Navigating 2023 through 12 neologisms

City walk

Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry has experienced a robust recovery, with "city walk" emerging as a new and popular mode of travel.

The participants could be tourists from outside of town or locals rediscovering their own city through this affordable and relaxing activity. There are even official routes designated by the local government.

According to data from Tongcheng Travel, a travel agency based in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, most popular city walk routes in China among young travelers include those in Beijing, Xi'an in Shaanxi province, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Changsha in Hunan province.

According to Lonely Planet's 1000 Ultimate Adventures, some of the world's best city hikes include the Great Coastal Walk in Sydney, Australia; the Thames Path, in London, UK; and the Seawall walk in Vancouver, Canada.

The Legend of Zelda

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, released in May, stood out in 2023 as a captivating and immersive gaming experience. As the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), the action-adventure game once again enchanted players with its rich narrative and breathtaking visuals.

"The level of attention of detail and care put into all of these different interactions, given the sheer scale of how many interactions you can have, it's just a degree of diligence and artistry that you don't see very often," said William Armstrong, a video game developer in an interview with Bloomberg.

In Tears of the Kingdom, players keep exploring the landscapes of Hyrule, but this time with an added vertical dimension — ascending into the sky, which is filled with floating islands, and descending into an entire underworld beneath Hyrule.

Creation of the Gods

According to the box office data platform Maoyan, as of Dec 18, China's box office revenue was 52.9 billion yuan, almost double that of the previous year's 30 billion yuan. Moreover, the top 10 box office films were all domestic productions.

Among the highest grossing films, Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms, released on July 20, secured over 2.63 billion yuan in the Chinese mainland and was shown in theaters overseas, including the US, Canada, Australia, and Malaysia.

The film is an adaptation of a famous Chinese legend, and the traditional cultural elements in the movie have attracted significant attention. "Seventy percent of our inspiration comes from Taoist landscape paintings, and 30 percent comes from the history of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC)," said the film's director Wuershan during a promotion event.