International Students Seek Chinese Summer Holiday

China is seeing a huge influx of students from overseas this summer as more international students choose to spend their summer break in the country.

Rather than sticking to popular tourist sites, students are taking up Gong Fu (Kung Fu) and Mandarin classes.

Since the beginning of the summer, over 300 students from overseas have studied the art of Gong Fu in Beijing Shichahai Sports School, which was set up by martial arts film star Jet Li.

The students fork out 60 to 80 US dollars every day for lessons, food and lodging. The apartments on campus are already full and some students have to stay miles away from the school.

 Tibetan Tourism Office Advises Delaying Trips

The Tibet Autonomous Region tourism office in Shanghai is encouraging people to delay trips to Lhasa until September and October when the busy summer season ends. They‘re also advising people to book group tours as prices are cheaper and schedules better.
　　
Since the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway on July 1 tourists from across the country have swarmed to the remote region. Earlier media reports said Tibet had 301,000 tourists in the first 20 days of July which is a 50 percent increase year on year.

 Three Gorges site scores a hit with tourists

BEIJING, May 23 -- The Three Gorges Dam has become one of China's top travel destinations, with Shanghai tourists flocking to catch a glimpse of the world's largest dam as it nears completion.

In the first five months of the year, sales of Yangtze River cruises operated by the Shanghai Youth Travel Agency were up by more than 40 percent compared to last year, said Liu Xiajun, manager of domestic tours at the agency.

 Grand Canal listed as state-level cultural relic

BEIJING, May 22 -- The Grand Canal will be designated a "Key State-level Cultural Relic" on China's first "World Heritage Day," set for June 10th of this year.

Zhang Wenbin, ex-president of the Cultural Relic Bureau, said such a measure will help to protect the Grand Canal as well as the cultural relics that use this route, as state-level cultural relics are protected by law. It will lay a solid foundation for the Grand Canal’s application to be deemed World Heritage.

Although the Grand Canal is one of the two greatest man-made wonders that remain from ancient China--the other being the Great Wall--it is often neglected as a cultural relic, with the activities for its protection proving far from adequate. Since 2004, the Cultural Relic Bureau has organized several study tours along the Canal, collecting much of the useful information that allowed for the Grand Canal to be listed as a state-level cultural relic.

 Record number of tourists visit Shanghai over holiday

BEIJING, May 8 -- About 4.25 million tourists visited Shanghai this week - a record for the 17 so-called Golden Week holidays since they started in October 2000, the Shanghai Tourism Administrative Commission said.

Visits to the countryside and water towns were most popular among tourists.

Top destinations included villages on Chongming Island, Flower Harbor in Nanhui District, the old town of Fengjing in Jinshan District, and Zhujiajiao in Qingpu District.

 More overseas tourists visit Beijing

BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Statistics from the Municipal Tourism Bureau show that Beijing has seen about 338,000 foreign tourists in the first two months of this year, up 15 percent on last year.

Saturday's Beijing Daily reported that in January alone, the city saw 160,000 overseas tourists and the number increased to 178,000 in the next month, which brought the city an income of 530 U.S. dollars.