Chinese New Year hits world media

Chinese travelers flood the world

Chinese travelers visited the Louvre in Paris. [Photo/sina.com]

According to research released by China’s National Tourism Administration, the Spring Festival break saw a surge of Chinese travelers going abroad, which amounted to 5.18 million, a 10 percent increase over the year before and the first time Chinese tourists bound for foreign lands outnumbered those vacationing domestically. Over 60 percent of mainland Chinese chose to travel abroad during the break.

Sankei Shinbun, an industrial and economic newspaper in Japan said that Chinese travelers touring Japan triggered a fourfold increase in sales at Japanese department stores. Chinese travelers were almost seen as "life-savers" forlarge shopping malls in Tokyo and Osaka.

VisitBritain, the official website of the British Tourist Authority, launched a campaign to find out memorable Chinese names for some of Britain’s attractions and lesser known places. Recently, on the official campaign microsite, 101 Chinese names were selected and those with the most "loves" won prizes and the chance to have their names recognized in Britain.

According to the Financial Times, London’s Shard tower, has been given the Chinese moniker "Zhai Xing Ta"- "a tower allowing us to pluck stars from the sky," and Savile Row, Gao Fu Shuai Zhi Lu, meaning "the street of tall, rich and handsome guys". VisitBritain says the campaign has reached almost 300 million potential Chinese tourists through social media.