Destination: China
How to Dig Dim Sum in Hong Kong
by Valerie Ng | 02.21.07 | 3:00 PM ET
Photo by Valerie Ng No visit is complete without indulging in the breakfast and lunch specialty. Valerie Ng explains the difference between cha siu bao and daan taat -- and where to dip your Chinese donut.
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Yahoo! BuzzCycling the Silk Road
by Michael Yessis | 02.15.07 | 8:43 AM ET
Three college friends recently embarked on an epic ride from Turkey to China via the Silk Road, a trek being chronicled this week on Slate. Greg Grim wrote the first installment, and he outlined the trip’s goals: “Mikey, Cam, and I aimed to show these folks that not all Americans are fat, rich, Muslim-hating warmongers. Rather, we’re people just like them, with the same needs, questions, and desires. But diplomacy isn’t our sole mission: It doesn’t hurt that these lands are breathtaking in their beauty and baffling in their culture.” As usual with Slate’s travel coverage, a compelling slideshow accompanies the dispatches.
Related on World Hum:
* Lost City of the Silk Road
* Colin Thubron and the “Shadow of the Silk Road”
China Will Be Top World Travel Destination by 2020
by Jim Benning | 02.09.07 | 11:48 AM ET
So predicts the World Tourism Organization. France led the pack in 2006, drawing 78 million foreign travelers.
Sign Police Hit Beijing Streets; Chinglish Editor Renews Call to Arms
by Jim Benning | 02.06.07 | 2:56 PM ET
Terrible news. In preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing officials are working to rid the city of signs with nonsensical and awkward English translations. “For the next eight months, 10 teams of linguistic monitors will patrol the city’s parks, museums, subway stations and other public places searching for gaffes to fix,” reports the Wall Street Journal. I’m not sure the sign I photographed in Beijing several years ago would merit removal—I know that the Palace Museum had more glory on the day I visited because I gave it tons and tons of care—but either way, I can only hope the sign police fail.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Explorers
by Michael Yessis | 02.02.07 | 9:38 AM ET
Travelers appear top of mind this week, not destinations. The journeys of Daisann McLane, Bill Bryson, Paulina Porizkova, Martin Sargent, celebrity watchers and Dora the Explorer lead off the Zeitgeist.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Daisann McLane: ‘Learning Cantonese’ in Hong Kong
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Travel Song Medley by Dora the Explorer
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World Hum (this week)
Paulina Porizkova: A Model Traveler
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Oscars Tourism: Celebrity Sightings and a Hotel Within Gawking Distance of the Red Carpet
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* We like this book.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Area-Daily.com Launches
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Farecast
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods
Most Dugg Travel Podcast
Digg (current)
Martin Sargent: Web Drifter
Daisann McLane: ‘Learning Cantonese’ in Hong Kong
by Jim Benning | 01.29.07 | 9:20 AM ET
Macau Surpasses Las Vegas as Gambling Mecca
by Michael Yessis | 01.24.07 | 9:20 AM ET
The numbers are staggering: Macau’s gambling revenue rose from $2 billion in 2001 to $6.95 billion in 2006, and this year analysts predict a take of $8 billion. Las Vegas took in $6.5 billion in 2006. Why is Macau booming? According to a New York Times story, liberalized Chinese travel policies have helped spur growth.
National Geographic Adventure’s Top 2007 Destinations
by Jim Benning | 01.03.07 | 1:54 PM ET
Where to go this year? The world is wide open, but some countries seem particularly good choices now. For the December 2006/January 2007 issue of National Geographic Adventure, I worked with editors on a list of six countries offering compelling reasons to visit soon. Among them: China (now’s a great time to check out the new train to Lhasa); Morocco (for a major splurge before a visit to the High Atlas Mountains, spend a night at the historic, Winston Churchill-approved La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech, due to reopen this year after a renovation); and Brazil (TAM airlines is now flying nonstop between Miami and Manaus, making a visit to the Amazon easier than ever). To further stoke some wanderlust and inspire, the magazine celebrates the feats of a number of travelers, including the “new Magellans,” Colin Angus and Julie Wafael, who recently circumnavigated the globe by walking, cycling, skiing and, yes, rowing.
2006: The Year of Mapping Dangerously
by Ben Keene | 12.21.06 | 1:00 PM ET
‘Tis the season to look back on the year that has passed and make lists, and those of us in the maps business are no less backward looking than others. Borders shift, populations grow or shrink, and place names are altered. The pace of change can be mind-numbing. So I thought I’d compile my own short—and consequently incomplete—list of some of the most noteworthy geographical developments of the last 12 months.
‘All Things Considered’ on the Future of Shanghai
by Michael Yessis | 12.14.06 | 8:18 AM ET
It’s a fast-growing megacity in a country on the rise, and as we’ve posted here and here and here, people around the world are wondering about the future of Shanghai, China, and what its impact will be on the rest of the world. This week National Public Radio’s ‘All Things Considers’ adds to the mix with a series on how Shanghai is handling its urban development. Almost 18 million people currently live in Shanghai. By 2020, that number is projected to rise to 25 million. Photo: Montrasio Media’s Flickr stream.
Fifty Works of Art Worth Traveling the World to See
by Michael Yessis | 12.07.06 | 8:29 AM ET
Guardian art and architecture blogger Jonathan Jones asked his readers what 50 works of art are worth traveling a world to see? Or, to put it another way, “What works of art would you want to show a visitor from the Crab Nebula to prove humanity should be spared the interstellar death ray?” He’s posted the list 50 in no particular order. It includes Stonehenge, Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, Picasso’s “Guernica” and the Terracotta Army of the First Qin Emperor in China.
James Fallows in China: ‘Postcards From Tomorrow Square’
by Michael Yessis | 12.06.06 | 7:23 AM ET
Atlantic correspondent James Fallows recently moved to Shanghai, China for an indefinite stay. The December issue of the magazine features a terrific story that mixes his experiences as an expat with an analysis of where China has been and where it’s going. “I have not before been anyplace that seemed simultaneously so controlled and so out of control,” he writes. “The control is from on high—and for most people in the cities, most of the time it’s not something they bump into. What’s out of control is everything else.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Great Wall, Good Grief!
by Michael Yessis | 12.01.06 | 8:50 AM ET
Is the world falling apart? Travelers this week seem concerned that it is, as crumbling attractions in China, England and Cambodia have grabbed our attention. Don’t worry. A man in India has some duct tape, and if he can fix a plane with it, surely he could be handy with it elsewhere. Here’s your Zeitgeist.
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World Hum (this week)
The Great Wall, Siem Reap, Stonehenge Getting Too Much Love
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Saving the Great Wall From Being Loved to Death
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Ski Europe: The Best of the Alps
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Paris by Night
* A slow-loading but spectacular panorama of the City of Light.
No. 1 World Music Album
iTunes (current)
Loreena McKennitt’s An Ancient Muse
Most Dugg “Travel” Story
Digg (current)
Why Americans Should Never Be Allowed To Travel
* A collection of ridiculous things travel agents have heard from travelers. How ridiculous? This ridiculous: “I had someone ask for an aisle seats so that his or her hair wouldn’t get messed up by being near the window.”
Most Popular Travel Podcast
PodcastAlley (November)
808Talk: Hawaii’s Premier Podcast
The Great Wall, Siem Reap, Stonehenge Getting Too Much Love
by Jim Benning | 11.27.06 | 9:14 AM ET
They’re not the only places in the world being overrun with tourists, of course, but their tourism woes have been highlighted in recent days by the New York Times, Associated Press and Los Angeles Times, respectively. The New York Times on Sunday focused on the Great Wall of China, which is suffering under the weight of an estimated 13 million visitors a year. “[T]he Great Wall is not just crumbling,” writes Jim Yardley. “It is disappearing. Roughly half of the estimated 4,000 miles of the wall built during the Ming Dynasty no longer exists, according to a recent report. It is also regularly being abused.” Among other problems, he writes, last year “the police broke up a huge dance party of Chinese ravers atop the wall a few hours’ drive outside Beijing.”
UK-Inspired Thames Town Opens in China
by Jim Benning | 11.08.06 | 1:36 PM ET
Further evidence the planet will soon become one giant theme park: the opening of Thames Town, an English-inspired village in a suburb of Shanghai. It’s a $600 million development that includes a Winston Churchill statue, Victorian-style homes for sale, a fish-and-chips shop and a pub. Most of the homes have already been sold. But not everyone is pleased. According to Reuters, the owner of a pub and fish-and-chips shop in the UK feels cheated because her businesses were reproduced “almost exactly” in Thames Town. Said a representative from the development: “Maybe it’s a little bit of a misunderstanding. It’s not in any way supposed to be a replica.” Shanghaiist has more.