Why Thousands of Chinese Tourists Started Coming to a Random British Village

Video written by Adam Chase

[halfasinteresting]

And you get to see us on camera! The HAI writers (Ben and Adam) and host (Sam) compete against each other with travel-based games. In season one, we play Connect 4, but using actual American states. We have to travel to state capitals and complete a challenge to claim a state. Go watch it. Please. We'll never be able to afford to buy a waterpark unless that channel takes off. That's something we need to do. I don't have time to explain why. Please watch the channel.

[monarch]

Had some Asian tourists sit in on my parents wedding. Camera pans across the aisle as my parents exited the church and there’s a random Asian family sitting as far back as possible. no one knew who they were until my grandpa finally saw the video and went “oh they were visiting and had never seen a Catholic wedding before and nicely asked if they could sit in so I said yes.”

Whoever those people were, they were very respectful and kept to their word because none of us noticed they were there lol. They sat in the back and quietly watched a wedding. Hope those strangers are doing well.

[MrCheeze]

The big mystery to me was why they couldn't just ask the tourists for the answer, but it finally makes sense since the tourists themselves didn't understand the reason either.

[elizabethwinifred]

I used to work at a tourist attraction in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, and a few times a week we had to open at 6:45AM to get 2-10 buses of Chinese tourists through the tour. I still don’t understand why we were a stop, it was a tour out of Canada that went to New York, DC, Atlantic City, and… us. And they took *so many* pictures of our cornfield.

[jpm]

The Chinese asking the locals if they could mow their lawns is literally the exact equivalent of western tourists visiting Asia asking if they could plow and/or plant rice in our fields. My father and other farmers in his village were extremely baffled and amused at the same time as to why these white people would want to get into the stinking mud for pictures lol. I even remember one farmer saying "free labor, I guess" and I'd imagine some random British bloke saying the same thing while watching a Chinese tourist mowing his lawn.

[franzfanz]

I used to be a regular at a pub that occasionally had Chinese tour busses turn up. They'd arrive, immediately be served a pint of Guinness which they'd take a photo with, sip, decide they didn't really like, discard it, and then be shuffled back on the bus, presumably to get dinner at a Chinese restaurant somewhere. The weird thing is that this wasn't Ireland, it was in fact on the opposite side of the world; New Zealand. From that moment on, I decided that I would never understand Chinese tourism. Though one hilarious day, one of the tourists went round chugging pints discarded by his fellow bus travelers. He must have sunk at least four in the half hour that they were there.

[julioduan]

For your information, Chinese tourists travel in groups because of:
1. It’s easy to apply a visa when you are traveling with a travel agency.
2. Most of the Chinese people can’t speak foreign languages. Within a tour, the guide will help to solve the language barrier.
3. You don’t need to look for hotels, restaurants, cars, interesting places, etc. by yourself. The travel agency did everything for you.
4. Traveling in groups is usually cheaper than traveling by oneself.
5. Most of the people who travel with a tour group are visiting a foreign country for the first time in their lives. They are afraid to travel alone.
etc.

[TheKewlPerson]

I can't wait for Chinese tourists to start showing up in my town for an "authentic taste of American suburbia"

[JugglyJen]

"Whatever this is" is a canal lock, if anyone's wondering. The UK has a fairly extensive canal network so they're all over the place here - just don't fall in! Canals are usually only about four feet deep so if you fall in you can just stand up, but locks are often ten to fourteen feet or more (and, if the paddles are open, have some strong currents as well).
We always used to be amazed at the groups of Chinese tourists that we'd see at Warwick Castle - we'd see them come in through the castle entrance, take a picture standing in front of the East gate, then leave (for people who haven't been there, Warwick Castle is huge and largely intact, with several walkthrough exhibitions of the castle dressed as it would have been at various points in its history, a ramparts walk and multiple shows - it takes a full day to do even most of the things on offer, and that's without the added-cost attractions like the dungeon). We later found out that they were on trips from London that covered Kenilworth Castle, Warwick Castle and Stratford-upon-Avon in a single day, so they had eight or more hours on a bus and only about twenty minutes at each place. It was just mind-boggling to us - sure they had a picture to take home, but they hadn't really experienced any of the castle.

[alicehargest]

When I 16 I was doing my gold Duke of Edinburgh's award hike in the highlands in the middle of a massive storm, a group of Chinese tourists hopped out a truck and started taking pictures of us in the road... I wonder what they told their friends about those photos 😐

[yaitz]

Now I want to go to Kidlington to see the local Chinese tourists. Metatourism.

[jacekatalakis]

Similarly, Japanese tourists flock to Howarth, due to Wutherin Heights as well given it is, as I understand it, mandatory reading in Japanese schools, even to this day there's times when there's busloads of Japanese tourists. The funniest one to me was when I was eating sweets out o a bag and the tour guide asked me what I was eating, I told them and where they could get some. Apparently I'd sent a whole tour into that sweet shop to get whatever it was. I often wonder what the poor sweet shop workers thought getting 40-50 Japanese tourists in there being excited to be in Howarth (to be fair it is beautiful), I might have introduced a busload of Japanese tourists to the joys of Werther's Originals. Which is funnier than it should ever be.

Also, it's the same with tourists in New Zealand's tallest street too going everywhere/taking photos too

[aname]

I used to live near there! The trains make all their announcements in chinese too, and I never knew why

[KirbyLinkACW]

"Nothing drives Chinese tourism quite like British detective shows from 1987."

Okay, but have you seen how much Japan loves Columbo. It's actually impressive.

[rogink]

I'm impressed by Sam's sleuthing. I remember reading this story on the BBC and couldn't remember if they came to any conclusions, other than, it was a 'typical' English town. Makes perfect sense to anyone who has ever taken a tour group anywhere. You need to be very strict with timings and instructions or you might just lose one or two!

[excalibur]

The most impressive thing about this video is pronouncing Bicester correctly

[onewhoisanonymous]

I live in China and it is very common for tourists to just take pictures of things. It is to show off that you went somewhere and that you got a picture to prove it. Nevermind if you enjoyed it or not. China's rising middle class has allowed many people to travel for the first time. Blond hair, European lifestyles, and odd little things like suburbs are unique to Chinese people.

In China, there are many foreign hot spots and restaurants. I have seen Chinese people buy food/drinks, take photos of it, and immediately throw it away. I have been in western bars and restaurants and Chinese girls will gather in a corner, buy something vaguely foreign looking, and larger portions of Chinese food. Snap a couple photos of the foreign looking food, and avoid anyone who isn't Chinese.

Also they have a tendency to treat foreigners like amusement characters and oddities. My European looking friends will get sneaky photos of them taken by Chinese people. Many of Chinese will openly gossip in front of us (assuming we don't understand Chinese).

[charliegrpdixon]

Casually HAI makes a video of the village just up the road from where I grew up.

The smart Chinese tourist can get to Kidlington to Blenheim palace by taking the 7 or 500 busses to Woodstock. The train station in Kidlington, Oxford parkway, has a regular service to Bicester village, and it's like £3 one way, and these busses stop at the train station. Chinese tourism stonks

[danieledwards]

Being a local to Bicester, I think I should tell you that Bicester village has a massive amount of Chinese tourists so much so that among us who live there all Bicester village is known for is Lots of Asian tourists, Overly priced shops and a really busy train station.
Most of the tourists come from abroad or from students at Oxford university.
Bicester itself isn’t that great of a town and is quite dingy.
I have never heard of this story but I’m not surprised it happened.

[billstewart]

I grew up in Upland, California and we had a time while I was in high school that - for unknown reasons - a Japanese tour company had decided it would become a stop for their tour buses. So every Thursday night, we would get busloads of (mostly elderly) Japanese tourists wandering around our quant little downtown during the weekly farmers market/street fair. Being a silly teenager with silly teenage friends, we loved posing for pictures when the tourists would ask. This only went on from about 1.5-2 years and became a fun part of the street fair. But just as mysteriously as the buses started to appear, they stopped coming. The tourists seemed to enjoy it and I know the street vendors and shops did, so I'm not sure why it ended, but it was fun while it lasted.