Right now, China is the world’s 4th most visited country by international tourist arrivals after France, USA, and Spain. With its fast growing tourism industry, more reciprocal deals with other countries, and exceptionally rich tourism resources, experts predict that China will become the 1st most visited country by international tourist arrivals by 2020.

So at this very moment, What’s Holding You Back from Traveling to China?

Taroko Gorge, located in downstream of Liwu Creek, near the entrance of the Central Cross-Island Highway. Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan is one of the most famous scenic mountain resorts. Taroko means “great mountains” in native language. As Liwu Creek water erosion constantly cuts through the uplift crust, the marble rock is exposed, thus forming the steep Taroko Gorge landscapes. 20 km-long Taroko Gorge is the world’s largest marble canyon.

During the 29th Olympic Games held in Beijing in summer 2008, Chinese government had also organized lots of exhibitions, trying to introduce more about China to athletes and tourists from all over the world. Among these exhibitions, traditional Chinese art had taken an important part.

Obviously, visitors were all astonished by the huge diversity and artistic delicacy of Chinese traditional art. They experienced a deep impression of oriental culture from them. So somebody summed up a list of top 10 Chinese traditional arts that foreigners like most.

This is a video uploaded by Chinese Civilization Channel at youtube.com . This pipa piece is the most viewed one of its 风华国乐 (Grace of Traditional Chinese Music) playlist.

This is just one example of videos uploaded by Chinese Civilization Channel. So far, I found it the best “China” channel on youtube. Since joining youtube on June 19, 2008, in about one year and a half, this channel has uploaded 13,400+ high quality videos organized with 147 playlists. It has attracted 4,400+ subscribers and ~12 million total upload views.

Puppet show is a common form of performance art that you can find in many different cultures. Although its exact date of origin is hard to define, many historians believe that puppet show is developed with other drama forms around 2000 years ago independently in various ancient cultures.

As a performance art, puppet show is believed to be “originated in Han dynasty, and thrived in Tang Dynasty”. In Three Kingdom Period, puppets were used in juggling performances; in Sui Dynasty, puppet show was introduced in storytelling.