Chinese travelers prefer to visit U.S. elite universities on vacation

What do Chinese travelers — America's fastest-growing tourist segment — want to see on vacation? Elite universities, of course.

作为美国增长最快的游客群体，中国游客度假时想看什么呢？当然是名牌大学。

Nine of 10 prospective Chinese visitors to the United States want to tour a university, according to a survey last year of several thousand by Attract China, which helps hospitality companies woo them.

帮助酒店管理公司吸引中国游客的Attract China去年对数千名中国游客进行了调查，结果显示每十个可能前往美国的中国游客中，就有九人希望参观一所大学。

Trademark Tours in Boston has seen its bookings from China triple since 2010. All its groups request its "Hahvahd" tour; just over half also see M.I.T.

自2010年以来，波士顿的Trademark Tours网站收到的来自中国的预定增加了两倍。所有旅游团都要求进行"哈佛游"，还有超过一半的团体还参观了麻省理工学院。

Tour buses clogging the streets spurred Stanford to stop providing student-led tours to commercial groups last year and to cap the number of buses allowed on campus, said DJ Dull-MacKenzie, its director of visitor relations. His concern: becoming "the Disneyland of campuses."

斯坦福大学游客关系总监DJ·杜尔-麦肯齐表示，旅游巴士堵塞了街道，促使斯坦福大学去年停止为商业旅游团提供学生导游服务，限制校园停车数量。他担心校园会变成"迪士尼乐园"。

Wang Yuntao, 29, who works for a state-owned bank in Xi'an, stopped at Stanford, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California last fall while on a two-week visit. Why? "One reason is because they are famous. If you tour places that nobody's heard of, you can't brag about it."

29岁的王云涛在西安一家国有银行工作。他在去年秋天为期两周的旅行中，参观了斯坦福大学、加州大学伯克利分校和南加州大学。为什么呢？"一个原因在于这些都是很有名的大学。如果没人听说过你去的地方，你就不能吹嘘炫耀了。"

So what did he like?

所以，他喜欢什么呢？

"American universities are much more open than Chinese ones," he said. "There are no walls. There is drinking water and free bikes for everyone."

"美国大学比中国大学开放得多，"他说。"没有围墙。有为所有人准备的饮用水和免费自行车。"

And this: "I was excited. I felt this urge to have a free exchange of ideas with someone."

还有："我很兴奋。我觉得这促使我与其他人进行自由的思想交流。"