By George H. Tsai
To most American families with children, the summer vacation season of 2001 is history. Many of them probably had visited such popular places as Disney World, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon, Miami Beach and Mount Rushmore, which are synonymous with vacation destination.
But to foreign tourists, New York City and Las Vegas are two must-see places, which attract visitors throughout the year.
The Big Apple is no doubt the most famous city on earth. Its population of more than 8 million and annual budget of $37.88 billion are probably larger than those of two-thirds of the nearly 200 nations in the world.
Foreign tourists know more about the city and visit more city attractions than we do. That’s incredible. Topping the most popular sites are the United Nations, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, World Trade Center or Twin Towers, Soho, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Rockefeller Center, Broadway and Fifth Avenue.
Believe it or not, a young friend from Taiwan recently told me how to take shortcuts from my home in College Point to Washington Street in Brooklyn, and then come back via Manhattan. It seemed as if he were a longtime resident in this area. In fact, he had been here less than a week. During that period, he visited quite a few points of interest in the New York metropolitan area. Obviously he did some research before he came to this part of the world.
Foreign tourists are impressed with the layout of the city’s avenues and streets. But our granddaddy subway system has little appeal for them. It’s dirty.
On several occasions, I found out a lot of people at the Broadway and Lincoln Center shows were non-English-speaking tourists. Despite the language barrier, they enjoy the mise en scene at the American theaters.
The name of New York is even better known than that of Coca Cola around the world. Many tourists think a trip to the United States without setting foot on the soil of New York City is not a trip at all. Some consider a visit to the Big Apple to be the fulfillment of their lifetime dream.
In November, I took a three-day sightseeing trip to Las Vegas and stayed at Luxor, a 4,408-room hotel. Inside the 30-story black glass pyramid and a pair of stepped-pyramid towers are all the splendor of ancient Egypt and all the technological wonders, paired with the no-holds-barred showmanship that made Vegas famous.
If you are interested in gambling and entertainment, then three days are too short.
There are about 700 churches of all denomination in America’s gambling capital. They are more than willing to accommodate couples who want to say “I do” and get a quick marriage certificate. Of course, many of the newlyweds are from foreign countries.
Las Vegas is a fun city. Its lavish overkill has made the former sleepy railroad town into a destination for the entire world to see and experience. In that desert city full of casinos, you could hit the jackpot or lose a lot of dough. In fact, few souls leave the gambling paradise as a winner.
You can stay at a five-star hotel at a cost of $50 a night, which will rise to $500 during the peak season.
Caesars Palace complex looks like a small city with its own “sky” and it is dotted with statues of real and fictional legends of ancient Rome. More than any other place, Caesars Palace is where Las Vegas’ past meets its future, and the collision of timelines creates something as spectacular as the ancient place for which it was named.
The fabulous show at the MGM Grand certainly pales in comparison to Broadway in terms of stage size and grandeur.
Another magnificent hotel/casino across from MGM is NY-NY. Like Caesars Palace, it seems to be a city in itself. A more faithful representation of its namesake would be hard to imagine. It shows off a facade that approximates the New York skyline featuring the Empire State Building and a casino interior modeled on such attractions as Time Square and Central Park. The Manhattan Express, a scary roller-coaster, speeds around the front of the complex at 67 mph.
Some foreign tourists think New York City and Las Vegas mirror the American way of life. That assumption is only partially correct. Remember New York and Las Vegas, like Rome, London and Paris, are not the true representation of their country.
To savor things Americana, visitors should go to the suburbs and rural areas.
