(单词翻译:单击)
Bicester Village
比斯特购物村
According to a 2017 VisitBritain report, more than 260,000 Chinese tourists visit the UK each year. And where do they go? It claimed that “they are mostly interested in symbolic elements: the Royal Family, Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter and Downton Abbey”. So expect crowds at Windsor Castle, Stratford-upon-Avon, Baker Street, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and Highclere Castle.
根据英国旅游局2017年的报告,每年有超过26万中国游客到英国旅游。那么中国游客都去哪里呢?报告称“中国游客对象征性元素最感兴趣:王室、莎士比亚、福尔摩斯、哈利波特和唐顿庄园”。所以温莎城堡、埃文河畔斯特拉福、贝克大街、哈利波特的魔法世界还有海克利尔城堡肯定有一大群游客。
Then there’s the shopping. Spending figures for Chinese tourists are truly staggering. According to the UNWTO, Chinese tourists overseas spent $261.1 billion in 2016, up from around $10 billion in the year 2000. Collectively, America’s globetrotters parted with a relatively paltry $123.6 billion.
然后是购物。中国游客的消费数据真的很惊人。联合国世界旅游组织称,2016年中国游客在海外消费的金额达2611亿美元(17972亿元人民币),相比2000年的100亿美元大幅增加。美国人出国旅游的消费金额总共是1236亿美元,和中国人相比是小巫见大巫。
"Cynical young Chinese will scornfully tell you that the travelling middle classes pay lip service to appreciating culture, but they are mainly after the goods: specifically, European brands they can buy in situ, and bring home to lord over their non-travelling neighbours,” says Telegraph Travel’s Sally Peck, a former Beijing resident. “This may go some way to explaining the extraordinary spending figures.”
《每日电讯报》旅游频道的萨莉·佩克曾在北京居住,她说:“愤世嫉俗的中国年轻人会轻蔑地告诉你,出国旅游的中产阶级嘴上说是去感受外国文化,但他们主要还是为了去买东西,尤其是为了在当地才能买到的欧洲品牌货,然后带回家向没出国旅游的邻居炫耀。这也许在某种程度上可以解释这庞大的消费数据。”
All of which reveals why Bicester Village, a vast retail estate on the outskirts of the Oxfordshire town, is the second most visited UK attraction for Chinese tourists – after Buckingham Palace. Three in four Chinese visitors head to Bicester aided by Mandarin signs and announcements at London Marylebone; others travel by tour bus.
这也解释了牛津郡郊区的大型零售企业比斯特购物村为什么会在中国游客造访最多的英国景点排名中仅次于白金汉宫。四分之三的中国游客是借助伦敦马里波恩车站的中文路标和告示自行前往比斯特购物村的,其他人则是坐观光巴士去的。
King’s College, Cambridge
剑桥大学国王学院
A famous tree - for Chinese people at least - can be found in King’s College, Cambridge. The willow, ignored by most, is mentioned in a much-loved poem by Xu Zhimo, ‘Taking Leave of Cambridge Again’:
剑桥大学国王学院有一棵树很出名——至少对中国人来说是如雷贯耳。被多数英国人忽略的这棵柳树在徐志摩那首广为传颂的诗《再别康桥》中曾被提到。
The golden willows by the riverside
那河畔的金柳,
Are young brides in the setting sun;
是夕阳中的新娘;
Their glittering reflections on the shimmering river
波光里的艳影,
Keep undulating in my heart.
在我的心头荡漾。
Xu spent a year studying at King’s College, where he was entranced by the work of Keats and Shelley, before returning to China to lead its modern poetry movement. Renowned for his love affairs, Xu died at the age of just 34 in a plane crash and the willow is now considered by his fans to be a shrine to lost youth. A memorial stone can be found beside the tree – an essential spot for Chinese tourists to grab a snap.
徐志摩曾在国王学院读过一年书,在那里他迷上了济慈和雪莱的诗。回国后徐志摩就成了中国现代诗歌运动的领军人物。因为风流韵事而闻名的徐志摩年仅34岁就在一次坠机事故中丧生,而这棵柳树就成为粉丝们对逝去青春感怀的神圣之地。在柳树旁边还有一个纪念碑,是中国游客必去的拍照之处。
Metzingen
德国麦琴根购物村
Germany’s answer to Bicester Village is Outletcity in Metzingen, the town in Baden-Württemberg, close to Frankfurt, where Hugo Boss was founded. It has little to lure anyone beyond scores of factory outlets. Hugo Boss was the first, but Prada, Nike, Burberry, Armani and Gucci, to name a few, have since followed suit. As the Economist points out, there’s an irony to the fact that many items bear “Made in China” labels, but high taxes and duties mean prices are around 40 percent lower than those found in Beijing.
德国的麦琴根购物村相当于英国的比斯特购物村。麦琴根镇位于巴登-符腾堡州,临近法兰克福,雨果博斯就是在那里创建的。这个地方除了数十家工厂店以外没有太多吸引力。雨果博斯是第一个在那里建厂的,从那以后,普拉达、耐克、巴宝莉、阿玛尼和古驰等品牌也纷纷在那里建厂。正如《经济学人》杂志指出的,许多名牌货都挂着“中国制造”的标签,讽刺的是在加上高额税费后,中国国内的价格比这里的价格要高出40%。
Bonn
德国波恩
The former West German capital is another popular port of call. Chinese love classical music - particularly Beethoven - making his birthplace an obvious highlight of any trip to Europe. The city’s tourist board offers maps in three foreign languages: English, Chinese and Japanese.
波恩是前西德的首都,很受中国游客的欢迎。中国人喜爱古典音乐,尤其是贝多芬的音乐,这使得贝多芬的出生地成为中国人欧洲游的一个亮点。波恩市的旅游委员会提供三种语言的地图:英语、汉语和日语。
Verona
意大利维罗那
Both British and Chinese travellers flock to Venice, Rome and Florence – but Verona typically appears higher on the wishlists of China’s tourists. That’s because of the country’s collective adoration of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The play is popular on UK shores, of course, but the love is doubled in China as it was among the first of the Bard’s works to be translated into Mandarin, while its plot bears a striking resemblance to a famous Chinese folk tale, The Butterfly Lovers. Expect to see queues at the popular, though not necessarily authentic, House of Juliet on Via Cappello (a statue of the character stands beneath her balcony).
英国游客和中国游客都爱去意大利的威尼斯、罗马和佛罗伦萨,但中国游客显然比英国游客更爱去维罗纳。这是因为中国人都很喜欢莎士比亚的《罗密欧与朱丽叶》。这部戏剧在英国本土当然很受欢迎,但是在中国却加倍的受欢迎,因为它是最早被翻译成中文的莎翁剧作之一。而且,《罗密欧与朱丽叶》的情节和著名的中国民间故事《梁祝》极为相似。意大利帽子街的热门景点朱丽叶故居(故居阳台下还有一尊朱丽叶雕像)虽然不一定是真的,但绝对是人流涌动。