Xinjiang Travel Incentive of the Century

Home » Humor July 30, 2009 3 Comments

There may be no better time than the present to travel to Xinjiang, says tourism chief Chi Chongqing.  We’ll make it worth your while.

It should come as no surprise that the tourism industry here has taken a nose dive into the desert sand and government officials are working hard to speed along its recovery.  Considering how vital tourism is to the economy here it’s good to see that measures are being taken to rescue an industry that has lost an estimated 1 billion yuan since the Urumqi riots.  Their proposal, however, falls short of impressive.

According to the 5 billion yuan bailout plan announced last week (that’s how much they expect to lose over the course of this year), each traveler to Xinjiang would be given a 10-yuan subsidy per day* as an incentive to visit the region.

A 10 Yuan bill from China
10 yuan per day!

Could you ask for a better deal?  I expect not.  That translates to about US$1.40, a ginormous amount that barely covers the cost of riding a camel.  But we’ve got high hopes out here in Xinjiang.  It has been predicted, according to the China Daily, that “the move could attract 50,000 tourist”.  We’re pretty optimistic, it seems.

Of course, people go to baseball games just to get a free bobble-head in America, so who am I to judge.

*As far as I can tell, this plan has yet to be passed by the regional government but if it does and you’re seriously looking to get your 10-yuan per day during your trip here, I wouldn’t even know where to point you.  Best of luck and please let me know who’s handing out the money and where.

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3 Comments

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  • ChinaGeeks said:
    August 1st, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    And what do they pay you per day to LIVE in Xinjiang?

    [Reply]

  • ChinaGeeks said:
    August 1st, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    Perhaps I should clarify that what I meant is, were I living in Xinjiang, I might be sort of annoyed that the tourists were all getting 10RMB/day, especially since an extra 310/month could make a huge difference for a lot of families.

    [Reply]

  • Chinamatt said:
    August 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    10 yuan per day would be pretty cool in Xinjiang–you can eat well in a lot of places on that. Wish I didn't have to wait til next summer to go back (assuming I have enough vacation time).

    [Reply]

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