discussion keeps the world turning this is roundtable you're listening to roundtable with myself hi young I'm joined by you shouldn't and Steve Hatherley in the studio coming up what if the perfect vacation wasn't just about where you go but when you go meteorological tourism is trending with more people
chasing rare weather phenomena such as meteor showers and auroras how did these awe inspiring natural events inspire you to travel and we share with you what's brought us cheer to light this week join us for a dose of positivity laughter and all things that make my yes my heart sing as well in roundtable's
happy place your voice matters and we would love to hear it in our heart -to -heart segment got a question something you're itching to share fire up that voice memo and hit us up at roundtable podcast at qq .com our podcast listeners can find us at roundtable china on Apple podcast now let's switch it
up and explore meteorological tourism every year September 27th brings us world tourism day a time to celebrate the magic of discovering new cultures and places this year we're turning our gaze to a fascinating new trend meteorological tourism or simply put weather -inspired travel instead of just picking
a destination you're planning your next adventure around the weather whether it's stargazing under a meteor shower marveling at stunning snowfalls or soaking in the beauty of changing seasons how does the climate inspire your travel dreams so this year what is the theme of world tourism day and then
we'll get into the fascinating new trends this year yeah of course so I think before we start chasing the auroras I think the theme of the world tourism day is quite meaningful so this year under the theme of tourism and peace it wants to highlight the vital role of this sector tourism in fostering
fostering peace and understanding between nations and cultures and in supporting peaceful processes this year Georgia will proudly take the stage as the host country for world tourism day and you may think how tourism can be related to peace so this theme emphasizes tourism's ability to connect cultures
promote economic growth and enhance mutual understanding among nations and through exposure to new cultures travelers develop increased tolerance and appreciation for diversity which ultimately supports global peace I'm reminded of the film Zootopia yeah that's about diversity just kidding the history
a little on the background if you're curious to know it's been observed since 1980 the day commemorates the adoption of the UNWTO that's a lot of letters that means the UN World Tourism Organization statutes back in 1970 a milestone that helped to lay the foundation for global tourism and the timing
of the day as well as quite symbolic as it marks the end of the busy summer tourist season in the northern part of the world in the northern hemisphere but as things wrap up travel wise in the north things begin to travel pickup travel wise in the southern hemisphere so it's kind of that point halfway
in between yeah maybe you know China has more peak tourists seasons I think but at least this reflects to some extent the meaning of travel I think you know going to different places experiencing different time zones maybe climates and cultures and local customs and you can have different reflections
through your journeys oh definitely that is part of the beauty of travel period and also maybe just alluding to what you should mention just now for Chinese people the upcoming National Holiday Week is one of the biggest travel seasons so I suppose this is actually a really good time if you want to
go outside of China to travel because I know a lot of the places are gonna be packed here but cuz outside of China folks aren't it's not peak season for travel for those guys right so that means the tickets are gonna be plentiful and probably not very expensive and then it's great for us to have a little
bit of time to go outside and take that opportunity take that advantage of international travelers are probably staying put and we have that week to go out that window yeah to to avoid the crowds here in China right but we're talking in this discussion yes tourism day world tourism day but more specifically
meteorological tourism that word it's much it's gotta be one of the hardest words in English I think to say meteorological tourism what's the difference between meteorology and climate as we get into this more specific tourism discussion yeah so after I give you some examples then I think we can get
to know some of these ideas of meteorology so meteorology refers to all the physical phenomena in the atmosphere such as wind clouds ring snow frost dew ringbows halos and thunder nice yes but in contrast climate you know pertains to the long -term average conditions of the atmosphere in a specific region so in comparison the former
occurs over shorter time frames and is less predictable often requiring rear real -time updates from satellites well the latter one which is the climate is you know characterized by a high degree of predictability over longer periods reflecting the geographical attributes of the area yeah so you know
we can see some of these examples of meteorological tourism you know they can be actually generally divided into I think three parts so one is weather landscape resources such as clouds ring snow light and rare a strong michael astronomical phenomena and like the meteor shower right so the second category
is climate and environmental resources such as climate related to health preservation experience and paleo climate relics and the third one is humanistic meteorological resources such as meteorology and history and also man -made facilities and buildings like museums so basically we can get to know a lot
of information through different so what are some of these popular examples of climate and meteorological tourism that people enjoy these days I think maybe in the past domestic tourism trends revolved around off -season vacations maybe migratory bird health retreats this is especially popular among
elderly people who travel to warmer regions for several months when the weather in their hometown gets a little bit too chilly and that helps to boost economies to where they are traveling and I think a good example would be Canada because my parents migratory bird they're called snowbirds in Canada and elderly
older Canadian people will often travel to very warm places in the United States for example Arizona is a popular place my parents had a home in Florida and which is another popular place California works as well going from Canada down way down south when Canada has its wintertime that's a popular thing
for Canadian people to do and a lot of people own homes as well my parents owned a home in Florida Canadians own around a hundred thousand homes in Arizona as well this is really important for the economy locally too because those people who own a hundred thousand homes in Arizona they spend about a billion and a half
dollars a year in those local communities plus the extra Canadian tourists who go there as well so that's that's a good example in China is that a popular thing the migratory bird or snowbird concept I think so and it's quite popular in Hainan which is the southern part of China and you know north northeast
Chinese frequently moved to Hainan for the winter because it is really really cold in northeast of China and then you know basically you will meet I think at least let's say five people from northeast of China when you are in Hainan oh yeah so I mean ten five out of ten people half so but um there are there
were nearly 200 ,000 migratory elderly from Harbin which is northeast China living in Sanyal which is in Hainan a decade ago hmm and we've probably only seen numbers shoot up in recent years yeah and I remember traveling to Hainan and I was trying to find some authentic local food and then finally found
this restaurant went in and everybody from the from the patrons to the chef and waiters all spoke in a dongbe accent that's a northern accent oh yeah that's gonna be northerners have taken over yeah that's one example another rising trend is tourism driven by trending topics for example some locations
have gotten popular due to their cultural or seasonal perhaps significance I'm reminded it wasn't a trend it's not a trending topic anymore but when I lived in Halifax Nova Scotia I lived nearby a cemetery that had yeah the end of this sentence is important victims of the Titanic oh yeah because when the Titanic
sank Halifax was the closest major port with rail connections so a lot of people from the Titanic were buried in Halifax and it's it's kind of weird to say but tourists will often come to pay their respects you don't think of a cemetery as a tourist destination but a lot of people from America will come
and pay their respects on a yearly basis and yeah it's also the same in China recently we know the popularity of the hit game black myth Wukong so it has actually brings popularity to a city to areas in Shanxi which is in northern China because they have a lot of grottles and statues there and also they
they took a lot of images from Shanxi so it is becoming a hotspot and it actually boost popularity and and the number of tourists yeah because of the game yeah TV shows sometimes right will you know if you see a cafe in a city or a TV show is shot a drama is shot in a particular place that can help
tourist numbers as well oh definitely and to the wander that's what a really popular and chill Chinese TV drama that's captured a lot of attention certainly has made Alotat in Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region a super popular tourism spot I don't know how locals feel about that but well there's good
and bad right definitely extra yawns rolling in and that's a good thing when we talk about meteorological tourism what comes to mind first is a little bit romantic chasing stars so is that sort of the really popular example or actually for some time now I've seen with Chinese tourists especially those
with a little bit more experience of traveling they want to chase this trend as opposed to the more traditional of hitting all the major landmark tourist spots in cities or towns as such would Harbin be a good example the ice festival the snow festival in the wintertime would that be a good example
of meteorological tourism yes people traveling specifically for that yes especially for this area is famous of you know the ice and snow and that's why this kind of wild meteorology is attracting a lot of people to go to you know northern China a northeastern China to see no matter it's the ice and sea and the the wonderland of ice
also maybe the one we caught rhyme it is very famous in you know frost rhyme frequently forms along riversides in urban areas and also it is making northeastern China very accessible for many you know tourists without the need to travel to remote scenic spots so with the frost and rhyme are you talking
about those beautiful white crispy almost crystals yeah like covering the pine trees yeah and that's a really beautiful scene in a lot of cities towns in north eastern part well actually north eastern part I would think in wintertime would be in the north yes north eastern part of China and then that's
a really beautiful scene to enjoy and actually it's really it's cheap you don't need to you don't have to go to certain spaces and then it's readily available during that period of time and winter and just beautiful and speaking of you know chasing the stars it is quite popular I have to answer you
I I recently attempted to chase the meteor shower which is called the Perseids you know there's one thing I didn't know before and I wonder if you do many meteor showers occur annually and have fixed timings do you know that now they you can set your watch to yes so for example this Perseids occurs
every year around July 20th to August 20th and with the peak time usually between August 12th and 14th so but but I mentioned it in previous shows due to weather conditions and light pollution it can be you know quite difficult to see them in the city but in rural areas it may easier to see but my point
is that even though we we didn't see it I try to chase it but we didn't see it there are really more and more people around us and on social media who are paying attention to chasing the stars and joining the Aurora Borealis another example in northern Canada different spots across the country but always
north hence the title northern lights I suppose but yeah you talked about light pollution they say that the northern lights are visible about 300 nights a year which is a lot but the how well you can see them will depend on on light pollution depending on where you are right and it all kind of makes
Iceland a really popular place for is it called solar halos and meteorological tourism exactly yeah Sweden if we're gonna talk about that part of the world I was looking up hotels recently I guess I'm itching for a vacation myself last year in December the ice hote ice Hotel 34 opened on December 23rd
so this is kind of a cool thing they have in Sweden they have hotel ice hotel 365 which is all year ice hotel 34 and 33 and 32 and 31 they melt each year and they build it again the next winter out of ice everything in the hotel is made out of ice including your bed they have rooms that are that are made
completely out of ice 34 nice yes you do they put these like kind of like fur blankets on the ice that was last year 34 so I guess it would be ice hotel 35 this coming winter but it's just meteorological tourism I guess that it qualifies as well they they use the climate to create a tourist attraction and people
go there specifically for that reason yes and there are some more extreme options that I would love to get into as well be lean more towards adventure and risk -taking and I have to admit the first time when I saw this in the u .s.
I was gobsmacked people who chased tornadoes storm chasers and storms and that's just crazy yeah that's not a hobby of everyone yeah let's not lead our audience to to think that that's storm chasing is something that you'll see on television they make TV shows out of this but yeah you're no you're right
that's a that's an example of meteorological tourism for sure just not so common perhaps right and I suppose you have to be well it's best if you're especially trained or at least you're equipped with the necessary gear and maybe a camera crew with you to engage in that kind of thing and do you see
meteorological tourism as enjoying a big market or is it still pretty niche generally it's quite niche but we can see it is definitely growing you know it has grown to continuously in China in recent years and will maintain maintain a rapid growth trend in the coming years according to the report on meteorological
tourism development released by the China meteorological tourism development Institute China's meteorological service industry is predicted to exceed 300 billion yuan that's about 42 billion US dollars by 2025 so we absolutely can see the trend is growing and it's not only about the stats it's also about the people
who are paying attention to it and they're all around us yeah globally expected to grow as well right and meteorological tourism is definitely one things still pretty new for Chinese people and we're seeing that this could be the new growth point and certainly one area that's attracting a lot of attention when people
plan for their vacations and as meteorological tourism continues to grow it offers not just a unique way to experience the world but also a chance to reflect on how we can travel more responsibly so let's remember that preserving the environments that host these breathtaking moments is a journey we
must all embark on together coming up welcome to the happiest corner on the airwaves roundtables happy place delivery delivery delivery what is it happiness from round table roundtables happy place you have a big smile on your face I know you're ready to share yes of course so my happy place this week
is that something that I actually reviewed a little bit in the previous topic it's about blacksmith Wukong I am NOT going to visit Shanxi but I finished the first playthrough of this game oh you finish the game yes okay what's the official review so it was deeply immersive I would say and rewarding
experience and it's it's I think it's faster than I expected it's basically more than a month but I'm maybe that's also why I felt both exciting and bit bittersweet yeah by the way finishing a game in a month in gaming is considered a short amount of oh is it oh I heard this is a really difficult game
a difficult RPG action game and so when when we are thinking about you know the whole depth of the game storyline and intricacy behind each character and encounter you know the whole journey turns the gameplay into a long -term introspective experience I would say rather than just another fast -paced
action game but you know I can still see some of the improvement spaces from this game you know the complexity of course particularly in discovering hidden quests hidden missions and seems you know both thrilling and challenging of course but maybe it could be part of the appeal for many players I may also feel
slightly inaccessible without you know any external help like guides or walkthroughs so it's quite hard so it's not perfect but at least it represents a milestone for Chinese gaming industry this is I think the first Chinese AAA game I've played and I'm confident it won't be the last one very nice glad
you enjoyed it yeah of course yes and okay I'll share with you a little bit more thoughts I suppose on the gaming story because this is on our minds all this time and yesterday we talked about this today you shouldn't you brought it up again and it's a really monumental moment I suppose for Chinese
gamers as well as developers on what with the big game like this one this this is China's first triple AAA game and it's a global smash success by the looks of things yes and triple -a like in China we have all these different definitions apparently a lot of time a lot of resources a lot of people who are doing
this or this or that but apparently you know there's not really a sort of official carved in stone definition basically this means that it's a mega game with a lot of investment that goes into it and it's really difficult for any company to come up with this one something like this especially in China because we're
not talking about super established game studios game science the company behind black myth wukong actually is a small company and it's never done anything like this before so it's really like exciting for people to see this to happen yeah and these types yeah if you're not into video games then maybe
the world word triple -a doesn't really mean anything to you yeah there are tons and tons and tons of video games to put it in a context to get released every year there are new video games coming out every single month and some of them are quite small and they're released by small studios and they don't
get a lot of attention and they're cheaper than other games but these triple -a games these are the ones that get all the media attention and usually these games are from the west this is China's first hello we're here now in that industry and that level of the industry and that's why this is such a big
deal what's an even bigger deal is that the game is good and that people are enjoying it because if this triple -a game came out from China and it fell on its plate on its face and nobody liked playing it and the gameplay was kind of like it's kind of clunky and you know the characters don't make much
that would have been it yeah but actually this is really defied all of those criticisms and a lot of people weren't well you've got the the haters and those who love it and are ready to defend it and it's just really great to see that sometimes you don't really need to engage with the gaming journalism
that can be kind of biased sometimes and just let the product the game speak for itself because for the gamers the users don't really care about the background they just want a real game good gameplay and their game for what's fantastic and with a triple -a game like this one it's just it was almost
impossible for it to be made because we're talking about like more than three years of investment and it's a lot of money that goes into it and who's ready to invest that amount of resources into something that doesn't necessarily have let's say you know just make us a demo or a prototype of some sort
to to make the investors feel that this is a safe investment and it was just so it's really difficult for these games to come about but game science you did it yeah and the release of these triple -a games it's almost like the release of a new cell phone but even on a bigger level because a new phone
comes out every single year even though it's a big thing but these triple -a games are sometimes in production for not just three years sometimes more sometimes four five six years or more and the buildup to it is so huge so that's why this is such an exciting success story that's why I think it's so incredible
how these developers I mean game science brought such a rich beloved cultural tale to live with modern gaming and attracting global audiences and I am so proud of knowing and understanding the background of the whole story yeah and that just makes us feel like it's more than just a game it's a cultural
phenomenon in the gaming world and I saw one top gamer from the US I think and he only found out that jubajie is not a rat but a piggy in the end and so it would just be really great and I still haven't found out ways but you know to promote to maybe people understand this background a little bit more
and then it'll be just even more enjoyable
