Kidlington's mystery tourist influx continues to baffle locals

from what i can see, it doesn't look like average suburbia in the US or china, which are basically just copies of the US suburbs (large mcmansions, cul de sacs, sterile landscaping, etc)

it has a very specific english quaintness to it.

fwiw, german suburbs (i was in bavaria) also have a very german quaintness to them.

For me it was on the backroads of SE Asia. I just found everything -- the farms, the houses, the roads -- to be beautiful and interesting compared to what I experience in America.

I'm sure some of the locals thought I was a weirdo for taking pictures of water buffalo and dirt roads and farms, but to me it was all completely novel and interesting.

Someone in China may have very well chosen it specifically because it represents normal and not an image projected by a place that is already a tourist destination.

I have seen a similar phenomenon when going to Jamaica. Our driver who was supposed to take us from the airport to the hotel to the other side of the island, happened to stop for a "break" at a road-side cafe with a shop full of what looked like overpriced Chinese made handbags, clothes and some random things. There was a woman working there who was probably his wife or relative. The idea was to hopefully get the tourists to buy some of those things. We stood there entirely too long, and he thought he was being sly but it was kind of obvious what is happening.

So perhaps some pub owner or someone owning a business in the area somehow managed to convince a tourist company to bring clients in that area? A busload full of tourists is a nice captive audience who are already in a happy spending mood, so not surprising if someone would capitalize on that.

For Dr Fegg, outside of the A4095 you probably drive through on your way to Oxford, there is a very beautiful village hidden from you - for example http://www.kirtlingtonpark.co.uk/ - Unlike some other obviously lovely villages, you actually have to explore to find the beauty.

As a local of Chicago, I miss being able to visit Kirtlington (although given, Kidlington used to have some of the best chippies)

Is that what Kidlington is like? ;)

I mean, if I visited the U.K., and spent an entire week in London seeing all the tourist attractions (I suppose for me that'd be Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, London Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, Abbey Road), what would I really get out of that? I can see pictures of those things on the Internet any time I want (and in Abbey Road's case, I can see live streaming video!)

Also, the article switches between them being Japanese & Chinese tourists.. is the BBC even sure where the tourists are from?

I'm unsure as to why this is on Hacker News.

> Michelle Young, who lives in The Moors, Kidlington, says they did try to solve the mystery.

> "A neighbour did try to ask them where they were from but they didn't speak any English and we didn't get very far," she said.

> Baz Daniels, who has lived in Kidlington for more than 20 years, said he had been in touch with a friend in China to try to get to the bottom of the tourist influx to his village.

> "Kidlington is apparently being marketed by Chinese tourist agencies as a beautiful English village on the way to Bicester Village shopping centre," he said.

> "Many of the visitors live in cities, and love to see things like the hanging baskets and little flowers in people's gardens.

> "Visitors are now actively asking to add Kidlington to their tour itineraries," he added.

It sounds like the real mystery is how it got started and why it hasn't stopped.