This is fascinating. These two videos from the China-based Blue Ocean Network contain interviews with a Chinese couple that recently traveled Route 66.
Those in the tourism industry should take notes.
Part 1:
Part 2:
The number of Chinese tourists in the United States reportedly will reach 100 million a year by the end of the decade. And a portion of those tourists will undoubtedly travel Route 66.
That is wonderful!
Coming soon to Route 66..Galena, Kansas .
We are very pleased to announce that “Union Chapel School” will be re-built on “Route 66′ on the north end of Galena, Kansas and will be a wonderful asset to our town.
We have the cook room of the school finished and ready to be moved to town as soon as the rest of the school is re-constructed.
The school will be used to house: Cherokee County Country Schools, Memory Lane Photo Gallery and Pioneer Historical Research Library.
There will be pioneer country school lessons for the children of the fourth grade every spring and fall for all area schools, G.E.D. classes, Jam sessions for all area musicians, family and school reunions, weddings and much more.
We have 25 books full of country school group pictures of area schools. Ten years of my research will go into the research library. We will display lots of old school group pictures.
For more info: carolynfromkansas43@yahoo.com
Having spent 6 years in Asia I can understand the couple’s impressions of America in and around Route 66. I would have advised them to continue east and see the powerful engine of what makes America run. Asians all have issues with how we seem to have control over our lives and what we’ll do for a living. There, many issues control what they end up doing and the pressure is always on to make money and become wealthy. I also liked their comments about Americans and the size of our houses, again, that is universal thinking in Asia. To them a house is functional and not a status symbol. Space is used wisely, and is not always subject to how much money you have to buy land, etc. Here, of course, you can buy all the land you want and build as big as you can afford.
Unfortunately, we may live to regret the current wave of Asian tourism. These people bring cameras, and photograph everything. If you have not noticed, China has been buying all the scrap metal, including copper, steel, carbodies and everything they can get their hands on for the past several years. They will use it to build up their military among other things. The Chinese demand for scrap is such, that U.S. scrap dealers now, are having a hard time getting scrap to sell them. We’d be in a hard pinch here, if we had to build up our own defenses. Remember Pearl Harbor!!
Regards,
Steve Davis
OKC
Somehow, with oodles of nuclear defenses on our side, I very much doubt the Chinese will do a Pearl Harbor-style attack anytime soon.