揭祕：這些歐洲景點爲什麼會受到中國遊客熱捧？

近年來前往歐洲旅遊的中國遊客越來越多，老外們已經對大街上成羣結隊買買買的中國人見怪不怪。但是，中國人最愛去的一些歐洲景點恐怕會令很多老外大吃一驚：明明沒什麼特別的啊？這些景點爲什麼會獨受中國人的青睞呢？

Bicester Village 比斯特購物村

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.

根據英國旅遊局2017年的報告，每年有超過26萬中國遊客到英國旅遊。那麼中國遊客都去哪裏呢？報告稱“中國遊客對象徵性元素最感興趣：王室、莎士比亞、福爾摩斯、哈利波特和唐頓莊園”。所以溫莎城堡、埃文河畔斯特拉福、貝克大街、哈利波特的魔法世界還有海克利爾城堡肯定有一大羣遊客。

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.

然後是購物。中國遊客的消費數據真的很驚人。聯合國世界旅遊組織稱，2016年中國遊客在海外消費的金額達2611億美元（17972億元人民幣），相比2000年的100億美元大幅增加。美國人出國旅遊的消費金額總共是1236億美元，和中國人相比是小巫見大巫。

"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.”

《每日電訊報》旅遊頻道的薩莉·佩克曾在北京居住，她說：“憤世嫉俗的中國年輕人會輕蔑地告訴你，出國旅遊的中產階級嘴上說是去感受外國文化，但他們主要還是爲了去買東西，尤其是爲了在當地才能買到的歐洲品牌貨，然後帶回家向沒出國旅遊的鄰居炫耀。這也許在某種程度上可以解釋這龐大的消費數據。”

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.

這也解釋了牛津郡郊區的大型零售企業比斯特購物村爲什麼會在中國遊客造訪最多的英國景點排名中僅次於白金漢宮。四分之三的中國遊客是藉助倫敦馬裏波恩車站的中文路標和告示自行前往比斯特購物村的，其他人則是坐觀光巴士去的。

不過，此前有媒體報道稱，比斯特購物村的名牌打折品大部分都是爲折扣店專供的“打折品”，在正品商店裏從未正價銷售過。

King’s College, Cambridge 劍橋大學國王學院

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’:

劍橋大學國王學院有一棵樹很出名——至少對中國人來說是如雷貫耳。被多數英國人忽略的這棵柳樹在徐志摩那首廣爲傳頌的詩《再別康橋》中曾被提到。

The golden willows by the riverside

Are young brides in the setting sun;

Their glittering reflections on the shimmering river

Keep undulating in my heart.

那河畔的金柳，

是夕陽中的新娘；

波光裏的豔影，

在我的心頭盪漾。

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.

徐志摩曾在國王學院讀過一年書，在那裏他迷上了濟慈和雪萊的詩。回國後徐志摩就成了中國現代詩歌運動的領軍人物。因爲風流韻事而聞名的徐志摩年僅34歲就在一次墜機事故中喪生，而這棵柳樹就成爲粉絲們對逝去青春感懷的神聖之地。在柳樹旁邊還有一個紀念碑，是中國遊客必去的拍照之處。

Metzingen 德國麥琴根購物村

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.

德國的麥琴根購物村相當於英國的比斯特購物村。麥琴根鎮位於巴登-符騰堡州，臨近法蘭克福，雨果博斯就是在那裏創建的。這個地方除了數十家工廠店以外沒有太多吸引力。雨果博斯是第一個在那裏建廠的，從那以後，普拉達、耐克、巴寶莉、阿瑪尼和古馳等品牌也紛紛在那裏建廠。正如《經濟學人》雜誌指出的，許多名牌貨都掛着“中國製造”的標籤，諷刺的是在加上高額稅費後，中國國內的價格比這裏的價格要高出40%。

Bonn 德國波恩

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，很受中國遊客的歡迎。中國人喜愛古典音樂，尤其是貝多芬的音樂，這使得貝多芬的出生地成爲中國人歐洲遊的一個亮點。波恩市的旅遊委員會提供三種語言的地圖：英語、漢語和日語。

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).

英國遊客和中國遊客都愛去意大利的威尼斯、羅馬和佛羅倫薩，但中國遊客顯然比英國遊客更愛去維羅納。這是因爲中國人都很喜歡莎士比亞的《羅密歐與朱麗葉》。這部戲劇在英國本土當然很受歡迎，但是在中國卻加倍的受歡迎，因爲它是最早被翻譯成中文的莎翁劇作之一。而且，《羅密歐與朱麗葉》的情節和著名的中國民間故事《梁祝》極爲相似。意大利帽子街的熱門景點朱麗葉故居（故居陽臺下還有一尊朱麗葉雕像）雖然不一定是真的，但絕對是人流涌動。