Or is it just an imitator of that media giant, albeit a rather charmingly clumsy one?

We're not sure what to think.

After all, why would a major Chinese media outlet with a vast budget resort to naked borrowing-without-asking?

It becomes even more curious when one realizes that said organization appears to possess a large staff of trained English-language writers and editors content providers capable of cranking out snappy copy like: "Try a quiz on Tibet and learn more about this mysterious land. Click away to start an exciting and informative experience!"

So it can't possibly be said media giant, right?

Still, there's some puzzling evidence. Take, for example, our Guilin travel guide entry, then consider another Guilin guide, this one published by an outfit calling itself something like CCTV COM Travel (travel.cctv.com).

First, the CCTV Travel page (click on the image to go to the "original"):
 

And then there's our page (click on image to go to the original):
 

Formatting issues aside, we especially love the fact that the borrowers were so taken with our cheesy line about Da Shan and Yao Ming that they featured it in a pull quote on their home page:

 

Of course, it doesn't stop with Guilin (or Gui Lin, if you prefer). There's Shanghai (Shangha), Beijing (beijing), Xi'an (XiAn), Hong Kong (hongkong), Huang Shan (HuangShan). The list goes on….

So, whether it's the national media giant we all love and respect or some cheeky upstart of a travel guide that has gone so far as to not only awkwardly cut & paste our copy to their site but also link to a major state-owned professional media site as if they were affiliated with it, it's undeniable that many of our original travel guide entries are now appearing on a site that not only features the media giant's logo, but also a full footer, complete with a the following copyright information: "© 2008 China Central Television. All Rights Reserved."

Curious, yes?

The site header states that it's only a "bata" [sic] version, so we suppose it could be some sort of "legitimate" subcontracted project that is being "developed" live online using our, um, borrowed content to just kind of see what the site would look like if it, say, had any, you know, actual original content.

But we're really in no position to judge, just to observe.

"Curious and curiouser," as Alice famously put it upon falling deeper into Wonderland, "so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English."

Yeah, we know how she felt. We're even start to forgetting how to speak good English. So it goes, here at WonderlandTravel.net. 

By the way, we want to let people know that we've got a great design team working feverishly to create an entirely new look and feel for ChinaTravel.net while our editorial team continues to create lots of original content we're quite proud of, from our China Travel Features to our ever-improving China Destination Guide.

To echo the folks at Go Kunming, who recently received a compliment of a similar nature: It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and ChinaTravel.net is sincerely flattered.