Beijing embraced the first snow of 2015 on November 6th. The snow drove away the smoggy weather recently and improved air quality. With the early arrival of snow this year, many ski resorts around Beijing are planning to open to the public in advance. Tourists can go there to enjoy the fun in winter.

Recently, a tourist from mainland China had a quarrel with her tour guide when travelling in Hong Kong. The tourist joined a tour group at a low price but was forced to shop in a store which gave commission to the guide. A man died in his attempt to stop the quarrel. We can learn a lesson from the sad accident and not to be trapped when selecting travel agencies.

China will hold a troop review at Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2015 to commemorate the victory of World War II. A series of measures will be taken to ensure that the activity can go smoothly, like the imposition of martial law around Tiananmen Square and Wangfujing Street on August 22 and 23, and September 2 and 3, the closure of Forbidden City from August 22 to September 3. Visitors intending to go to Beijing should keep an eye on the event before making their travel plans.

Beijing has won the bid to hold 2022 Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games on July 31st, 2015, making it the first city to hold both Summer and Winter Olympics. Even though it is cold in winter, Beijing has many interesting places to have fun, like Bird's Nest, ski resorts, ice waterfalls, hot springs, and hotpot restaurants.

From June to July of this year, most provinces in Southern China have been struck by heavy rainstorms, which caused the loss of more than 100 lives and CNY 35 billion. On July 20th, the National Meteorological Center issued a warning of further rainstorms in most regions of southern China.

China has carried out tax rebate policy in Beijing and Shanghai among inbound visitors since July 1st, 2015. Someone think it will bring positive impacts to the two cities, like stimulating consumption, enhancing their competitiveness in inbound tourism markets, helping Chinese old brands to grow, while others think the impacts will not be seen obviously, as goods and prices in the tax free stores are not attractive enough, and European countries are undergoing an economic recession, etc.

Due to the danger oflandslides, Yangtze River section between Fengjie and Badong has been closed for all ships. This affects Yangtze River cruise in several ways: passengers will travel the blocked section by bus and change to another same level cruise ship after arrival; the Wu Gorge and Qutang Gorge will be missed; the side cruise to Three Little Gorges will be replaced by Shennong Stream or Shennv Stream. The reopening date of the section is still unknown.

Chinese people are trying their best to save the Yangtze capsizing survivors. They even use the Three Gorges Dam to block more water from upper stream to lower the water level of accident site for rescue work. As of 09:00 on June 4th, 2015, rescuers have found 80 passengers, including 14 survivors.

A cruise ship carrying 458 people sank at 21:58 on June 1st, 2015 in Shihou section of Yangtze River while heading from Nanjing to Chongqing. The rescue work began shortly after the accident and the sunken ship has been found. Currently, more than 100 ships are searching for survivors and over 10 have been rescued.

A video about a Yunnan tour guide insulting her clients got ’breaking news’ status and was widely circulated online. The public all took the side of the clients. But when looking into the issue, there were some others to be blamed, including the travel agency, the related tourism department, and even the travelers themselves.