Destination: China
‘Travels with Herodotus’: Kapuscinski and the Weight of History
by Frank Bures | 07.03.07 | 3:11 PM ET
Frank Bures considers Ryszard Kapuscinski's newly translated book -- and the Polish writer's controversial legacy
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Yahoo! BuzzHong Kong Marks 10th Anniversary of Return to China
by Michael Yessis | 07.02.07 | 10:43 AM ET
The streets of Hong Kong filled with revelers and protesters yesterday, the 10th anniversary of the date Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule. It was either a great occasion for students to meet and “have a fun day,” according to China’s People’s Daily Online, or, according to Western media reports, a day for pro-democracy advocates to once-again rally for more freedoms. World Hum contributor Daisann McLane put the situation into context in a recent story for Slate.
Everest Base Camp in Tibet: The Himalayan Bangkok?
by Jim Benning | 06.27.07 | 2:57 PM ET
As we recently noted, the Chinese government is building a 67-mile highway to Everest base camp in Tibet, paving over a rough path, allegedly so runners will have an easier time carrying the Olympic torch to the mountain. That new road, writes Michael Kodas in the New York Times, is going to “turn Mount Everest into the first arena, and profit center, of its Olympic Games.”
Cameron Diaz to Peru: Lo Siento Mucho
by Jim Benning | 06.25.07 | 1:02 PM ET
Poor Cameron Diaz. She was only going for the commie-chic, retro-kitsch look on her trip to Peru. Instead, she wound up offending Peruvians. On a visit to Machu Picchu Friday for the taping of a Canadian TV show called “4 Real,” Diaz toted an olive green bag featuring a red star and the words “Serve the People” in Chinese. That old Mao-era propoganda is hip among many young people in China—the same crazy kids enjoying plates of “Socialist Economic Model” at Beijing’s Red Capital Club. But is it hip in Peru? Not so much.
Search Continues for Lonely Planet Travel Writer
by Jim Benning | 06.22.07 | 11:30 AM ET
The search continues for Clem Lindenmayer, the 47-year-old Australian travel writer who disappeared last month while hiking near Minya Konka in western China. ChinaTrekking.com has been keeping close tabs on the search, posting news of sightings of Western hikers, but it has no conclusive reports of Lindenmayer sightings. Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree discussion is still active. JourneyEast.org, which notes an $800 reward for information leading to Lindenmayer, reports that his last e-mail was sent in early May from Kangding.
China to Build Highway to Mount Everest
by Michael Yessis | 06.20.07 | 2:54 PM ET
The highway will be paved and follow an existing 67-mile “rough path” on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest to the base camp at 17,060 feet. (So we assume all those yaks hauling equipment to the base camp on the Nepal side, recently dubbed the Himalayan version of Burning Man by Outside, won’t be put out of work any time soon.) But the questions raised by the development are many. Among them: What impact will it have on the base camp? What will the environmental impact of the road be? What effect will it have on China-Tibet relations? Is this development really a ploy for China to strengthen its claims to Tibet?
Zagats on Chinese Cuisine: U.S. Needs ‘Dumpling Diplomacy’
by Jim Benning | 06.18.07 | 7:40 AM ET
One day in Beijing, not far from Tiananmen Square, I stumbled upon Wu Da Niang, a dumpling restaurant I later learned was part of a popular Chinese chain. I ordered a plate of boiled fish dumplings. A woman soon appeared at my table and filled a bowl with chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar, creating a spicy, tangy dipping sauce. One bite and I was hooked. It was the first of many occasions in China when I realized we in the U.S., with our countless Chinese restaurants, were missing out on some seriously great Chinese food. Tim and Nina Zagat argue just that in an op-ed piece piece in Saturday’s New York Times. The co-founders of Zagat guides decry the sorry state of Chinese cuisine in the U.S., noting that while Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese restaurants have continued to improve, Chinese restaurants, which have a long, storied history in the U.S., have stagnated.
China on the Rise: Stories by Jeffrey Tayler and Peter Hessler
by Michael Yessis | 06.15.07 | 10:35 AM ET
The consequences of a rising China are many, and from our perspective one of the better ones is this: Talented Western writers and journalists just keep filing terrific stories from the country. The first I came across this week: Jeffrey Tayler writes in the Atlantic’s July/August issue about Kunming, China’s “City of Eternal Spring.” In Kunming, Tayler, whose The Woman in the Kuffiya is currently World Hum’s featured dispatch, found “a potpourri of ethnic and cultural flavors unfamiliar to Western and Han Chinese palates alike.” His story is available online only to Atlantic subscribers. However, a beautiful Tayler-narrated slideshow is free to all.
Learning Mandarin and Spanish by MP3 and Skype
by Julia Ross | 06.13.07 | 2:45 PM ET
Learning Chinese is a long road: After nine months of full-time study in Taipei, I’m still grappling with getting my tones right and suffer the occasional blank look from the clerk at my local 7-Eleven. While I’ve learned grammar and characters in the classroom, I’ve found another, less traditional source a big help with day-to-day conversation: Chinesepod.com. It’s the go-to site for most Mandarin students I know, offering free, daily podcasts that introduce dialogues on useful topics like how to break up with your boyfriend. Lessons, given by podcast “hosts” who banter like DJs, are downloadable in MP3 format, so you can drop them into your iPod and go; more devoted students can sign up for voice lessons via Skype.
From Antarctica to the Silk Road: More From the New York Times ‘Photography Issue’
by Michael Yessis | 06.12.07 | 2:18 PM ET
Howard W. French’s slide show and essay on Shanghai’s old quarters, which we recently posted about, isn’t the only piece in Sunday’s New York Times travel section worthy of note. The “Photography Issue” features several sharp audio slide shows, including Jehad Nga’s look at the Silk Road and Heidi Schumann’s tale of following in Ernest Shackleton’s wake in Antarctica, as well as a compelling essay by Richard B. Woodward about the intertwined history of photography and travel.
Secret Shanghai: Old Streets and Etched Faces Tell the Tale
by Julia Ross | 06.12.07 | 12:00 PM ET
Shanghai’s Fangbang Road is one of those places where time stands still. A stroll down the winding, dusty lane is a window into Chinese urban life untouched by modern artifice: Leathery-faced farmers sell produce from bicycle carts and spouses bicker in the street, much as they probably did 50 years ago. I stumbled onto Fangbang one Saturday afternoon when I lived in Shanghai in 2002 and was immediately seduced by its gritty chaos. It seemed almost like something from a movie set, and I eventually came to think of it as my own secret corner of the city, unknown to tourists and overlooked by developers. Now I know the secret’s out.
Globespotters: IHT’s Correspondents Blog Paris, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Beyond
by Julia Ross | 06.11.07 | 8:20 AM ET
When foreign correspondents aren’t chasing down insurgents or dissidents, they’re wandering the back streets of their adopted cities, ferreting out the best croissant in Paris or bike path in Rome. A new travel blog from the International Herald Tribune—dubbed Globespotters—taps into this collective wisdom via posts from reporters in six world cities. In IHT’s words, it’s “an online resource where IHT reporters and editors (and readers too) share up-to-the-minute tips and recommendations about the cities where we live and visit.” So far, it’s a lively mix of local color and tips on things to do. My favorite: Joyce Lau’s take on the expat bacchanal that passes as Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong.
Photo by Harris Graber via Flickr, (Creative Commons).Lonely Planet Writer Missing in Tibet
by Jim Benning | 06.06.07 | 1:42 PM ET
According to various reports, including this post on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree, 47-year-old Australian travel writer Clem Lindenmayer was expected back from a six-day solo backpacking trip in eastern Tibet nearly a month ago. He was last known to be trekking near Minya Konka mountain, which one Hong Kong-based magazine editor has called a “cutting-edge destination” attracting travelers “put off by the circus revolving around places like Mount Everest.” Lindenmayer is an experienced traveler. He speaks several languages, including Mandarin. His last book for Lonely Planet was Trekking in the Patagonian Andes, published in 2003.
Shangri-La: It’s Real, and It’s a Successful Marketing Ploy
by Michael Yessis | 06.05.07 | 8:03 AM ET
Perhaps too successful. Five years ago the Chinese town of Zhongdian renamed itself Shangri-La, claiming that the town was the basis for the Shangri-La described in James Hilton’s 1933 novel “Lost Horizon.” “Evidence is sketchy,” we wrote back then, “but no matter.” They moved forward with their plan and now Shangri-La has become besieged by tourists. Whether that’s good or not depends on your perspective.
Tiananmen Square, 18 Years After the Massacre*
by Jim Benning | 06.04.07 | 5:35 PM ET
When I walked up a stairway into Tiananmen Square during a trip to China several years ago, the first thing to pop into my mind was the massacre. Tiananmen, of course, is synonymous with the government crackdown that left hundreds of demonstrators—or possibly more; facts are in dispute—dead 18 years ago today. But visiting Tiananmen is different from visiting other sites known for atrocities. Unlike Dachau or the Killing Fields, which have memorials marking the events, there’s no monument or public acknowledgment in Tiananmen that the massacre even happened.