JIUZHAIGOU, CHINA — By noon, the tour buses that ply the length of this U-shaped limestone valley are packed tight. Elbows are up. People are pushing.

“Are you going to walk?” someone hollers.

“Don’t bump!” comes the reply.

It’s a common scene in any major Chinese city, but here in northern Sichuan Province, 10 hours by bus from Chengdu, the crowds are surrounded by karst peaks and turquoise pools, not high-rise buildings and freeways.

Each day, tens of thousands of Chinese tourists board buses to visit the pine forests and mock-ethnic villages of Jiuzhaigou, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Admission costs 320 renminbi, or $47. For 25 renminbi more, visitors can rent a bejeweled, Tibetan-inspired costume and have their pictures taken by a local.

These sightseers, clad in Gore-Tex and Gucci, are fueling a boom in China’s domestic travel sector. Spurred by a mix of middle-class money, government support and interest in rediscovering China, the market is beating predictions and bucking global trends.

While the industry lost ground in Europe and the United States, China’s tourism sector posted a 9 percent jump in revenue 2009, to 1.26 trillion renminbi, thanks to domestic demand.

In 2010, total tourism revenue is expected to rise 14 percent, totaling 1.44 trillion renminbi, according to figures released Jan. 24 in state media reports.

“There is clearly an upward trend, a huge upward trend,” said Nancy Cockerell, a policy adviser at the World Travel and Tourism Council. “For the next 10 years, China will be leading the way.”

Though Chinese people have been on the move for centuries — as explorers, migrants and traders — leisure travel is relatively new to the People’s Republic. The post-Mao era afforded little time for holidays, and for most, money was scarce. The state regulated travel between provinces, so would-be wanderers needed papers and permission, in addition to cash.

As China’s economy began to gain momentum in the 1990s, the travel industry benefited. The number of domestic trips jumped 54 percent from 1996 to 2006, according to figures released by the China National Tourism Administration.

Higher incomes have driven up leisure travel, but the government has helped, too. As average incomes climbed, the state eased travel restrictions and increased the number of mandatory public holidays to 11 to drive demand.

Since 1999, Chinese workers have enjoyed “golden weeks,” a set of mandatory national holidays. There are now two per year, one held in autumn and one in winter.

The purpose is to get people spending — a strategy that seems to be working. During the National Day Golden Week holidays from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8 last year, 19.6 million tourists visited Sichuan Province alone, generating 7.7 billion renminbi in revenue, according to state media.

Nationally, tourism revenue has been climbing for more than a decade, and more people than ever are traveling.

The National Tourism Administration said domestic tourists had made 1.9 billion trips in 2009, an increase of 11 percent over the previous year, and generated 1 trillion renminbi of revenue, up 15 percent from the previous year.

But Ms. Cockerell of the World Travel and Tourism Council said the sector still had room to grow.

“For China, two billion trips is small,” she said. “When they start traveling like Americans, the numbers will be phenomenal.”

The world’s largest travel Web site, Tripadvisor, shares her optimism. In October, it said it had purchased Kuxun.cn, a Chinese flight and hotel search engine, as part of plans to invest $50 million in China through 2011.

Peripheral industries stand to benefit as well. With the rise of mass tourism comes the development of what Tim Winter, editor of “Asia on Tour: Exploring the Rise of Asian Tourism,” calls “travel culture.”

In China, travel culture means big money, he said: “People want the travel uniform; they want the gear.”

For sightseers who want more gear, the shops are ready to help. Visitors to the gift shop near the main cafeteria of the Jiuzhaigou National Park can purchase fox fur stoles (1,400 renminbi), faux fur hats (80 renminbi) or plastic back scratchers (30 renminbi).

Outside the park gates, rows of shops sell high-end travel equipment, including brand-name jackets, digital cameras and the latest in luggage.

Suitably attired, visitors to this once remote region can choose from dozens of hotels, including a Sheraton and an Intercontinental. At night, charter buses ferry guests to Tibetan shows, where, for about $25, they are treated to live music, dancing and food.

Leading the spending spree are China’s young urbanites. Overworked, wealthy and worldly, they have the means to travel and the desire to get away from city life.

“There are skyscrapers everywhere in Shanghai, but here there is natural landscape,” said Allen Zhang, a newlywed touring the park with his wife, Christine Xiong.

“Travel is a completely new lifestyle for us,” he added. “My father’s generation didn’t have the opportunity to travel.”

Mr. Zhang does, so he and Ms. Xiong flew to Sichuan to shoot their wedding pictures at Swan Lake, an algae-green pool famous for its glassy surface.

She stood by the water’s edge in a gauzy, white wedding gown; he beheld his bride through the lens of a tripod-mounted digital SLR.

They plan to travel every season, they said, and explore the country’s far reaches. “China is just a pretty, beautiful place,” Mr. Zhang said.

中文

九寨沟，中国——中午，在这个U型的石灰岩山谷里挤满了旅游大巴和游客。
“你究竟走不走啊？”有人喊道。
“别撞我！”有人回答。
这个景象在中国大城市很常见，但是在四川北部这个需要从成都坐10小时才能到的地方，人们不是被高楼大厦和高架桥围绕，而是喀斯特山尖和绿松石水池。
每天，成千上万的中国旅客乘车来到九寨沟参观松树林和少数民族村落。这个联合国教科文组织承认的世界遗产地点收费320元人民币，约合47美金。加多25元，参观者可以请当地人为他们穿上藏服拍照。
这些穿着哥的斯和古琦的游客现在成为了中国国内旅游的一大动力。这个国内旅游市场吸收着中产阶级和政府的资金，其增长速度之迅速打破了预期，并引发全球趋势。
正当旅游业在欧美失去立足之地的时候，中国的旅游市场得益于国内需求，在2009年带来了一个9%的收入增长，也就是1.26万亿元人民币。
根据1月24日国家媒体报告的数字显示，在2010年，总的旅游收入估计能上升14%，也就是1.44万亿元人民币的收入增长。
世界旅游业委员会的一位政策顾问南茜•科尔雷尔说：“这增长明显很快。在接下来的10年，中国会在旅游业一马当先。”
虽然中国人民在历史上作为探险者，移民，和商人经历过无数次的旅行，度假旅游对于新中国人民来说还是一个新概念。毛泽东年代之后假期很短，人民收入不高。于是国家制定了省份之间旅游的法规，使得旅行者有了保障。
随着中国经济在90年代飞速发展，旅游业也由此得益。根据中国国家旅游局的数字显示，国内游的旅游人次在1996到2006年间增长了54%。
人民收入的提高有力地推动了度假旅游，同时政府资助也起了推波助澜的作用。随着工资的上涨，国家放松了旅游的限制，把国家法定假期增加到11天，以增加内需。
自1999年以来，中国工薪族开始享受黄金假期。现在一年有两次，分别是国庆和春节。
这样做的目的是刺激消费，而且现在已经有了成效。据国家媒体称，去年国庆假期仅四川省就接待了1960万游客，带来了77亿人民币的收入增长。
国家旅游局称，国内旅游在2009年有19亿旅游人次，比去年同期增长11%，带来了1万亿的人民币收入，比去年同期增长15%。
周边产业也因此的得益。《亚洲旅游：探索亚洲旅行的崛起》的作者提姆•温特认为，随着大众旅游业的增长，旅游文化也开始发展起来。
在中国，旅游文化意味着赚大钱。他说：“游客喜欢买纪念服。”
既然游客想要纪念服，商家就摩拳擦掌。到九寨沟国家公园附近的纪念品店里可以购买狐狸毛袈裟（1400人民币），人工皮草毛（80人民币），或者塑胶背部抓扒工具（30人民币）。
在公园门外，成排的商店销售高端旅游设备，包括品牌夹克，数码相机，和最新款的行李箱。
穿着光鲜的游客来到这个偏远地区可以选择不同的酒店，包括喜来登和洲际酒店。晚上，专用游览车载旅客去看藏民表演。在那儿，25美金可以看到现场表演的音乐，舞蹈，和品尝美食。
艾伦•张与他的新婚妻子来到九寨沟国家公园旅游，他说：“上海到处都是高楼大厦，但是在这里有的是自然风光。”
“旅游是一种全新的生活方式。我父亲的年代就没有这个机会。”他补充道。
他们打算每个季节都去旅游，并打算走遍中国的边远角落。张先生说：“中国真的很漂亮。”

The original text is from:

China’s New Travelers Aren’t Far From Home – NYTimes.com.