Word: china
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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That's an understatement. During the first three months of this year, China, which in 2004 overtook Italy to become the world's fourth most visited country, saw the number of international visitors drop by more than 7%, and its foreign-tourism revenue shrink by more than 15%. In Spain, year-on-year arrivals dropped by 16% in February - the country's sharpest decline in years. And in the tropical islands of the Caribbean and South Pacific, it's a case of surf, sand and empty beach chairs. In February, French Polynesia reported a 30% drop in year-on-year...
Boosting tourism, however, isn't merely about attracting foreign visitors: governments are also courting their own citizens. In China, local authorities have distributed domestic-travel coupons nationwide. In Wuhan, a city along the Yangtze River in central China, $146,000 worth of coupons were snatched up within 10 minutes at a promotional event, and the city has pledged more vouchers totalling $73 million. In Britain, it's estimated that 5 million more citizens will choose a "staycation" in the British Isles this year, rather than venturing to the pricey eurozone...
...Said, Xi Said I read with interest the essay "China's Turn" [April 13]. It stated that "Vice President Xi Jinping, on a recent trip to Mexico, blasted his hosts for harping on China's human-rights record, saying 'there are a few foreigners, with full bellies, who have nothing better to do than try to point fingers at our country.'" Having accompanied Vice President Xi during this trip, I can assure you nothing of the sort was said to any Mexican official or audience. Some Chinese news outlets have reported that Mr. Xi made this comment during a speech...
...painted two paintings and that I had sold one to Russia," he says. Sitting by her husband's side on a plastic stool, Niet's wife says she wishes that were true. "If he did paint copies," she asks bitterly, "would we be this poor?" (See pictures of the China-Vietnam border war, 30 years later...
...swine flu spreads around the world, China has acted with an aggressiveness that can only come from unpleasant firsthand experience with epidemics. Official cover-ups allowed SARS to spread in 2002 and 2003, eventually killing 349 on the mainland and leading to the sacking of both the Health Minister and the mayor of Beijing. In recent years, the country has waged a steady battle against avian influenza, which has killed two dozen people in China and prompted fears that it could mutate into a deadlier plague...