Amusement parks make a strong showing on the Forbes Traveler list of Eastern Asia’s most visited tourist attractions. From Universal Studios’ outpost in Osaka, Japan, to the Happy Valley theme park in Shenzhen, China, roller coasters and fantasy-themed lands draw millions annually.

    But the thrill rides aren’t limited to amusement parks. At Hong Kong’s most visited attraction, Victoria Peak, 9 million-plus annual visitors have a choice of traveling to the 1,811-foot summit by bus or tram. The latter option, according to Hong Kong Tourism Board Publicity and Promotions Manager Lillibeth Bishop, is a “perpendicular funicular” that “feels like a thrill ride when you’re going down.” Bishop adds, “I prefer going up, so my heart doesn’t race as much.”

    At the top, she explains, “You can see Victoria Harbour, and all these traditional junks, ocean liners and ships coming through. And the sunset drapes all of the city’s high rises. To me it’s not just a sight, it’s an experience. It makes you think, Life is beautiful after all.”

    The popularity of Victoria Peak, high above the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong, points out another possible misconception that Western tourists may bring to the East: “A lot of people think of Hong Kong as only this big city,” Bishop says. “And many people don’t know there is this other side of Hong Kong that they’re missing out if they don’t explore. For example, there are a lot of hiking trails in Hong Kong.”

    The popularity of both rural and urban attractions is borne out in the other Asian countries covered in our list. While millions flock to the ancient walled fortress, The Forbidden City, located in the populous capital of Beijing, they also come in droves to the more remote heights of Mount Tai, in China’s coastal Shandong Province. Taishan Temple lies at the foot of the mountain, and some 7,000 stone steps lead to the Azure Clouds Temple at the top. Between 6 and 8 million locals and foreigners visit the sacred mountain annually.

    Alan Lew, co-author of “Tourism in China” and professor in the department of Geography, Planning and Recreation at Northern Arizona University, says visitors to China’s attractions may be growing. Both domestic and international travel is on the rise, he says, with in-country travel at about a billion trips a year and international visitation at approximately 42 million annual trips.

    However, Lew adds, the high volume of domestic Chinese travel doesn’t always constitute heavy traffic to the iconic tourist sites known in the west. In the late 1990s, he explains, the government implemented a program called Golden Weeks. “Government employees used to get week-long vacations three times a year, and many Chinese took advantage of those holidays to travel — mostly back to their home villages,” Lew explains.

    The boom in travel during these weeks “totally overwhelmed the transportation network,” Lew says. “So now China is going to start doing what most other countries do, spreading the holidays out, and having more three day weekends.”

    How this change will affect tourism patterns remains to be seen. And while international visitation to China has steadily increased (especially during the 1990s, Lew says, when the government began opening more and more sites to foreigners), the effects of the recent global economic turmoil on tourism to China have yet to play out.

    In Hong Kong, says Lillibeth Bishop, “the economy already is impacting outbound travel to Hong Kong from the U.S.,” its No. 1 country source for the long-haul market. After steady increases through the middle of this year, Hong Kong Tourism Board’s visitor arrival statistics show a 15.5 percent decline in U.S. arrivals for August 2008 compared with August 2007. “People are hunkering down,” Bishop says.

    Naoko Marutani, director of the Japan National Tourist Organization’s (JNTO) Los Angeles Office, also notes that travel to Japan has “been a bit slow given the recent and worldwide economic situation.” But she adds that the number of U.S. travelers to Japan had been increasing since 2004: “Japan has been running its ‘Visit Japan Campaign,’ introducing Japan as a tourist destination to overseas markets (including U.S.A) with a target of 10 million overseas travelers by year 2010.” To date, many of the millions who already travel to Japan seem to favor its myriad theme parks, five of which appear on the Forbes Traveler list. (We’ve excluded religious destinations from our tally: we have a separate annual list for travel to shrines of all faiths.)

    So which mountain peak, soaring skyscraper or towering roller coaster draws the most visitors in East Asia? Read our slideshow to find out.

    福布斯旅游雜志顯示公共游樂(lè)場(chǎng)是東亞最受歡迎的旅游勝地。 日本大阪的環(huán)球影城，中國(guó)深圳的歡樂(lè)谷主題公園，過(guò)山車(chē)和夢(mèng)幻島每年都吸引了上百萬(wàn)的游客。

    但是這些驚險(xiǎn)的旅行不僅僅包括在公共游樂(lè)場(chǎng)里。 香港最著名的旅游名勝是維多利亞山峰，每年有超過(guò)900萬(wàn)的游客到此通過(guò)乘坐汽車(chē)或有軌電車(chē)從山腳到達(dá)海拔1811米的山頂。 根據(jù)香港旅游推廣和宣傳部門(mén)的管理人員里里柏斯說(shuō)，后一種選擇是豎直的纜車(chē)軌道，當(dāng)你乘坐在那上面下降的時(shí)候，你會(huì)感覺(jué)到非常刺激。 里里柏斯還說(shuō)，“我更喜歡上升的感覺(jué)，因?yàn)槟菢游业男奶�才不�?huì)加速。”

    她說(shuō)在山頂你可以看到維多利亞港口，所有的傳統(tǒng)垃圾，遠(yuǎn)洋輪船和其它船舶在此穿梭。 當(dāng)太陽(yáng)落山時(shí)，那光線可以灑滿城市的整個(gè)高樓大廈。 對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)這不知是景色，而且是一種經(jīng)歷。 它促使你思考，生活畢竟還是美好的。

    維多利亞山峰的知名度遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高于香港的大都市，這也指出一個(gè)西方游客可能帶給東方國(guó)家的誤解。 里里柏斯說(shuō)，“許多人們都把香港認(rèn)為只是大城市。” “但是大多數(shù)人不知道香港也有其另外一面，如果人們不去探索，它們也會(huì)慢慢消失的。 比如，在香港有許多供徒步旅行的小道。“

    其它亞洲國(guó)家的鄉(xiāng)村和都市名勝的知名度也包括在我們的名單中。 每年有上百萬(wàn)游客去參觀古老的城防堡壘，它坐落于人口眾多的北京的紫禁城，他們也有自己駕駛車(chē)去巍峨聳立的泰山，它位于中國(guó)的海岸城市—山東省。 泰山廟坐落于山腳，從山腳到山頂?shù)谋淘扑聫R有7000級(jí)臺(tái)階。 每年有600萬(wàn)到800萬(wàn)的當(dāng)?shù)睾屯鈬?guó)游客去參觀這一險(xiǎn)峻的山峰。

    《中國(guó)旅游》的合著者，地理部門(mén)的教授，北部亞利桑那大學(xué)規(guī)劃和娛樂(lè)學(xué)院的阿蘭流說(shuō)到中國(guó)旅游的旅游可能還會(huì)上升。 他說(shuō)，國(guó)內(nèi)和國(guó)際的旅行正在增加，國(guó)內(nèi)每年增加100萬(wàn)的游客量，國(guó)際每年增加將近4200萬(wàn)的游客量。

    但是，流還說(shuō)，中國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)的巨大游客量不是總會(huì)構(gòu)成西方人熟知的旅游勝地的交通擁擠狀況。 在20世紀(jì)90年代，他解釋道政府實(shí)施了一個(gè)法規(guī)稱為“黃金周”。 流說(shuō)，“政府的雇員過(guò)去在一年中常常只有三次長(zhǎng)假，而且許多中國(guó)人利用這些長(zhǎng)假去旅行——大部分去他們的家鄉(xiāng)。”

    流說(shuō)，“在這些星期的游客增加量遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)整個(gè)交通運(yùn)輸量。” “現(xiàn)在中國(guó)將開(kāi)始做大部分其它國(guó)家做的事情，擴(kuò)大長(zhǎng)假，增加更多的三天周末。”

    這種變化是否會(huì)影響旅游形式仍然等待人們的觀察。 流說(shuō)，由于到中國(guó)的國(guó)際游客（特別是在20世紀(jì)90年代，中國(guó)政府開(kāi)始向國(guó)外開(kāi)放越來(lái)越多的旅游名勝）一直在穩(wěn)步增長(zhǎng)，最近國(guó)際經(jīng)濟(jì)的混亂對(duì)中國(guó)旅游業(yè)的影響也將慢慢出現(xiàn)。

    里里柏斯說(shuō)，在香港這次經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)已經(jīng)影響到了美國(guó)到香港出境游，美國(guó)是香港排名第一的旅游長(zhǎng)運(yùn)客源。 經(jīng)過(guò)今年上半年的穩(wěn)步增長(zhǎng)后，香港旅游協(xié)會(huì)的旅客到達(dá)數(shù)據(jù)顯示2008年8月美國(guó)的旅客量比2007年8月的相比下降了15.5個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。流說(shuō)，“人們正在觀望。”

    日本國(guó)家旅游組織洛杉磯辦公室的主管那庫(kù)說(shuō)，由于近期世界范圍的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況使得到日本旅游的客流量增長(zhǎng)緩慢。 但是她又說(shuō)，到日本的美國(guó)旅客量從2004年以來(lái)一直在增長(zhǎng)。 “日本正在開(kāi)展自己的‘參觀日本活動(dòng)‘，它目的是向海外市場(chǎng)（包括美國(guó)）介紹日本，在2010年把它建設(shè)成一個(gè)擁有1000萬(wàn)海外游客量的旅游勝地。” 到目前為止，已經(jīng)到過(guò)日本的百萬(wàn)名旅客似乎挺喜歡它的眾多主題公園，其中有五個(gè)還出現(xiàn)在福布斯旅游雜志目錄上。 我們已經(jīng)從目錄刪除了一些有關(guān)宗教的旅游地。 我們每年都安排不同的神殿供各自不同信仰的人們參拜。

    在東亞，是山峰，是高聳的摩天大樓還是云霄飛車(chē)吸引大批游客呢？ 請(qǐng)閱讀我們的導(dǎo)讀去發(fā)現(xiàn)它們吧。