美国政府关门:即使奥巴马也帮不了中国游客

On the first day of the US federal government shutdown, a Californian resident may not yet feel the impact, but many Chinese tourists are unhappy and their tour guides nervous.

美国联邦政府关门第一天，加利福尼亚的居民可能觉得没有影响，但许多中国游客却不开心，他们的导游很紧张。

Tony Lu has run a travel agency in Los Angeles for 20 years. Four tourist groups from China’s mainland organized by his agency are currently travelling around the United States. They are suffering different kinds of impact from the federal government shutdown, which led to the close of 401 national parks, Smithsonian’s 19 museums and galleries and the National Zoo.

托尼•鲁在洛杉矶经营一家旅行社20年。由他的旅行社接待的来自中国大陆的四个旅游团目前正在周游美国。他们正因联邦政府关门而遭受着不同种类的影响，这导致了401个国家公园、史密森尼的19家博物馆和画廊以及国家动物园的关闭。

“Compared to the 1995-1996 shutdown, this time is more serious to us. We run mostly Chinese market business and there are many more Chinese tourists groups now than 17 years ago,” he said.

“相比1995 – 1996年的关门，这次对我们来说更严重。我们主要经营中国市场业务，和17年前相比，现在有更多的中国游客群，”他说。

“Our clients are complaining. The tour guides explained to them that even the US President Barack Obama can not solve the problem immediately,” he said.

“我们的客户在抱怨。导游解释说就连美国总统奥巴马也不能立即解决问题，”他说。

Some of the groups have to change their itineraries as they cannot enter Yellowstone National Park or the Lincoln Memorial, nor can they have a close look of the Statue of Liberty, all of which are among the most popular tourism sites.

当他们不能进入黄石国家公园或林肯纪念堂，也不能近距离观察自由女神像，一些旅行团不得不改变行程。而所有这些都列在最受欢迎的旅游网站上。

According to National Park Services, the national parks have about 715,000 visitors per day on average in October. But now, visitors are being turned away.

据国家公园的服务，10月国家公园平均每天有715000游客。但是现在，游客却遭到拒绝。

Although there’s no figure yet of how many Chinese tourists are affected by the shutdown, some are expressing their sadness online. “I want to cry,” wrote Ms He to her WeChat friends. She had been looking forward to her sightseeing trip to the US for a long time.

虽然还没有数据显示有多少中国游客受关闭影响，但一些人在线表达了他们的伤心。“我想哭，”何女士在微信上写给她朋友。她期待着她的美国观光之旅很长时间了。

But soon after she landed, she learned that the Statue of Liberty, Lincoln Memorial and many other tourist attractions on her list would be closed.

但她下飞机不久后，她了解到她清单上的自由女神像、林肯纪念堂和许多其他旅游景点将被关闭。

“Nobody will give any compensation to these Chinese tourists. The Senate and the Congress will definitely not,” said Lu, “And we have to do more to make them feel better, such as explaining the situation to them and helping some of them modify their travel plans. Hopefully the federal government shutdown ends soon.”

“没人会给这些中国游客任何补偿。参议院和国会绝对不会，”托尼•鲁说，“我们必须做更多的工作来让他们觉得好一点，比如向他们解释情况，帮助他们中的一些人修改他们的旅行计划。希望联邦政府关门这件事很快结束。”

Nearly 1.5 million Chinese traveled to the US last year, according to the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries of the US Department of Commerce.

去年近150万中国人前往美国，根据旅游局和美国商务部的旅游机构。

Chinese companies doing business in the US may also be affected if the federal regulatory agencies and other services do not resume work soon.

在美国经商的中国公司也可能受到影响，如果联邦监管机构和其他服务没有很快恢复工作的话。