THAILAND: Chinese Tourist Drowns While On Phuket Snorkelling Tour, Mother Watches Helplessly

Chinese tourist mother watches helplessly as daughter drowns on Phuket snorkelling tour

Lu Shanshan, 33, from Tianjin in Sichuan Province, was on a tour booked with Happy Holidays, confirmed Lt Nutnaree Narksingha of the Phuket City Police, who was informed of the death at 4:25pm.

Ms Lu and her mother boarded the tour boat JJ Orca, which departed from Wisit Panwa Pier in Phuket, to enjoy a day trip to Koh Khai Nok, off Phuket’s east coast.

Tour guide Chalit Sae-mee explained to police that Ms Lu entered the water at the beach at Koh Khai Nork wearing a buoyancy vest and a snorkelling mask.

Later, Ms Lu’s mother, who remained on the beach, noticed that her daughter was not moving and raised the alarm.

The boat crew rushed to pull Ms Lu out of the water, but she was already unconscious and unresponsive.

Members of the boat crew performed CPR while they rushed Ms Lu back to Phuket, where on arriving she was sped to the Phuket Provincial Hospital in Rassada.

However, Ms Lu was pronounced dead on arrival.

Ms Lu and her mother landed in Phuket at 5am yesterday (Aug 21) and were due to fly home this Saturday (Aug 25). They were staying at a resort in Karon, Lt Nutnaree noted.

Staff at the Happy Holiday tour company confirmed to police that the company has insurance and that the policy covers compensation of up to B1 million in the event of death.

Police noted in their report that the mother has requested a medical examination of her daughter’s body to confirm the cause of death.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Air China To Start Flying Beijing To Hanoi 1st June 2018

Air China will launch a new service between Beijing and Hanoi on 1 June 2018.

The non-stop route will enable passengers to travel from Beijing to Vietnam's charming capital city in just four hours.

The new route between Beijing and Hanoi will be operated under flight numbers CA741/742 four times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Outbound flights will depart from Beijing at 01:25 and arrive in Hanoi at 04:15 while inbound flights will depart from Hanoi at 05:45 and arrive in Beijing at 10:25.

Founded over 1,000 years ago, Hanoi has a long and complex history reflected in its eclectic range of architectural styles, including its French colonial buildings.

As well as the Neo-Gothic Hanoi Cathedral and the countless Chinese temples and pagodas that can be spotted throughout the city.

In 2017, bilateral trade between China and Vietnam surpassed USD 100 billion for the first time, while China remained Vietnam's largest trade partner for the 13th consecutive year.

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, Chinese holidaymakers made over 4 million trips to Vietnam in 2017, an increase of 48.6% over the previous year.

Air China Limited is the flag carrier and one of the major airlines of the People's Republic of China, with its headquarters in Shunyi District, Beijing.

Air China's flight operations are based at Beijing Capital International Airport.

In 2015, the airline carried 90 million domestic and international passengers with an average load factor of 80%.

Air China was established and commenced operations on 1 July 1988.

This as a result of the Chinese government's decision in late 1987 to split the operating divisions of Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) into six separate airlines.

- Air China

- China Eastern

- China Southern

- China Northern

- China Southwest

- China Northwest

Air China was given chief responsibility for intercontinental flights and took over the CAAC's long haul aircraft Boeing 747s, 767s, and 707s and routes.

In January 2001, the former CAAC's ten airlines agreed on a merger plan, according to which Air China was to acquire China Southwest Airlines.

Before this acquisition, Air China was the country's fourth largest domestic airline. The merger created a group with assets of 56 billion Yuan (USD $8.63 billion), and a fleet of 118 aircraft.

In October 2002, Air China consolidated with the China National Aviation Holding and China Southwest Airlines.

On 15 December 2004, Air China was successfully listed on the Hong Kong and London Stock Exchanges.

In 2006, Air China signed an agreement to join the Star Alliance. It became a member of the alliance on 12 December 2007 alongside Shanghai Airlines.

In July 2009, Air China acquired $19.3 million of shares from its troubled subsidiary Air Macau, lifting its stake in the carrier from 51% to 80.9%.

One month later, Air China spent HK$6.3 billion (USD $813 million) to raise its stake in Cathay Pacific from 17.5% to 30%, expanding its presence in Hong Kong.

In April 2010, Air China completed the increase of shareholdings in Shenzhen Airlines and became the controlling shareholder of Shenzhen Airlines.

This allowing Air China to further enhance its position in Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai as well as achieve a more balanced domestic network.

On 2 December 2010, Air China received Spain's highest tourism industry award, the Plaque for Tourist Merit.

Air China was the first foreign airline to receive the award, which is given to organisations and individuals contributing to the Spanish tourism industry.

On 23 December 2010, Air China became the first Chinese airline to offer combined tickets that include domestic flights and shuttle bus services to nearby cities.

The first combined flight-shuttle bus ticket connected Tianjin via shuttle bus with domestic flights passing through Beijing.

Air China began offering free Wi-Fi internet service on board its aircraft on 15 November 2011, making it the first Chinese carrier to offer this service.

However reported by users, the service is not allowed on smartphones, only tablets and laptops.

In 2012, after pressure from PETA, Air China stated that it would no longer transport monkeys to laboratories. PETA welcomed the airline’s announcement.

On July 3, 2013 in time for the company's 25th anniversary, Air China successfully tested Wireless LAN in flight. It was the first global satellite Internet flight in Mainland China.

In early 2015 it was announced that the airline had selected the Boeing 737 Next Generation and 737 MAX for its fleet renewal programme of 60 aircraft.

The deal, with a value of over $6 billion at current list prices, has yet to be finalized.

The entity Air China Limited was registered in 2003, and its shares began trading in Hong Kong and London on December 15, 2004.

Originally the airline corporate entity was Air China International, which was founded 2002 Air China International incorporated China Southwest Airlines and the air transportation services of the China National Aviation Corporation, becoming a new entity.

The Air China HQ Building the corporate headquarters, is located in Zone A of the Tianzhu Airport Industrial Zone in Shunyi District, Beijing.

The company registered office is on the ninth floor of the Blue Sky Mansion, also in Zone A of the Tianzhu Airport Industrial Zone.

The enterprise logo of Air China consists of an artistic phoenix pattern, the name of the airline written in calligraphy by former national leader Deng Xiaoping, and "AIR CHINA" in English.

The phoenix logo is also the artistic transfiguration of the word "VIP". Air China is a member of Star Alliance.

Air China is primarily based in its hub of Beijing Capital International Airport (IATA:PEK), where it operates numerous long range aircraft on routes to North America, Europe, South America, Africa and Australia.

Its fleet is made up of an assortment of Boeing and Airbus aircraft, including: Boeing 737's, Boeing 777's, Boeing 747's, Boeing 787's along with Airbus A319's, Airbus A320's, Airbus A321's and Airbus A330's.

Air China also operates a second hub in Chengdu International Airport, where it primarily flies domestic routes.

Air China's route network extends throughout Asia to the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America from its hubs at Beijing Capital International Airport and Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.

It also currently reaches a significant number of Asian, Australian and European destinations from Shanghai. Some international routes operate from Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Hangzhou, Kunming and Xiamen.

It is one of the few world airlines that fly to all six inhabitable continents.

On 10 December 2006, Air China began serving its first South American destination, Sao Paulo-Guarulhos via Madrid-Barajas. This was the airline's longest direct flight.

The service was initiated with a Boeing 767-300ER, but due to increased demand, the service has been upgraded to an Airbus A330-200.

Regular flights between Mainland China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC) started in July 2009.

Due to the political status of Taiwan, all Air China airframes that operate flights to and from Taiwan are required to cover the flag of the People's Republic of China on the fuselage.

This including a number of Airbus A320s, A330s, A340s, Boeing 777-200s, and Boeing 747-400BDSFs.

Air China introduced its new Airbus A330-300 to long-haul operations beginning with services to Düsseldorf, Germany in summer 2011.

These aircraft provided the same two-class cabin standard as the Airbus A330-200 except that the economy cabin had no seat-back entertainment system installed with the exception of the first two economy rows which also had increased legroom.

Dusseldorf is now the third German destination on the Air China network. The airline launched a new Beijing-Milan-Malpensa service on 15 June 2011, complementing the airline's existing service to Milan from Shanghai.

Deliveries of the carrier's 19 new Boeing 777-300ERs commenced in mid-2011, with the aircraft forming the new backbone of its future longhaul operations.

The new Boeing 777-300ERs replaced the Boeing 747–400s on routes to U.S. destinations such as Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, but was expected to first enter service on flights to Paris from March 2012.

The Boeing 777-300ER began to replace most 747 service once sufficient numbers entered the fleet.

Air China expanded its operations in India with a Beijing-Mumbai route begun in September 2011, while the existing Delhi route was upgraded to the A330.

The airline also launched service to Mumbai from Chengdu on 2 May 2012. The airline began using the Boeing 777-300ER on one of its two daily Beijing-Los Angeles flights on 1 February 2012.

Beginning in late-2012 to early 2013, the airline will replace the Boeing 747-400s currently servicing the New York and San Francisco routes with the Boeing 777-300ER.

With the addition of the Boeing 777-300ERs on the US routes, Air China increased frequency on the Beijing-New York route, changing the flights from 7 to 11 flights a week by adding two new flights to the route.

On 21 January 2014, the airline launched its service to Hawaii with flights from Beijing to Honolulu, the first nonstop flights between the two cities.

The airline also increased the frequency of service on the Beijing-Houston Intercontinental route from four times weekly to daily service from 30 March 2014.

Beginning 10 June 2014, Air China introduced new nonstop service from Beijing to Washington-Dulles, operated by a Boeing 777-300ER.

As of September 29 2015, Air China also introduced a 3 times weekly flight to Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in a codeshare with Air Canada.

The Montreal flight was extended to Havana from 27 December 2015.

Air China started its direct flights to Johannesburg, South Africa from 29 October 2015. The flight operates three times weekly.

Air China fleet consists of a total of 402 aircraft.

Air China has placed orders for 170 aircrafts


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Chinese Tour Operators Visit Europe

As part of the EU-China Tourism Year, major TO's from across China were hosted in Europe on a fam tour this month.

The European Travel Commission (ETC), the European association of National Tourism Boards, in partnership with the European Tourism Association (ETOA) and several European destinations, hosted the first pan-European familiarisation trip to foster inbound tourism to the European Union from China on the occasion of the EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY).

From 8 March to 15 March 2018, 70 qualified tour operators from first and second tier cities across China -including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Wuhan, Nanjing and Xiamen- had the opportunity to experience European destinations through and beyond its famous gateway cities.

The Chinese tour operators organised into seven clusters that followed simultaneously different transnational itineraries based on their singular interests and product portfolio.

These destination clusters included fifteen countries in the macro-regions of the Adriatic, the Balkans, the Baltic, Benelux and Central Europe.

The itineraries included visits to landmark cities, cultural and natural attractions and meetings with local business as well as experiences at lesser-known destinations that are easily accessed from those traditional gateways.

The programme commenced with the Partnerships in European Tourism (PET) conference and B2B workshop between tourism-related European companies and Chinese operators hosted by ETC, ETOA and the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Association (ECTAA) in Berlin on 6 and 7 March.

Both initiatives the pan-European FAM trips and the Partnerships in European Tourism are part of the programme of activities prepared by the European Commission during the EU-China Tourism Year.

The ECTY aims to promote the European Union as a travel destination in China, provide opportunities to increase bilateral cooperation as well as mutual understanding and create an incentive to make progress on market opening and visa facilitation.

China is the world’s largest travel market in terms of both outbound travel and expenditure. European destinations have strengthened their position in this market, attaining 13.4 million Chinese arrivals in 2017, accounting for a share of 14% of all outbound travel from China.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Beijing-Tianjin Rail Route To Use Passes

A commuter pass for the Beijing-Tianjin intercity railway that gives a discount of up to 15 percent went on sale on Monday as part of government efforts to promote the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.

Last year, 646,000 passengers traveled back and forth between Beijing and Tianjin at least twice a month. The pass is expected to benefit more than 200,000 people.

The pass will save passengers the trouble of buying tickets, and the discount is expected to attract more people to commute between the two cities, Sun Wenkui, vice-mayor of Tianjin, said on Saturday.

Currently, 184 trains arrive and depart from both Beijing and Tianjin every day, carrying more than 80,000 passengers.

Calling the launch of the pass a move to promote the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, Sun said the Tianjin government will "make a greater step forward" to promote the integration of the three areas' transportation systems through further cooperation with China Railway Corp, the national network operator.

There are two kinds of train passes: a gold one for first-class seats and a silver one for second-class seats. A first class seat for a single journey between Beijing and Tianjin costs 65.5 yuan ($10), while the price for second class is 54.5 yuan.

Passengers can get a 5 percent discount if they pay for 20 single journeys up front. The discount will increase to 15 percent for gold pass holders who pay for 90 journeys and for silver pass holders who pay for 100 journeys, the Tianjin government said.

Pass holders will use their cards at a special ticket machine where they can choose a train and print a ticket with a seat assignment.

"We are trying to keep the Beijing-Tianjin intercity line in the lead," said Huang Xin, deputy director of CRC's transport bureau. "The train pass is an innovation, and we are looking forward to seeing future promotions on other railways."

Passengers have been expecting the discount passes since the Tianjin government announced in February that they would be issued, said Zou Yirong, from the marketing department of Tianjin Research Institute for Advanced Equipment, affiliated with Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"The train pass was the talk of the office back then," she said, adding that about 40 researchers at her institute are regular commuters between the two cities - and they would save time and money with the passes.

Xiang Nan, chairman of a Tianjin-based investment company that has offices in Beijing and Tianjin, said: "We are definitely going to make a group purchase for me and five other colleagues who need to take the train every day."

"I used to spend 2,600 yuan on the train every month. Now 400 yuan of that can be saved. That is good news for me," said a man who only disclosed his name only as Duan. The man paid for 100 single journeys with second-class seats on Monday as he often has to travel between Beijing and Tianjin for work.

The Italian cruise line Costa Cruises recently celebrated the maiden call of Costa Fortuna at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port.

As the fifth cruise ship from the line to enter North China, Costa Fortuna will be based in Tianjin for the next eight months, opening voyages to South Korea and Japan with an "Italy at Sea" cruise experience.

Passengers can enjoy delicious cuisines, shopping and entertainment activities on board.

Inspired by Italy's shipping and navigation history, the ship is a virtual museum at sea, showcasing Italian paintings, antiques and historic artworks. The main hall is decorated with a giant red dragon head, which combines Italy's mythology figure with the image of Chinese dragon.

With Costa Fortuna, the line will now have more than 60 voyages departing from Tianjin port this year, consolidating its long-held position with the most voyages from Tianjin. The company is part the global leisure travel company Carnival Corporation & plc.

CHINA: Nine Good Places In Tianjin

As one of China's four municipalities directly under the Central Government, Tianjin is the largest port city in Northern China.

Tianjin has historically been an important port and doorway to Beijing, being 120 kilometers away from the capital. By boarding on a bullet train at the Beijing Southern Railway Station, it now only takes around 40 minutes to get there.

The blend of Chinese and Western cultures also forms Tianjin's distinctive tourism resources. Listed as one of the first groups of outstanding tourist cities in China, Tianjin never loses its appeal to visitors– from mountains, rivers, lakes and the sea to springs, wetlands and local delicacies.

Here are nine of the top places to visit in the city.

1. Haihe River

As the mother river and symbol of Tianjin, the Haihe River, a 72-kilometer-long river, runs through the city and out to the Bohai Sea.

A total of 21 bridges stand over the Haihe River and each constitutes scenic attraction, forming a distinctive bridge culture throughout the region. Rising over the spectacular Yongle Bridge is the Tianjin Eye, an iconic ferris wheel which lights up the city every night.

2. Five Big Avenues: A hub of international architecture

Wudadao, known as the Five Big Avenues, is an international architecture exposition in Tianjin, with about 2,000 villas in various Western styles, built in the 1920s and 1930s.

More than 300 late residences of historical figures are located in the area, including former Olympic champion Li Airui, late president of the United States Herbert Clark Hoover, and former US Secretary of State George Marshall.

For history lovers, dropping in a visit to the Historical Museum of the Five Avenues helps to get an overall understanding of the history of the area, and also a closer look at about 1,000 items used by the prominent residents who lived in the buildings.

3. The Taida Aircraft Carrier Theme Park

As a national 4A level tourist attraction, the Taida Aircraft Carrier Theme Park is a large military amusement park located in the Binhai New Area.

The area integrates marine military culture and Russian culture, with Kiev, the retired aircraft carrier from the Russian navy, being the park's biggest drawcard.

Over the past ten years, the tourist attraction has seen an increasing number of visitors. During the three-day Qingming Festival in April 2017, more than 40,000 people visited the park, a 20 percent increase compared to the same time last year, which also set a new record in history.

4. Cross talk tea houses

For Tianjin locals, sitting in a tea house enjoying cross talk shows while eating sunflower seeds and sipping tea is a common form of entertainment at night.

The Mingliu Tea House, also known as the Celebrities Tea House, is one of such a kind, covering cross talk performances every day.

The entertainment hub was first built in 1991, and was schemed and designed by the wife of a Chinese literary giant, Lao She. The plaque of the teahouse was also personally inscribed by Ma Sanli, a famous Chinese crosstalk artist.

5. The Yangliuqing New Year Painting Museum

The Yangliuqing New Year Painting Museum showcases traditional Chinese New Year paintings as well as its history and masterpiece artworks, and demonstrates procedures to create the traditional way of painting.

The famous folk wood carving painting first began in the old town of Yangliuqing during the mid-Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when locals portrayed their hopes for a better life with knives and paint brushes, using wood plates as canvases.

A typical Yangliuqing New Year painting portrays a chubby child holding a big fish, wishing for an affluent New Year. The paintings are usually hung on walls and doors to seek blessings during the lunar New Year.

6. The Huangyaguan Great Wall

The Huangyaguan Great Wall, 42 kilometers long, is a World Cultural Heritage and a national 4A level scenic spot. The wall was first built in the Beiqi Dynasty (550-577), and rebuilt and expanded in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

7. The Panshan Mountain

The Panshan Mountain, a national 5A-level scenic spot, was once listed among the top 15 tourist attractions in China. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) visited the location more than 30 times, which has made it a must-see destination for both hikers and history lovers.

With the development of technology, the resort now also offers aerial trips on helicopters, charging 880 yuan ($130) per person for one trip.

8. The Ancient Cultural Street

The Ancient Cultural Street is a commercial strip filled with a wide variety of shops selling traditional folk handicrafts, including the Yangliuqing New Year paintings and the Niren Zhang painted sculptures.

The 680-meter long street features buildings of traditional Chinese styles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911). In the center of the street stands an old opera tower, which can be traced back to the 15th century.

9. The Florentia Village outlets

The Florentia Village outlets, located on the outskirts of Tianjin, is a high-end outlet mall housing more than 200 fashion brands: including Prada, Bvlgari, Celine, Chloe, Fendi and Jimmy Choo.

The outlets boasts the "ultimate shopping experience" since its opening in 2011, with discounted prices all year round. It also features Italian-style architecture, as well as Italian and international cuisines.

SOUTH KOREA: Chinese Tourists Desert South Korea Because Of Looming War With North Korea

During the May Day holiday, the Jeju Cruise Terminal in South Korea used to be packed with thousands of passengers from the ports of Shanghai, Tianjin and Qingdao disembarking from large cruise liners and boarding their tourist buses.

This year, however, little Putonghua could be heard during the holiday period, a major travel date for Chinese tourists.

The last time the port saw large numbers of Chinese faces may well have been March 11 when about 3,400 tourists refused to set their foot on the resort island in protest against South Korea’s decision to deploy a US-developed missile defence system to counter the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

3,300 Chinese cruise passengers stage boycott at South Korean resort amid missile shield row

Beijing says the system poses a threat to its own security and its stance has sparked Chinese consumer boycotts of South Korean products and restricted tourism, in particular, organised tours by travel agencies or cruise ships.

“The afternoons used to be our busiest hours when cruise ship passengers landed in Jeju and came for shopping,” said a saleswoman at the Jeju Shilla Duty Free shopping mall. “Now, no such thing.”

The saleswoman is one of the increasing number of Chinese people working in tourism in Jeju. Like many others, she is an ethnic Korean from China’s northeastern provinces.

As she can speak Putonghua and Korean it enabled her to get a job on the island, which last year received an estimated four million tourists from China.

China’s anger over THAAD missile shield will hit South Korea’s economic growth, central bank says

Since Jeju became a visa-free destination for Chinese passport holders in 2008, hotels, restaurants, stores and other service sectors have boomed.

But after the missile shield dispute escalated in March, the number of Chinese tourists to South Korea as a whole has plummeted. In March, 360,782 Chinese visited the country. That compares with 601,671 in the same month last year, a drop of 40 per cent. [One shopper laden with goods in Jeju. Photo: SCMP Pictures]

The Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju bills itself as one of the “world’s top 10 popular museums among Chinese visitors”, but during the May holiday it was mainly relying on South Korean visitors.

Next to it, the K-Pop Museum, a centre for Chinese fans of Korean pop culture, was still loudly playing hit songs, but visitors were limited and mostly from South Korea.

Li Shuang, a Chinese driver and tour guide who have been working in Jeju for three years, said the past couple of months have been very hard.

A colleague of Li’s added: “We should consider some alternative plans, maybe buying local goods and selling on the internet back to China.”

Hong Kong tourists flock to South Korea to fill in void left by Chinese

About eight million Chinese tourists travelled to South Korea last year, nearly half the total number of overseas visitors. Of the Chinese who came to South Korea, about half are believed to have visited Jeju.

Signs and notices in simplified Chinese characters can be seen at the tourist sites around the island. Popular Chinese domestic mobile payment apps such as AliPay and WeChat Pay can be used, from duty-free department stores to street corner convenience stores.

Some Chinese tourists are still in Jeju, particularly individual travellers outside tour groups. And the appetite for South Korean products and cheap international brands still appears to exist.

The South Korean retail giant Lotte is the target of a consumer boycott in China after it allowed the deployment of the missile system on some of its land.

China’s online boycott puts Lotte in cross hairs amid THAAD row

But one middle-aged woman from Shanghai was busy buying at its duty-free store in Jeju.

“I don’t care much about politics. It has little to do with us ordinary people,” she said, as she paid for designer bags. She and her friends had visited the store twice in two days.

Another tourist, Lin Lifen from Tianjin in northern China, holds a Lotte VIP card, given after US$10,000 has been spent on purchases. In her purse were more membership cards for other South Korean retailers.

“I’m just buying for friends. They like Korean cosmetics,” she said.

CHINA: Chinese Passenger Crawls Through Security Baggage Scanner

A Chinese man hurrying to catch a train that was about to depart from the station tried to save precious seconds at the security gate by leaping onto a moving conveyor belt with his bag and crawling through the scanning machine.

When the man stood up after passing through the machine on Sunday, security staff at Yujiabao Railway Station, in Tianjin, discovered that he actually had a valid ticket for a different train leaving the following day.

The man, whose name was not given in the report, was trying to quickly pass through the security checkpoint when officials told him he needed to have his bag scanned.

After being told to put his bag onto the conveyor belt the man complained that a further delay would cause him problems as he was in a rush to catch a train.

He then ran forwards and jumped onto the moving conveyor belt with his bag and crawled through the scanning machine.

Security staff warned the man about the need for the public to behave safely and responsibly when using the station’s security check-in desk.

SINGAPORE: uberPOOL Grows In Singapore

Those who have travelled to places like Los Angeles and New York in recent years may have come across a service called uberPOOL, an option within the Uber app that allows you to share your journey with strangers to reduce the cost of your trip. You save around 25% on your journey, with the only downside being occasional delays as you pick up another uberPOOL rider.

It first launched in San Francisco in August 2014, before expanding to cities like LA, New York, Boston, London and Paris. Already, uberPOOL accounts for 20% of all Uber rides around the world. Just take a look at the large number of cities to get their hands on the service so far:

US & Canada: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Washington DC
Mexico: Mexico City
Brazil: Sao Paulo
France: Paris
China: Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenzen, Suzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan
UK: London
India: Bangalore, New Delhi

This month, the service continued its international roll out, with the focus now on South East Asia, a region which has already adopted similar services like GrabHitch, launched in Singapore and Malaysia in November 2015. Earlier this month, UberPool made its debut in Manila, while Jakarta got it last month. Singapore is next on the list, with the service set to launch tomorrow – July 1st.

So what about Australia? Though no plans have been officially announced, the South East Asia expansion would suggest that Australia will be next on their list. It was reported all the way back in September 2014 that the service was eyeing Sydney, and the Daily Telegraph reported in February of this year that Sydney’s uberPOOL services weren’t far off.

While we wait for the carpooling service to launch, however, Australia has had plenty of other updates: Last week, Uber launched service to Canberra Airport, finally introduced Uber X to Adelaide in May (with unlimited free rides to roll it out) and has been rolling out the popular UberEATS around the country. Here’s hoping uberPOOL is soon added to the list. But in the meantime, our friends in South East Asia have the new service to enjoy!