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The day began early. By 7:30 a.m., the 56 tourists from China were standing in line in the parking lot of the hotel in which they had spent the night.
这是早早开始的一天。上午7:30，来自中国的56名游客排成一队，站在头天过夜的酒店外的停车场。
They were eager to do the things first-time tourists do — sail past the Statue of Liberty, stand atop the Empire State Building and stroll through the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
他们盼着去做第一次来的游客都要去做的事——坐船看自由女神像，登顶帝国大厦，去大都会艺术博物馆逛逛。
But first they had to get to the city.
但他们得先到达那个城市才行。
That meant climbing aboard a shiny tour bus and settling in for a 45-minute ride past roadside billboards and a state prison and through the Holland Tunnel.
也就是说，他们要坐上一辆锃亮的旅游大巴，在路上行驶45分钟，沿途经过各种广告牌和一座州监狱，穿过荷兰隧道。
It is a scene that is repeated many times each morning in a stretch of New Jersey better known for oil refineries, swamps and traffic-choked highways than for providing beds for tourists from halfway around the world.
每一天早上，在新泽西州的某个地方，这样的场面都会出现多次，这里本来以炼油厂、沼泽和堵塞的交通干道而闻名，人们从没想到它还能为跨越半个地球而来的游客们提供床位。
But with the number of Chinese tourists to New York soaring, New Jersey has become an unlikely base camp for many of them, including this group, which had spent the night at the Wyndham Garden Newark Airport, a scant quarter-mile from one of the runways at Newark Liberty International Airport.
但随着来访纽约的中国游客激增，新泽西州居然成了其中很多人的过夜之地，这个旅行团也是其中之一，头天晚上这些游客就住在纽瓦克机场温德汉姆花园酒店(Wyndham Garden)，那里距离纽瓦克自由国际机场的其中一条跑道不足1/4英里。
Chinese sightseers are fueling a subculture of hotels that have cheap rooms and early-morning checkouts to give tour buses a chance to beat the traffic. Some New Jersey hotels, like the Wyndham Garden, have expanded their breakfast buffets to appeal to Chinese guests, serving such Chinese favorites as the rice porridge congee alongside American standards like waffles with maple syrup.
中国的观光客正在促发一种酒店亚文化：酒店提供便宜的房间，为方便游客大巴避开交通高峰，还有在清早就结账退房的服务。有些新泽西的酒店为吸引中国游客还扩展了自助早餐食谱，在经典的美式早餐枫糖华夫饼之外增添了中国人喜欢的稀饭等食品，温德汉姆花园酒店正是这么做的。
The number of Chinese visitors to the city jumped 182 percent from 2010 to 2013, according to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism marketing agency, and New York ranks second as a destination for Chinese travelers in the United States, after Los Angeles. How many Chinese stay in New Jersey is difficult to determine, but the tour company that sent the bus to the Wyndham Garden — one of many tour operators in the city that specialize in tours for Chinese people — dispatched 16 buses that picked up more than 600 Chinese tourists from several New Jersey hotels that day. The passengers ventured into the city as day-trippers, spending only a morning and an afternoon in Manhattan.
根据纽约旅游促进机构NYC & Company的数据，从2010年到2013年，来纽约的中国游客跳增182%，纽约成为赴美中国游客的第二大目的地，仅次于洛杉矶。究竟有多少中国游客在新泽西过夜，这个数字很难统计，但是派车来温德汉姆花园酒店接游客的这个旅游公司当天总共派出了16辆大巴，从新泽西的几个酒店接了600多名中国旅客，而纽约还有其他许多专做中国游客生意的旅行社。
Price is the big factor, industry analysts say. The average hotel room around the Newark airport was $116 a night last year, according to Mark VanStekelenberg, a senior vice president of PKF Consulting USA, which follows the hotel industry. The average in Manhattan was $294 a night, he said. But tour companies command discounts that can drive the cost lower.
业界分析师说，价格是重要因素。长期关注酒店业的美国PKF咨询公司资深副总裁马克·范斯特克伦伯格(Mark VanStekelenberg)说，去年纽瓦克机场附近的酒店房间均价是116美元一晚，而曼哈顿地区的酒店均价是294美元一晚。不过旅游公司会拿到折扣以降低成本。
The result is that many New Jersey hotels are filling rooms, even if they do not offer the same amenities as the Waldorf-Astoria. “People in New York and New Jersey think of Newark and New York as two different places,” said Sean Hennessey, the chief executive of Lodging Advisors, a hotel industry consulting company. “Outside this area, it’s all New York.”
其结果就是新泽西的酒店虽然不像华道夫-阿斯托利亚酒店(Waldorf-Astoria)那样便利，但也住满了人。“纽约和新泽西人都觉得纽瓦克和纽约是完全两个不同的地方，”酒店业咨询公司“租房顾问“(Lodging Advisors)的首席执行官肖恩·亨尼西(Sean Hennessey)说。“出了纽瓦克才是纽约。”
New Jersey had benefited as the economy strengthened with the end of the recession and business travel to Manhattan rebounded, said Warren Marr, a managing director of the consulting firm PwC. “When you get to where demand in Manhattan is really strong and rates in the hotels go up, you get this swoosh through the tunnels, and the hotels near Newark Airport fill in.”
PwC咨询公司的总经理沃伦·马尔(Warren Marr)说，随着经济衰退的结束，经济开始好转，前往曼哈顿的商务旅游亦出现反弹，新泽西也从中受益。“去曼哈顿的需求增强了，而酒店价格也增长了，这时就出现了商机，纽瓦克机场附近的酒店就填补进来了。”
Chinese travelers are hardly alone in New Jersey — tourists and tour operators from other countries book thousands of rooms a year there, especially for groups that fly into Newark. But a surging middle class in China and relaxed visa restrictions have opened leisure travel abroad to a much larger share of the population. Still, Mr. Hennessey said, tourism from China “remains significantly more cost-conscious than tourism from a lot of other countries.”
住在新泽西的并不只有中国游客——其他国家的游客和旅游团组织者们每年也会在这里预订成千上万个酒店房间，特别是那些飞往纽瓦克的旅行团。但随着中国中产阶级的增加，以及签证限制放松，中国人去海外旅游度假的人数大大增长。不过，亨尼西说，中国的旅行团“明显比其他国家的旅游团对价格更为敏感”。
New York tourism officials, not surprisingly, are striving to draw visitors to hotels on the other side of the Hudson.
不出人所料，纽约旅游行业的官员们正在努力把游客从哈德逊河对岸的酒店吸引过来。
NYC & Company has set up what it calls a training academy in Shanghai for Chinese travel agents who dream of breaking into the New York market. New York State opened a tourism office in China this year, and state tourism officials presented workshops, “Becoming China Ready,” in upstate New York in July to teach travel agents and local governments how to promote themselves to the Chinese market.
NYC & Company在上海建立起一个培训机构，为梦想打入纽约市场的中国旅行社提供培训。今年纽约州在中国设立了一个旅游办事处，今年7月，旅游业官员在纽约州北部举行了名为“为中国做好准备”的研讨会，向旅行社和地方政府传授在中国市场上做推广的经验。
China Southern Airlines, the country’s largest passenger carrier, recently added another destination: John F. Kennedy International Airport. China Southern is scheduling four flights a week from its hub in Guangzhou, in southeastern China. (There are already more than 24 flights a week from China at Kennedy and 14 at Newark Liberty.)
中国客运量最大的航空公司中国南方航空公司最近新添了一个目的地：约翰·F·肯尼迪国际机场。南航每周从位于中国东南部的航空枢纽——广州向肯尼迪国际机场安排四个航班（目前中国每周至少已有24个航班飞往肯尼迪机场，14个航班到纽瓦克自由机场）。
For tourism-dependent businesses like hotels, the appeal is straightforward. The average spending by travelers from China totaled about $7,427 a person last year, $941 more than in 2012, according to the Commerce Department. More than that, though, the Chinese market promises significant growth. Some projections put the increase in Chinese travelers to the United States at 35 percent a year.
对于酒店这样依赖旅游业的行业来说，吸引力是显而易见的。根据商务部的数据，去年中国游客在美国的人均消费是7427美元，比2012年增长了941美元。不仅如此，中国市场还有可能出现显著增长。一些机构预测前往美国的中国游客将以每年35%的速度增长。
Tour operators who specialize in bookings for Chinese say there are two main areas where Chinese tour operators look for hotel rooms in New Jersey, one around the Newark airport, the other along the New Jersey Turnpike around the exits for North Brunswick and Edison. They appeal to tour wholesalers booking groups that have spent a day in places like Washington or Philadelphia and plan to spend the next day in Manhattan.
专门针对中国游客做酒店预订的旅游从业者说，中国的旅行商主要在新泽西的两个地区找酒店房间：一处是纽瓦克机场附近，另一处是在新泽西收费高速公路靠近北布伦瑞克与艾迪森出口一带。它们对那些计划在华盛顿或费城之类地方游览一天，之后在曼哈顿游览一天的旅游团特别有吸引力。
For the Wyndham Garden, Chinese tourists provide “a steady flow of regular business” that cushions the ups and downs of the domestic market, said Don Sheneman, the general manager. Chinese guests, he said, represent 25 to 30 percent of check-ins, and one of the owners, Steven Wu, said the Chinese had pushed the hotel’s occupancy rate as high as 85 or 90 percent.
温德汉姆花园酒店的总经理唐·舍尼曼(Don Sheneman)说，中国游客已经成为该酒店的“日常稳定客流”，缓和了国内市场的高低起落。他说，中国游客占入住人数的25%到30%，酒店的另一位拥有者史蒂夫·吴（Steven Wu，音译）说，中国人将酒店的入住率提高到85%至95%。
To accommodate more guests, the hotel recently converted 50 of its 349 rooms to what are called double doubles. The hotel took one king bed out of each of those rooms and installed two double beds, so that more travelers could double up.
为了容纳更多宾客，酒店最近把349个房间中的50间改造为所谓的“双重双人间”——将这些房间里的一张超级大床搬出去，换成两个双人床。这样更多游客可以挤着住进来。
Even so, Michael Tchong, a tour operator who often books groups at the hotel, said New Jersey did not always have enough rooms to handle reservations for Chinese guests. “That’s how many there are,” he said.
尽管如此，经常在这家酒店为旅游团订房的旅游从业者迈克尔·洪（Michael Tchong，音译）说，在新泽西，有时不能为中国游客订到足够的房间。“中国游客就有这么多，”他说。
Mr. Tchong said that when Chinese visitors were told they would be staying in New Jersey, 30 minutes from New York City, some complained. “They say, ‘We’d rather be 15 minutes away, not 30,’ ” he said. “We put them in Secaucus.” (Secaucus is about six miles from the city.)
洪先生说，当中国游客得知自己将住在新泽西，离纽约市有30分钟车程时，有些人会抱怨。“他们说：‘我们想住开车15分钟就能到的地方，不是30分钟’，”他说。“我们会把这样的游客安排在锡考克斯。”（锡考克斯距离纽约市有六英里。）
Mr. Hennessey cited another advantage of hotels in New Jersey: Tour buses can return to the hotel during the day. “When you stay in the city, you have to worry about where you park the bus,” he said, while in New Jersey, “the bus can park over there.”
亨尼西说，新泽西的酒店还有一个优点：旅游大巴可以在白天回到酒店。“呆在城里的时候，你还得操心把大巴停在什么地方，”他说，而在新泽西，“大巴可以停在酒店。”
David Zhao, the tour guide on the bus from the Wyndham Garden, said the concept of staying in New Jersey on a trip to New York was hard for some Chinese to understand. “In China, hotels are usually all inside the city limits,” he said. “It’s just the opposite of the situation here.” He added, “In Chinese cities there are always hotels that are affordable.”
大卫·赵(David Zhao)是从温德汉姆花园酒店出发的那辆大巴上的导游，他说“去纽约旅游，住在纽瓦克”这个概念对于有些中国人来说很难理解。“在中国，酒店通常都在城区之内，”他说。“这儿的情况却正相反。”他还说，“中国城市里，总会有人们住得起的旅馆。”
As if to compound the confusion, some of the Chinese on Mr. Zhao’s bus had arrived a day or two earlier and had stayed in hotels in the city. Xia Yuyan, 32, and her father, Xia Xinhua, 74, said a Best Western hotel in Flushing, Queens, had let her father “acclimate to the United States first.”
更麻烦的是，赵先生这辆大巴上，有几个中国人是提前一两天到达的，他们住在城里的酒店。32岁的夏雨燕（音译）说，皇后区法拉盛的“最好的西部”酒店让她的父亲，74岁的夏新华（音译）“先适应了美国”。
He had arrived from Wuzhou, in eastern China. Ms. Xia had traveled from Versailles, Ky., where she has taught for a year and a half. She said she would not have known that she was not in New York if Mr. Zhao, the tour guide, had not mentioned it. “What’s the difference between New York and New Jersey?” she asked. “I know they’re in two different states, but what’s the difference?”
夏新华来自中国东部的婺州，夏雨燕则是从肯塔基州的凡尔赛赶来，她在那里教了一年半书。她说，如果导游赵先生不提，她根本不会知道自己没有住在纽约。“纽约和新泽西有什么不一样？”她说，“我知道它们属于不同的两个州，但这有什么关系？”
