节日长假充满黄金机会，但不会主动送上家门 Holiday rainbow offers pots of gold

It took time, butI have learned my lesson about how to enjoy Chinese holidays: Never,  never,  nevervisit a tourist attraction at a time when a half-billion people across Chinaare also visiting tourist attractions.

经历启迪人生，教会了我如何享受中国假期，这就是：绝对、绝对、绝对不要在5亿游客游览中国山川名胜时，也跟着去凑热闹。

Over the NationalDay break a couple of years ago, my wife and I took a bus to the newly builtAncient Gubei Water Town north of Beijing with its network of canals and smallrivers. It’s cool despite not really being ancient. The only drawback was thatthe narrow streets and alleys were teeming with people — a human anthill.

几年前的一个国庆节，我和妻子坐公交车去了北京北郊新建的古北水镇。那儿的运河和小河纵横交错，虽说历史不是很悠久，但很别致。唯一的缺憾就是狭窄的街道和胡同挤满了人—密密麻麻的。

The heavy crowdwas was especially hard on my wife. While I’m tall enough to see over heads,she is shorter. Her view for most of the day was a monotonous jungle of bodiesas we inched along, dodging barbecued squids on pointed sticks now and then.

密集的人群可是苦了我的妻子。我个子高，还可以仰头远望，但她却是身材娇小。我们缓步前行，妻子大部分时间看到的都是簇拥在周围的单调乏味的人群，还得时不时躲避竹签串着的烤鱿鱼。

Actually, maybeI’m thinking of the squids brandished by people in crowded Hohai park inBeijing the year before, or recalling the undulating mass of humanity atop theGreat Wall the year before that. Perhaps all of the above. I forget.

说实话，这不禁让我想起前年在拥挤的北京后海游玩时，那些挥舞着鱿鱼的游客，也回想起大前年在长城上见识的人山人海。这些经历，我竟然都忘了。

No matter. Theysay there’s no education in the second kick of a mule (let alone the third orfourth), and I had suffered enough on holiday excursions. Airlines booked.Trains booked. Hotels booked. Crowds everywhere.

往事如烟。俗话说吃一堑长一智，更不用说一而再、再而三了，假日旅游让我吃够了苦头。订机票，订火车票，订酒店，到处都是拥挤的人群。

So this year Irefused to be lured out. I planned to spend a comfortable, quiet week near homein Beijing.

所以我今年决定拒绝诱惑，打算在北京的家里度过一个舒适、安静的假期。

One problem becameapparent right away, however. Hardly any businesses were open — which I don’t understand. Half a billionChinese people were milling around the country all week, cellphones stuffedwith cash. You’d think a business would see them as a pot of gold at the end ofthe holiday rainbow. I couldn’t help but wonder why China’s shop owners don’treap the obvious holiday bonanza andtake time off afterward. Walkingaway from a pot of gold doesn’t seem like good business.

然而，有一个问题立刻随之而来。几乎没有店铺在营业—我对此也是百思不得其解。5亿中国人整整一周假期在全国各地奔波穿梭，用手机支付消费。企业应该把这些游客作为节日长假的黄金商机。我不禁想知道，为何中国的店家不把握住这明显的商机，在长假结束后再歇业。轻易放弃黄金商机，似乎不是一个优秀企业的正确选择。

With reducedopportunity to shop, we had to find alternative activities. This meant a lot ofdaily walks. (Shivering in subzero temperatures all week, I realized that heavycrowds do have the advantage of emitting collective body heat.)

由于购物机会减少，我们不得不安排其它活动，以每天步行取而代之。（整整一星期的步行，我都在零下低温中瑟瑟发抖，这时我才感悟到拥挤的人群确实还是具有抱团取暖的优势。）

Anyway, thetriumph of our week of walking was the fulfillment of a long-held plan tostroll the full length of a narrow park along a canal  near our home — several kilometers, or,according to the WeRun app, around 20,000 steps. And so we set off.

话说回来，我们这一周的步行活动，成功实现了长期以来一直打算实现的计划，就是在我们家附近沿着一条运河而建的狭长公园里散步——有几公里，或者根据WeRun app显示，有20000步左右。我们就这样出发了。

The park waslovely in the winter chill. We enjoyed the clean stone pathways, skeletaltrees, evergreens and occasional large sculptures. There were pleasant people,old and young, some walking their pets, others just walking. And all, even thepets, were bundled up against the cold.

寒冬的公园依旧怡人。我们漫步在干净的石板路上，欣赏着周围的枯树、常青树，偶尔还有几座大型雕塑。园子里欢声笑语，有老人，也有青少年，有的在遛宠物，有的在散步。所有人，甚至包括那些宠物，都裹得严严实实的，抵御风寒。

Onward we marched,making a left turn as the park followed the canal to the south.

我们在公园里继续前行，顺着运河向南左转。

Then, with joy, wesaw the path’s terminus in the distance. I could make out a sort of stoneparapet, or tower, such as you might see on the Great Wall. It provided a viewof a tangled highway interchange below, which may sound anticlimactic, but itwasn’t. For us it was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

这时，我们欣喜地看到小路的尽头，是一面石墙，就像你在长城上看到的那样。从石墙往下俯瞰，是一座错综复杂的高速公路立交桥，这听起来似乎有点语无伦次，但事实并非如此。对我们而言，这乃是节日长假的黄金时刻。

I bounded up thefinal steps to see what treasures awaited. And, yes, indeed, I found numeroussmall gifts scattered around the platform, left behind by past visitors — alongwith various clumps of tissue paper. It was a moment to remember. And to stepcarefully.

我蹦蹦跳跳地走上最后几步，想看看能找到什么宝贝。呵，还真有，我在平台上发现了许多小礼物，都是过去的游客留下的——还有各式各样的包装纸。这是一个值得纪念的时刻。但还是得小心行事。