Chinese media, advertising, and urban life.

Bloomberg's Asia desk has published something resembling a news article, but it's really just a stream of consciousness outpouring of numbers and statistics, combined with some hype about online ticket merchant Ctrip.com. The numbers are however interesting. Excerpt:

Ctrip Says Tour Sales May Triple as More Chinese Travel Abroad

Package-tour sales may rise to as much as 15 percent of revenue in five years from about 5.6 percent in 2007, Ctrip Chief Financial Officer Jane Sun said in an interview March 6 in Shanghai, where the company is based.

More Chinese are vacationing overseas ... China ... may become the world's biggest source of outbound tourists by 2020, surpassing current leader Germany, according to CLSA Ltd.

"The number of Chinese traveling abroad is going to increase ..." said Catherine Leung, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Citigroup Inc., who rates Ctrip's stock "buy."...

Ctrip currently gets about 90 percent of sales from travel within China. Hotel and air ticket bookings accounted for 92 percent of sales in 2007, a level that may decline to 70 percent within five years as the portion from package tours increases, Sun said.

...Ctrip ... charges as little as $550 for a six-day trip to a resort on Thailand's Phuket island.

The company also has packages to cities including Paris, Rome and Sydney.

Ctrip plans to offer trips for Chinese tourists to the U.S. after the two nations sign an agreement allowing companies in China to market and sell packaged tours to American destinations, Sun said...

...Ctrip's package-tour sales may jump 72 percent to 122 million yuan this year, and then double to 255 million yuan in 2010, according to a Feb. 28 report by Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd.