Chinese spend up big on travel experiences

Chinese tourists are spending more money on upgraded travel experiences when they go abroad, and more people are willing to take in-depth, individualized and customized trips, according to a report released this week by the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip.com travel agency.

“The middle class, who are the backbone of the outbound tourism market in China, are more willing to slow down their travel pace and enjoy in-depth travel experiences, whether it be in terms of accommodation, eating, shopping or cultural consumption,” said Dai Bin, director of the China Tourism Academy.

In the first half of the year, 42 percent of Chinese tourists chose to travel with groups and 58 percent took individualized trips, Ctrip said. The shift has coincided with the proliferation of travel websites and mobile applications to find travel information and book trips.

As of July 11, 65 countries and regions had introduced favorable visa-free or visa-on-arrival policies to attract Chinese tourists, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Thailand was the most popular destination for Chinese tourists in the first six months of 2017, followed by Japan and Singapore. The number of Chinese tourists who visited South Korea dropped 41percent year-on-year.

The total of Chinese tourists who traveled to Europe surged 65 percent, and 5.5 million Chinese are forecast to travel to Europe this year, the report said.

Chinese spending more on travel experiences

After enduring a succession of heat waves over the past couple of weeks, we may finally get some relief as today marks the 13th solar term on the traditional Chinese lunar calendar—Liqiu, which literally means the beginning of autumn. Though periods of hot weather may still strike some regions of the country, from this day forward, the sweltering summer heat that we have become accustomed to will begin to gradually cool down, just like in the old Chinese saying that goes, “in the morning begins autumn and in the evening comes the chill”.

Guangdong home to top talents

With Guangdong taking an active role in stimulating innovation and cultivating scientific research talents, Guangdong has now become the province with the largest number of high-tech enterprises, with the total number of professional and technical personnel amounting to 5.38million, among whom 710,000 are high-level talents. By the end of 2016, Guangdong was home to a total of nearly 20,000 high-tech enterprises, ranking first in the country.

GZ to witness partial lunar eclipse

A partial lunar eclipse is expected to occur between this evening and early morning tomorrow (Aug 8). Experts say the height of the moon will be relatively low because the moon will be above the southern hemisphere when the eclipse occurs, with the maximum altitude of the moon above the horizon being 51 degrees in Guangzhou. The eclipse can be observed in both Asia and Oceania.