2019-05-09
Space-themed tourism is taking off in China
The red planet is far away, but the Gobi desert isn’t
原文来源：The Economist 2019-5-3
Article
MEALWORMS WRIGGLE on a shelf in the botanical module of Mars Base 1, a simulated Martian habitat on the edge of the Gobi desert in western China. Guo Jiayu, a guide, tells a group of wide-eyed schoolchildren that, mashed up, such larvae could be part of the diet of astronauts should they reach the red planet. Elsewhere in the complex (pictured), neon-lit corridors lead to sleeping compartments and a control centre. Through an airlock lined with spacesuits awaits a rover, ready for exploring the rocky expanse outside.
The small installation is near Jinchang, a nickel-mining city in the western province of Gansu. It was built last year at a cost of around 50m yuan ($7.5m) by Bai Fan, a garrulous British-educated entrepreneur with the backing of private investors. For now Mr Bai is mainly using the base to teach students about travel to Mars. Eventually he hopes the facility will become the centrepiece of a resort. His company has secured the right to develop 67 square kilometres of the surrounding desert—an area bigger than Manhattan. The base has already hosted a reality television show, in which six celebrities pretended to be astronauts facing life-threatening challenges.
Businesspeople across China see money-making possibilities in the country’s quest for space-faring achievement. In January China became the first country to land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. It aims to send another one to the lunar surface this year to collect samples and bring them back to Earth (the last country to do this was the Soviet Union in 1976). Next year China wants to launch the main section of a new Earth-orbiting space station and send a rover to Mars.
There is clearly much public excitement. The number of people searching online for space-related museums, attractions and tours increased by 60% in 2018, reckons Ctrip, a Chinese travel agent. In March another Mars-themed attraction—a tourist camp accommodating up to 160 people—opened on the Tibetan plateau. Publishers are producing five times as many science-fiction titles as they were in 2011, says Sixth Tone, a Chinese news site.
In the southernmost province of Hainan, officials are hoping to cash in on a space-launch site that became operational there in 2016. Previously, such facilities were built in remote areas deep inland. The new facility is much more accessible to tourists. Its launches can be watched from a nearby sandy beach. For now, however, a more popular attraction is the world’s largest radio telescope, FAST, in a remote basin of another southern province, Guizhou. The instrument, which has a diameter of 500 metres, also opened in 2016. In the first half of last year alone, more than 5m visitors travelled to see it. Few of them got inside the facility itself: only 2,000 people are admitted daily. But nearby towns are littered with chintzy attractions.
Officials in Guizhou worry that the tourism boom might interfere with the telescope’s function. They are scaling back development plans in the area. But the Communist Party sees benefits in all this attention to space. It is generating patriotic fervour as well as enthusiasm for space science. An excited 13-year-old touring Mars Base 1 says she hopes to visit the planet itself one day. Americans were the first people to set foot on the moon, she says. Why shouldn’t the first on Mars be Chinese?
Notes
a simulated Martian habitat
模拟的火星居住地
a group of wide-eyed schoolchildren
睁大眼睛的，好奇的
become the centrepiece of a resort
最重要的项目
has secured the right to develop 67 square kilometres of the surrounding desert
取得这样的权利
money-making possibilities
赚钱的机会
the country’s quest for space-faring achievement.
追求航空事业的成就，a long search for
In the southernmostprovince of Hainan
最南边
But nearby towns are littered with chintzy attractions.
be littered with sth
to contain or involve a lot of a particular type of thing, usually sth bad 使饱含，使遍布（一般指不好的东西）
Your essay is littered with spelling mistakes.
你的文章里到处是拼写错误。
廉价的
They are scaling back development plans in the area.
scale sth down (NAmE also scale sth back)
to reduce the number, size or extent of sth 减少（数量）；缩小（规模或范围）
We are thinking of scaling down our training programmes next year.
我们考虑在明年缩小培训计划。
The IMF has scaled back its growth forecasts for the next decade.
国际货币基金组织已经调低了它对未来十年的增长预测。
patriotic fervour
爱国的热情
the first people to set foot on the moon
踏上月球
