ABSTRACT
Leisure travel in China dates back thousands of years. Emperors, scholars, monks, and other religious people were frequent travelers in ancient times, since they had positions of power, intellectual interests, or free time. In modern times, international travel to China was once controlled by wealthy or adventurous foreigners. They dominated the leisure travel industry, both as participants and as business operators. Thomas Cook and Sons, among other early international travel companies, opened an office in China during the 1920s (Hibbort 1990). Initially located in Shanghai, the company moved later to the old Hotel de Pekin in the country’s capital. These offices handled ground services for international and domestic tours in China. The earliest Chinese travel agency was initially set up as a travel division in the Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank in 1923 by Chen Guangpu, a banker who advocated the services after being poorly served by Thomas Cook and Sons. That division was later separated from the bank and renamed the China Travel Service, becoming the first-ever travel agency owned and run by the Chinese in China (Zhang 1995). However, the seemingly endless and ruthless wars of the late 1930s and 1940s essentially put an end to all pleasure travel in the country.
