US travel agents explore tourism opportunities

SHANGHAI — During her first visit to China, Jennifer Chernay, a travel consultant from the United States, posed for photos on a bench along the winding corridor of the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai, holding a stuffed panda.

The garden Chernay visited has many attractions, including traditional Chinese pavilions, greenery, ponds and views of the skyscrapers in Shanghai's financial zone.

"Yuyuan Garden is a place where tradition meets modernity. I like it," says Chernay, who works at Kahala Travel.

From Sept 9 to 20, she and more than 10 other travel agents from the US, many of whom were visiting China for the first time, explored cities such as Beijing, Xi'an in Shaanxi province, Chongqing and Shanghai, riding the "China Travel" wave, which has become a popular trend on social media.

"I think it would be a great experience for my clients to taste China's spicy Sichuan food or Beijing duck and meet friendly Chinese people," Chernay says.

She says that Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi'an, where the tour delegation viewed the Terracotta Warriors and experienced making warrior models, had left a deep impression on her.

The group found it difficult to make the little Terracotta Warrior figurines, so it was "mind-blowing" to think that ancient Chinese people built the life-size ones by hand, she says, noting that she was impressed by their wisdom.

Gabriel Valeriano, a marketing assistant at California-based Elite Voyages, says: "In China, there are high-speed trains from one city to another and many places have subways and buses. Public transportation is easy and we do not always need to rent a car."

Valeriano says that in-depth tourist routes connecting cities like Beijing, Xi'an, Chongqing and Shanghai would be attractive to his clients. "People should see the past, present and future of China," he adds.

He says that traveling to Asia has become more popular as the country has gained increasing exposure on social media in recent years. China's 144-hour visa-free transit policy has also benefited the development of Asia cruise tours.