zhu, the Guangzhou pensioner, flew to New York from Guangzhou last year she transited in Beijing because it’s 1,500 yuan cheaper than flying through Hong Kong.
Zhou Guosheng, a Guangzhou-based tour guide who has been in the business since the 1990s and now specialises in luxury overseas trips, said: A night in Hong Kong plus shopping time was once standard, but not any more.
Big mainland airports are even trying to lure non-Chinese travellers, who are now offered 72-hour transit visas.
Hong Kong’s airport will see growing challenges from mainland ones, according to Guangzhou-based aviation researcher Peng Peng, who predicted Guangzhou would overtake Hong Kong airport in passenger numbers within 10 years.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
CHINA: Cracked Bridge Over Canyon Alarms Chinese Tourists
Images showing small cracks in the “skywalk” built around a mountain, which opened just two weeks ago, spread on social media along with doubts over its safety.
“When I was almost at the end (of the walkway), there was a sudden loud bang and a tremor beneath my feet,” the state-run China Net cited one woman as saying on Tuesday.
The cracks resembled “winter frost on a window pane,” the report said, and were apparently caused by a dropped stainless steel cup.
But the incident at Yuntai mountain in the northern province of Henan “doesn’t affect safety,” park officials were quoted as saying.
The glass made up of three layers is supposedly capable of supporting up to 800 kilograms (1,763 pounds) per square meter, they said.
The incident occured during China’s hectic week-long national holiday period, when tens of millions take pleasure trips.
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