By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

One hundred residents of Our Honolulu struggled into overcoats, double-layer pants, snow boots, ear-flap hats, scarves and gloves last week, for which privilege they each paid $1,780. No, they haven't been exiled to Alaska or Duluth, Minn.

They are embarked on the Northeast China Ice & Snow Festival Tour, first stop, Harbin, on China's northern border, where it's so cold that shave ice is free.

Today another posse will gallop off on a mad shopping spree in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou to look for bargains, the best of which is the $888 price they paid for the weeklong tour that includes airfare, hotel rooms, tours and breakfast.

Wait, there's more. A culinary tour for $999 takes off on March 30 for Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Yangzhou and Nanjing. It's a chance to eat your way through China, where food is a passion. You will be provided menus to study in advance for each day's gorging.

Then there's the Luoyang Peony Festival Tour that will take you — for $1,788 — on a breathless dash for two weeks through Qingdao, Qufu, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Dengfeng, Jinan and Beijing to study priceless ancient treasures.

At the top of the line comes the Exotic Silk Road Tour, three weeks of adventure on Marco Polo's route for only $2,888. This is a plunge into the wild, autonomous regions of China among ethnic tribes of bewildering variety to arrive at last at Kashgar, a giant oasis and key city on the Silk Road.

All of this should tell you that China looms large as a travel destination in Honolulu. Locals rub elbows with overseas Chinese from San Francisco; Vancouver, British Columbia; and New York on the same tours.

"Our first culinary tour has a waiting list, the second is already half full," said Henry Ou, president of the Air & Sea Travel Center on Kapi'olani Boulevard that sends people to China. He's also president of the Hawai'i China Travel Service that brings people from China to Hawai'i. That's because tourism from China is also picking up.

He said Hawai'i attracts 500 to 1,000 tourists a month from China. He employs 15 to 25 Chinese-speaking tour guides and operates eight buses to take visitors around. I asked him for a profile of a Chinese tourist.

"The only visas the Chinese government gives for people traveling to the United States are for business," he said. "There are no direct flights from China to Hawai'i. The Chinese who come here have to pay extra. They are businessmen, officials or rich people who own factories.

"They don't spend much in Duty Free because most of the brands are Japanese. Chinese can get that in Japan. They prefer goods made in America or Europe — jewelry, clothing, cameras.

"Hawai'i has a reputation for being expensive but also for being a paradise. Cultural attractions in Hawai'i need Chinese interpreters before they can expect to get a bigger share of visitors from China."