Where are Chinese tourists going next? Pop culture may hold some clues, from a successful movie Finding Mr. Right to U.S. situation comedy The Big Bang Theory. China is the source of most of the world's tourists as well as its biggest-spending travelers. In 2012 alone, 83 million Chinese went abroad and spent a huge $102 billion, according to the most recent figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organization. Now more than ever, popular culture is driving their decision making. Below are a few examples of how TV shows and hit movies are influencing Chinese tourists' travel choices. SEATTLE Over the past two years, Seattle -- that rainy city in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. -- has seen a 90% rise in visitor numbers from China, local officials say. The reason: the huge popularity of the Chinese romantic comedy Finding Mr. Right, in which a woman from mainland China travels to Seattle to give birth. Directed by Xue Xiaolu and starring Tang Wei, the film has earned more than $85 million in China since its release last year. (The movie's Chinese title translates literally to Beijing meets Seattle.) LOS ANGELES Los Angeles has long been a favorite: destination for Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. but lately, they've been asking for detours to nearby Pasadena to pay respect to their favorite The Big Bang Theory. Fans are requesting visits to places including the campus of California Institute of Technology as well as a particular Cheesecake Factory outlet, which both figure prominently  in the CBS situation comedy that Chinese fans stream online. EUROPE AND THE U.S. The U.S., U.K., France and Germany remain the most frequented destinations for Chinese who travel to the West, but the sights they flock  to within those countries often are unique to Chinese culture. For instance, Karl Marx's birthplace in Trier, Germany, has long been a pilgrimage spot, while a willow tree in Cambridge, England, is a must-visit for bus tourists because of a well-known poem by Xu Zhimo, who studied at the city's famous university in the 1920s. "It's like a parallel universe," said Mr. Brennan in Los Angeles. "Pop culture comes up again and again when we do our research. But the Chinese interpretation is always different." What Mr. Brennan said tells us that   _  .
the whole world, in his opinion, is parallel Chinese have different understanding of the pop culture Chinese people, unlike others in the universe, are always different pop culture influences our research again and again