Sports car driving in Las Vegas? Cruising, weaving and making fires in Guam? Eating an epic taco in Los Angeles? Groove with authentic jazz music at Chicago bars? Walk-in a lava tube in two active volcanoes in Hawaii? Or biking across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco? You may not have tried any of these things yet, but these nontraditional activities can truly turn a vacation into a trip of a lifetime.

 

According to Cameron Werker, Foreign Commercial Service Section Chief of the US Consulate General in Shanghai, 2.59 million Chinese tourists visited the United States in 2015, an 18 percent increase over the same period in 2014. 

 

In 2015, Chinese tourists spent $30.17 billion in the United States, an increase of 15 percent from 2014, making China the No.1 market for US travel and tourism exports and injecting nearly $83 million per day into the American economy. 

 

The office of the US Travel & Tourism Industry forecasts that Chinese visitation will maintain over 20 percent annual growth and that tourist arrivals from China will exceed 4.9 million by 2019, making China the third-largest international market for visitation to the US.

 

"Many destinations in the United States are starting to target Chinese tourism because the trend is skyrocketing," Werker told the Global Times, adding that to cater Chinese tourists, more destinations are adding Chinese signage, increasing the number of Chinese speaking staff and accepting Chinese UnionPay.

 

To better educate and offer unique travel experience to Chinese travelers, the Foreign Commercial Service of the US Consulate General in Shanghai will lead an Education Tour, beginning on June 27, through the East China region to promote new travel itineraries from six destinations: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Chicago, Guam and San Francisco.

 

 

Las Vegas is known for its gambling, but the racing industry has been catching up with Chinese tourists in recent years. Las Vegas offers a luxurious selection of exotic cars such as Ferrari and Lamborghini and tracks with unique configurations designed to get the most out of these sports cars in both straight tracks and high speed turns. 

 

Chinese visitors can try their hand at racing these exotic cars, coached by a professional racer, as long as they hold a valid Chinese driver's license. Those who don't can still tear through the tracks at lightning speed, sitting safely in the front passenger's seat.

 

Just a three- to five-hour flight from several major cities in China, Guam is known to many Chinese as an important military base between Asia and the North American continent. What is less known is its remarkable culture and traditional arts, which are believed to date back to 4,000 years.

 

The Chamorro are the indigenous people of Guam. They are commonly believed to have come from Southeast Asia in 2000 BC. They were experts at weaving and detailed pottery-making. The descendants of the Chamorro still live on the island, accounting for 40 percent of the ethnic composition, 2010 census figures indicated.

 

Some of their traditional arts, such as weaving and carving are still alive today and being passed down to younger generations. 

 

Visitors to Guam can gain access to various apprenticeship programs, where they can learn to make hand-crafted items from local weavers, carvers and blacksmiths, for example a basket or wall hangings using coconut fibers or even carving your own furniture out of local wood.