CAMBRIDGE, U.K. -- "Quietly I am leaving, just as quietly I came," wrote 20th century Chinese poet Xu Zhimo about his days at Cambridge University. Yet thanks to his verse, the hallowed courtyards of its famed colleges echo these days with the excited and decidedly unscholarly shouts of Mandarin-speaking tour groups.
On the streets that front the ancient buildings and in the famed punts that offer leisurely rides along the Cam River, not just during summer travel season but throughout the year, visitors from mainland China appear to be crowding out all others in this normally tranquil town of barely 125,000 people.
