Destination: China
Xining, China
by World Hum | 03.11.09 | 10:35 AM ET
REUTERS/David Gray A Tibetan monk walks to pray in a temple as snow falls in the Kumbun Monastery located on the outskirts of Xining in Qinghai province.
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Yahoo! BuzzMorning Links: The Cuba Travel Showdown, Pirates and More
by Michael Yessis | 03.11.09 | 9:46 AM ET
- The Senate passed a bill to ease travel and trade to Cuba—but the showdown over U.S. policy isn’t over yet.
- A man sued American Airlines for $7 million, saying the carrier “illegally revoked his lifetime pass.”
- Here’s an interesting combination: William Langewiesche, a French luxury cruise ship and pirates.
- Registration for this year’s tours of Washington’s Hanford nuclear site begins March 30.
- Police in China are feeding drivers raw chilli to help them stay awake on the roads in the Chongqing region.
- Goodbye, Travel + Leisure Golf.
- Amina Chaudary says she’s the only Muslim to whom Samuel Huntington gave a formal interview. She writes about “The Clash of Civilizations” author’s legacy at PostGlobal.
- For map geeks: Bloopers from a New York Times map and graphics editor. (via The Morning News)
- Timers on postcards? Isn’t the cancellation stamp enough? (via Coudal)
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Shanghai Barbie: Tourist Magnet?
by Julia Ross | 03.09.09 | 1:20 PM ET
Every time I visit Chicago, I’m amazed at how the city’s American Girl flagship store continues to draw moms and daughters from across the Midwest; I never fail to see them marching up Michigan Avenue, giant American Girl shopping bags in hand. Hotels in the area have lapped up the phenomenon, offering packages with kitschy extras like “one exclusive American Girl bed for your little doll to keep for future slumber parties” and a “free in-room movie showing of Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front.” Apart from the boost to tourism, the trend is a masterful case study in 360-degree branding.
Now I’m wondering if Shanghai is courting a similar fate with last Saturday’s opening of China’s first Barbie flagship store. The store, which includes 900 different kinds of Barbie dolls, a spa, a bar and a line of Barbie-themed clothing for adults, could well become a tourist mecca for Chinese girls and their mothers, who weren’t able to get their hands on the doll in their (pre-economic boom) childhood years. If the store is a success—and I have a sneaking feeling it will be—we’ll see how long it takes nearby hotels, vendors and restaurants to co-opt a little Barbie magic. The gravity-defying doll hasn’t survived 50 years for nothing, after all.
For full Shanghai Barbie immersion, check out this Yahoo slideshow of the mega-store. It’s certainly in keeping with the brand’s image: six storeys, all glowing pink.
Wuhan, China
by World Hum | 03.06.09 | 12:08 PM ET
REUTERS/Stringer Laundry hangs outside a student dormitory at a college in Wuhan, Hubei province.
Asia’s Disaster Tourism Over the Line?
by Julia Ross | 03.05.09 | 5:27 PM ET
As we noted yesterday, two new disaster-themed tourist sites are set to open in Asia this month: a museum to commemorate the 2004 tsunami that leveled Indonesia’s Aceh province, and previously off-limits ruins and a museum related to the May 2008 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province. We can debate the pros (local economic development) and cons (unwelcome voyeurism) of disaster tourism, but the descriptions of these two new sites seem to me to cross a line.
Of the tsunami museum, the BBC reports, “Inside, visitors enter through a dark, narrow corridor between two high walls of water—meant to recreate the noise and panic of the tsunami itself.”
At the Sichuan earthquake sites, AFP reports, “Tour groups will be able to go boating on a ‘quake lake’ and visit a museum featuring an ‘earthquake simulation.’”
There’s a fun house aspect to this that I don’t like at all. It’s one thing to establish a museum to educate the public on a disaster’s impact and pay homage to lives lost, but to make the experience entertaining? It’s just plain inappropriate.
When I visited New York’s Ground Zero about four months after 9/11, I found staring into the gaping hole in lower Manhattan unforgettable enough. No simulations needed.
For Hong Kong’s ‘Airport Auntie,’ Apology and Upgrade
by Julia Ross | 03.05.09 | 2:21 PM ET
Remember the hysterical Chinese woman who missed her flight out of Hong Kong? Cathay Pacific has apologized for causing her public embarrassment to the tune of 5 million YouTube viewers (and many unbidden late-night talk-show appearances) worldwide. Because a Cathay Pacific staff member taped the tirade, apparently the airline felt it needed to exercise damage control. “Airport Auntie,” as she’s known, also got an upgrade on her next flight to San Francisco. (via WSJ China Journal)
Morning Links: Best Job in the World Finalists, ‘Narco-Tours’ and More
by Michael Yessis | 03.04.09 | 8:18 AM ET
- The 50-person short list for Tourism Queensland’s “best job in the world” includes a man who staged a musical on an Ontario street and Geek Brief’s Cali Lewis.
- The Tsunami Museum commemorating the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami is open in Indonesia.
- China plans to open its earthquake ruins to tourists.
- Interesting essay by Alexei Tsvetkov on leaving Prague: “In the end some people here will probably miss me, but not many, not too much, and not for long.” (via The Rumpus)
- Ryan Adams: Travel writer? BlackBook has his take on Hollywood. Here are his musical takes on New York and Jacksonville.
- “Narco-tours” are on the rise in Mexico.
- Independent Traveler lists 10 reasons you should travel now.
- Esquire lists the 59 best breakfast places in America.
- Are you an, uh, anal traveler? (via BootsnAll Today)
- How great is this: John Wray will be giving a reading from his new book Lowboy while traveling on a Brooklyn-bound L train next week. Details in this video.
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Video: Jeffrey Tayler on His New Book, ‘Murderers in Mausoleums’
by World Hum | 02.26.09 | 5:27 PM ET
Jeffrey Tayler discusses traveling from Moscow to Beijing, "drink by drink."
Kangding, China
by World Hum | 02.25.09 | 9:49 AM ET
REUTERS/David Gray A Tibetan monk prays in front of a mural at the entrance to the Namo Monastery, founded over 1,100 years ago, located on the outskirts of Kangding in Sichuan province.
Morning Links: Mexico Travel Alert, Mardi Gras Tips and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.23.09 | 9:46 AM ET
- A bomb exploded in Cairo’s Hussein Square, killing at least one tourist.
- China has closed Tibet to international travelers in preparation for the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile.
- The Washington Post says the latest State Department travel alert for Mexico “reads like the plot of a crime thriller.”
- USA Today/Gallup poll: 58 percent of Americans “will shrink their vacation spending this year—or just not go.”
- Here’s what not to do at Mardi Gras.
- Tom Haines follows the wind in North Dakota.
- World Hum contributor David Farley will be speaking tonight at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.
- The Christian Science Monitor has more on Lucca’s ban of ethnic restaurants.
- Is a lost empire concealed in the Amazon?
- Has Atlantis been found by Google Ocean? Google says no.
- Two travel books made the pages of The New York Times Sunday Book Review: Magic Bus and The Way of Herodotus.
- Another day, another mix-up: A pass for Philly Beer Week features the skyline of New York City. Really, how could you mix ‘em up?
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Wumen Gate, Forbidden City, China
by World Hum | 02.17.09 | 11:03 AM ET
REUTERS/Jason Lee Snow falls over the Wumen Gate of the Forbidden City at night in Beijing.
Morning Links: Vegas to L.A. High-Speed Rail, ‘the Gifts of Travel’ and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.13.09 | 9:44 AM ET
- Continental flight 3407 crashed outside of Buffalo, New York. Fifty people died.
- Looks like the stimulus bill might contain some extra funding for a high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
- How will the United States look after its economic tumble? It’s the cover story in the latest issue of The Atlantic.
- In Dubai, the economic climate has brought forth an exodus of expats.
- Don George writes that “the gifts of travel are precisely what we need in daunting times like these.”
- Tom O’Neill chronicles the journeys of three North Korean defectors through China, Laos and Thailand on the way to South Korea. (Via Passport)
- Brave New Traveler asks: When does budget travel become exploitation?
- Northwest Airlines says it will start serving peanuts again on its flights. Passengers worried about peanut allergies say they will start planning trips on airlines other than Northwest.
- Germany, the U.S. and China are among the countries fighting the international battle of Ferris wheels. The Great Orlando Wheel may have the best promo video ever.
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Come Back to Chengdu
by Julia Ross | 02.10.09 | 4:42 PM ET
I’ve never been much for Mandarin pop music—the word saccharine immediately leaps to mind—but if it succeeds in bringing tourism back to China’s earthquake-riven Sichuan Province, it can’t be all bad. Chinese pop star Jane Zhang, who gained fame as a contestant on China’s version of American Idol, recently lent her talents to a theme song and music video (below) to promote local tourism in provincial capital Chengdu. The lyrics aren’t exactly imaginative—“I Love This City,” goes the English chorus—but in my experience, this kind of pop ballad has a bottomless fan base in China, so it just might work.
National Public Radio recently reported on the rise of “earthquake tourism” in Sichuan, among those who want to gape at the devastation wrought by the May 2008 temblor, but the video is clearly designed to remind people why they loved the laid-back Southwestern city in the first place: tea drinking, pandas and hot pot.
In related news, a film titled “Chengdu, I Love You,” is scheduled for production this year, based on a storyline similar to that of “Paris, Je T’aime.” (via Cfensi)
Morning Links: Bill to End Cuba Travel Ban Introduced, Facebook ‘Flashmobs’ and More
by Jim Benning | 02.10.09 | 10:27 AM ET
- Nine representatives have introduced a House bill calling for an end to the ban on travel to Cuba. !Suerte!
- A new Mandarin Oriental hotel in Beijing—not yet occupied, thankfully—burned last night.
- The economy of air travel: Demand for international flights is “in freefall.”
- A Facebook “flashmob” organized by “Crazzy Eve” hits a London train station.
- New York Magazine: “Why Sully may be the last of his kind.”
- Travel photographer Peter Guttman has crammed his home with souvenirs.
- Hotels spent more than $9 million lobbying elected officials last year.
- You wanna be a YouTube travel star? Christopher Elliott has tips.
- Travel publishers are feeling the effects of the recession. But sales of Frommer’s “Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World” remain strong. Whew.
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Hillary Clinton’s Peace Corps Bid
by Julia Ross | 02.09.09 | 1:57 PM ET
Hillary Clinton embarks on her first foreign trip as Secretary of State next Sunday, breaking with tradition by visiting Asia rather than Europe or the Middle East. The Japanese are thrilled that they’re first on the itinerary, and the Chinese are eager to talk climate change, but it’s her stop in Jakarta that’s got me interested. The State Department confirms Clinton wants to discuss reestablishing the Peace Corps program in Indonesia, which shut down in the 1960s after only two years in operation. If Indonesia supports the idea, the move would certainly bolster President Obama’s strategy to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world and would open another valuable avenue for person-to-person exchange.
Clinton’s stop in Beijing will likely get the lion’s share of media attention next week, but I’ll be watching the Jakarta coverage to see if she scores a small victory for public diplomacy.