British attractions given new Chinese names

Britain's national tourism agency VisitBritain released the new Chinese names of 101 famous places and tourist attractions in Britain on Monday, in an effort to capture more attention from Chinese visitors.

The 1.6-million-pounds (2.46 million U.S. dollars) campaign "GREAT names for GREAT Britain" has attracted the attention from nearly 300 million Chinese internet users via its social media accounts in China in the past ten weeks.

VisitBritain said more than 2 million people visited the campaign pages and nearly 30 million Chinese watched the launch video. Chinese people gave 13,000 new names for those listed places.

With a height of 309 meters, the Shard, the tallest skyscraper in the European Union, for example, has been suggested as Zhai Xing Ta, meaning a tower allowing people to pluck stars from the sky.

While the King's Cross St Pancras has been given a magical name, Mo Fa Huo Che Zhan, or magic train station, as the station is one of the most famous landmarks in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series Harry Potter.

Savile Row, a street in Mayfair, central London, known for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, has been suggested to be called Gao Fu Shuai Zhi Lu, which means a street for the tall, rich, and handsome, or Custom made rich people street.

A small island of Wales with a very long name, Llanfair-pwllgwyn-gyllgo-gery-chwyrn-drobwll-llanty-silio-gogo-goch, might be called Jian Fei Cun, meaning Healthy-lung village.

VisitBritain said all 101 places have been given their three most popular Chinese names, and the agency will work with those attractions in the coming weeks to decide which name they will use.

"We want Britain to be the most attractive and welcoming destination for Chinese travellers in Europe. The naming campaign has given these London locations and landmarks huge exposure across China and created a new affinity with potential tourists," said Joss Croft, Marketing Director at VisitBritain

"We hope the points of interest involved will embrace their new Mandarin name and attract more high-spending tourists from this rapidly growing market," he added.

Statistics showed that in the first nine months of 2014, about 156,000 Chinese people visited Britain, contributing 411 million pounds to Britain's economy. Chinese tourists currently spend an average of 2,508 pounds per visit compared to the overall average spending of 640 pounds per visit.

VisitBritain said, as the world largest outbound market, Chinese visitors to Britain spend 500 million pounds annually, while the value of the market will be doubled by 2020. (1 pound = 1.54 U.S. dollars) Enditem