An enormous, faux-ceramic-baijiu urn greets visitors to the Yanghe Winery Culture Tourist Area in Suqian, Jiangsu Province. 

江苏省宿迁市洋河酒厂文化旅游区，一个巨大的人造陶瓷白酒瓮在迎接游客。

It’s a metaphor for the size of that which lies dormant inside the urn. And yes, it’s full (of you know what). The move, invisible to all and therefore somewhat pointless, would have been be a matter of national pride.

这是对瓮内休眠物质大小的隐喻。是的，它已经满了（你知道吗）。这一举动对所有人来说都是看不见的，因此有些毫无意义，但它本来是一个民族自豪感问题。

Going into that therein are waters which come in part from nearby Hongze Lake and Luoma Lake.

其中的水部分来自附近的洪泽湖和骆马湖。

In the former’s Hongze Lake Wetland Scenic Area, the first thing to hit you is the silence. Then something else becomes abundantly clear. The place is alive. Very alive.

前者的洪泽湖湿地风景区，首先映入眼帘的是一片寂静。然后其他事情就变得非常清楚了。这个地方还活着。很有活力。

For the Hongze Lake wetland is a stopover for over 200 migratory-bird species, some of which are National First Grade Protected Species, such as the red-crowned crane and oriental stork. Then there are also the protected egrets, cygnets and black terns.

洪泽湖湿地是200多种候鸟的停歇地，其中有丹顶鹤、东方鹳等国家一级保护动物。还有受保护的白鹭、小天鹅和黑燕鸥。

Their calls break the silence in an unspoiled-wetland wilderness, one where the only sign of humanity is a mobile-phone tower in the distance. That, and a soaring melody extolling the beauty of Hongze Lake, the fourth-largest freshwater lake in all of China, to visitors on board the comedic-tourist road train.

他们的叫声打破了未受破坏的湿地荒野的寂静，这里唯一的人类标志就是远处的手机信号塔。伴随着高亢的旋律，在喜剧旅游公路列车上向游客歌颂中国第四大淡水湖洪泽湖的美丽。

“Hongze Lake, the wonderful
Great Wetland, the beautiful.
The clean and clear water
Reflects views that never fade.”

“洪泽湖，奇妙的大湿地，美丽的。清澈见底的湖水映照着永不褪色的景色。”

There can be no mistake that the booming wetlands are the next big thing in China tourism. Legally, they have received a shot in the arm too. On 1 June, 2022, as the first such law of its kind, was officially implemented the Wetland Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China. It’s a law that provides an important legal basis for all of society to carry out wetland protection and restoration.

毫无疑问，湿地的蓬勃发展将成为中国旅游业的下一个重大事件。从法律上讲，他们也受到了一针强心剂。 2022年6月1日，我国第一部此类法律《中华人民共和国湿地保护法》正式实施。该法为全社会开展湿地保护和修复提供了重要的法律依据。

Not so far away lies the Shuanggou Liquor Cultural Tourism Zone. Located at the intersection of the Huai River and Hongze Lake, Shuanggou is China’s only wetland distillery.

不远处就是双沟酒文化旅游区。双沟位于淮河与洪泽湖交汇处，是中国唯一的湿地酿酒厂。

And it’s also China’s only distillery that adopts drunken-ape culture as its theme, thanks to a finding of the earliest gibbon fossil in the area in 1977. Completely different from other gibbon fossils unearthed in Africa, Europe and elsewhere in Asia, this particular ape, experts believe, was three sheets to the wind.

这也是中国唯一一家以醉猿文化为主题的酿酒厂，这要归功于1977年在该地区发现的最早的长臂猿化石。专家认为，这种特殊的猿猴化石与非洲、欧洲和亚洲其他地区出土的其他长臂猿化石完全不同，专家认为，它是三张纸。

The world’s first drunk.

天下第一醉。

Earning its nickname, “Shuanggou Drunken Ape”, the fossil was dated back to the Miocene Epoch, some 10 MYA. The ape may have been plastered, but its hangover (without doubt the longest in all of history) today provides gainful employment for thousands, in an industry that is one of China’s largest money spinners.

该化石被称为“双沟醉猿”，其历史可以追溯到中新世，距今约 10 MYA。猿猴可能已经被打上了膏药，但它的宿醉（无疑是历史上最长的）今天为数千人提供了有酬就业，而这个行业是中国最大的摇钱树之一。

Shuanggou is also one of the brands owned by the liquor behemoth that is Yanghe, in turn a producer of one of China’s dominate red wines.

双沟也是白酒巨头洋河旗下的品牌之一，而洋河又是中国主导红酒之一的生产商。

According to Yanghe’s website, Shuanggou “changes the traditional concept that baijiu only focuses on taste. It integrates the concepts of healthy drinking and production [plus] technological innovation”.

据洋河公司网站介绍，双沟“改变了白酒只注重口味的传统观念。它融合了健康饮酒和生产[加上]技术创新的理念”。

That high tech is manifest at Shuanggou by a 1,200-metre-long roll conveyer that intelligently and near silently propels around cases of finished product, to be ultimately received by robots with sufficient reach to store them by the pallet around a warehouse 40 rows deep and 24 metres high.

双沟的高科技体现在一条 1,200 米长的滚筒输送机上，该输送机智能地、近乎无声地围绕成品箱推进，最终由机器人接收，机器人具有足够的工作范围，将它们存放在 40 排深、24 米高的仓库周围的托盘上。

Then the fun begins. Along their tour, visitors are introduced to a geometrically-challenged room and directed to follow the arrows on the floor. The offset sense of balance in the inner ear generated by the room, plus a shot of alcohol provided directly prior, is sufficient to give visitors the disorienting impression of being on a ship rolling heavily in high seas. 

然后乐趣就开始了。在参观过程中，游客会被介绍到一个几何形状有挑战性的房间，并被引导沿着地板上的箭头前进。房间产生的内耳平衡感的偏移，再加上事先提供的一杯酒精，足以让游客产生一种迷失方向的印象，就像是在公海中沉重地滚动的船上。

It’s safe to say the folks at Shuanggou certainly have a sense of humour. It’s tourism with Chinese characteristics. And it’s not over yet.

可以肯定地说，双沟人确实很有幽默感。这是具有中国特色的旅游。而且事情还没有结束。

Back at Yanghe, in the City of Suqian, the Yanghe Winery Culture Tourist Area sprawls over an area of some 4.5-million square metres.

回到宿迁市的洋河，洋河酒厂文化旅游区占地约450万平方米。

Therein, interested visitors shall learn of the rice, corn and wheat, cut from Yanghe’s 600-square-kilometre base of grain from nearby counties, and combined with a few other select (and secret) ingredients, which will be crushed to become the mash to fill some 4,300 fermentation pits. 

其中，感兴趣的参观者将了解从附近县的洋河 600 平方公里的粮食基地切下的大米、玉米和小麦，并与其他一些精选（和秘密）原料混合，这些原料将被粉碎成糊状，填充约 4,300 个发酵坑。

The epic nature of the undertaking is closed out by they all being housed in a single shed; Yanghe 31 Kua, measuring a whopping 698 metres by 133 metres.

由于他们都被安置在一个棚屋里，这项工作的史诗般的性质就被结束了。洋河31跨，长698米，宽133米。

After getting to see much of this in action, the real-life production of the nation’s national spirit, it’s back to school. Or rather, chemistry class.

在亲眼目睹了这一切的实际行动，即国家民族精神在现实生活中的表现之后，我们又回到了学校。或者更确切地说，化学课。

There, student tourists are provided an insight into what makes one baijiu different from another. Beginning with a flask of base alcohol, visitors use the thinnest of syringes to dispense an infinitesimally-small drop of another alcohol into the base, to witness the change in flavour. They also need have a little sample of each, of course.

在那里，学生游客可以深入了解一种白酒与另一种白酒的不同之处。从一瓶基础酒精开始，参观者使用最细的注射器将极小的一滴另一种酒精滴入基础酒精中，以见证味道的变化。当然，他们还需要每种都有一点样本。

After, in an artfully-orchestrated move, visitors, by now mostly inebriated, are paused during their tour for an alcohol test. But there’s a fun twist to the activity. 

之后，在一次精心策划的行动中，游客们现在大多都喝醉了，在游览过程中停下来进行酒精测试。但这项活动有一个有趣的转折。

For a quick swab of the cheeks is all that it takes to determine, not the testee’s blood-alcohol levels, but their capacity for alcohol. Tour groups continue the fun later when they receive the results, comparing the alcohol tolerance of every last member of the group, even the youngsters.

因为只需快速擦拭脸颊即可确定测试者的酒精含量，而不是血液中的酒精含量。旅行团在收到结果后会继续玩乐，比较团里每一位成员的酒精耐受度，甚至包括年轻人。

Parents can therefore now know well in advance whether their child will turn out to be a good drinker.

因此，父母现在可以提前知道他们的孩子是否会成为一个好的饮酒者。

Now that’s tourism with, a difference, and arguably, coupled with China’s wetlands, quite a future.

现在，旅游业有了很大的不同，而且可以说，与中国的湿地相结合，前景广阔。