Destination: China
Flinn on the Lhasa Express: “I’d Give it a B-Minus”
by Michael Yessis | 11.06.06 | 8:06 AM ET
San Francisco Chronicle writer John Flinn took a ride on the Lhasa Express, the new train from China to Tibet, and returned with that verdict and a terrific tale of life—and strange happenings—on the high-altitude rails.
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Yahoo! BuzzTravel Book Among National Book Awards Finalists
by Ben Keene | 10.11.06 | 1:45 PM ET
It’s true. The National Book Foundation announced its finalists for the 2006 National Book Awards this afternoon, listing as usual, five nominees for each of its four main categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature. Rarely are travel-related titles recognized by the foundation. Yet there it is, among the finalists for the nonfiction award: Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present, published this spring by HarperCollins. Whether or not the book wins the big prize Nov. 15, we’re delighted. Hessler is one of the writers we celebrated back in May—his first China book, River Town, made our list of the top 30 travel books of all time. Earlier this year, Hessler shared his thoughts with us on our list, including his take on travel writing as a genre.
Seven Travel Stories to Tell Before You Die
by Jim Benning | 10.02.06 | 6:43 AM ET
I’ve never been too enamored of the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die approach to travel—or at least the approach that the title of the book suggests. Among other things, it emphasizes quantity over quality. But the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn has offered a modest alternative checklist that I can get behind: seven travel stories you should be able to tell before you die. It puts the emphasis where it belongs, I think: on experiences and stories. Flinn just concluded a series of columns exploring the seven stories he believes are essential for every traveler, and he recounted his own version of each. “Go ahead and visit every one of those ‘1000 Places to See Before You Die,’ as catalogued in the best-selling book,” he wrote. “But spare your friends the description of the Taj Mahal. Yes, it’s beautiful. And, yes, of course, the Great Barrier Reef is awesome. Everybody knows this. And we don’t need to hear about the seventh hole at Pebble Beach. What we want to hear are stories.”
Travel Writers Pick Their Favorite Airports
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.06 | 2:09 PM ET
USA Today’s Jayne Clark asks a handful of travel writers about their favorite airports in today’s edition. Among them: The Naked Tourist author Lawrence Osborne, who notes about his favorite, Wamena, Irian Jaya, on the island of New Guinea, “It’s the anti-airport. It has almost no staff. There is no glass in the windows, just naked men in pig fat jumping up and down.” Hmmm. Could be worth a trip just to see that.
Confucius in Modern China
by Michael Yessis | 09.18.06 | 6:11 AM ET
Part two of Tom Haines and photographer Essdras M Suarez’s two-part series Into a Changing China is now up at the Boston Globe. The final installment, Haines says, looks at modern China through its relationship with Confucius. And like part one, which we highlighted last week, it features a terrific audio slide show.
Shanghai: Beyond the Skyline
by Michael Yessis | 09.13.06 | 6:38 AM ET
On a recent trip to China, Boston Globe travel writer Tom Haines took the amazing architecture of Shanghai as a given, old news. He and photographer Essdras M Suarez instead took a look a how the rising buildings and economy have affected life in Shanghai, and their story—the first of a two-part series “Into a Changing China”—and a terrific audio slide show highlighting the collision of old and new, are now online. “Across the river, guests at the Hyatt rest their heads on pillows 80 stories above the city. Foreign bankers emerge from apartments in the French Concession and swing into Starbucks for blueberry muffins and venti lattes. Tom Cruise leaps from Shanghai’s real towers in the imagined world of M:i:III,” Haines writes. “It can be easy to forget that beneath it all a local culture evolves.”
Colin Thubron and the “Shadow of the Silk Road”
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.06 | 8:02 AM ET
He’s among the best travel writers working today, and this Sunday The Times of London began a series of three excerpts from Colin Thubron’s new book, Shadow of the Silk Road. Thubron, whose Behind the Wall landed at No. 23 in World Hum’s countdown of the Top 30 travel books, travels through China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, and the first excerpt finds him en route to Tibet.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist
by Michael Yessis | 09.08.06 | 7:02 AM ET
Looks like we’re a little grumpy this week. Our snapshot of what’s on the minds of travelers and armchair travelers reveals we’re concerned about “Ugly Americans,” bad-mannered Chinese and our poor service on American Airlines. What will get us out of this funk? Perhaps 36 hours in Grand Rapids, Michigan? Here’s your zeitgeist.
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
* Rethinking the Ugly American
No. 1 World Music Album
iTunes (current)
* The Life Aquatic by Seu George
Most Complained About U.S. Airline
Air Travel Consumer Report (June 2006)
* American Airlines
Most Popular Site Tagged “Travel”
del.icio.us (recent)
* Kayak
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
* Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
* Chinese travelers’ bad manners earn a chilly reception
Most Viewed Dispatch
World Hum (this week)
* Tony Perottet’s The Joy of Steam
Most Viewed “Travel & Places” Video
YouTube (this week)
* U-StampIt Productions: “This is a sample video for three co-hosts and their upcoming show on Italy”
Most Viewed Weblog Country Category
World Hum Weblog (this week)
* China
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
* 36 Hours: Grand Rapids, Mich.
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
* “What I did on my summer vacation”
And, finally, a tribute to the Crocodile Hunter
* In honor of Steve Irwin and International Khaki Day, we’ll be flying the khaki today. R.I.P. Crocodile Hunter.
Got something that deserves to be included in next week’s World Hum Zeitgeist? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Chinese Government to its Traveling Citizens: No Spitting!
by Michael Yessis | 09.08.06 | 5:52 AM ET
There’s been a lot of coverage about the rise in Chinese tourists. And much of it centers on their bad manners, though the Chinese do have at least one high-profile defender. Now, to help its citizens make a better impression around the world, the Chinese government is producing an etiquette guide for its citizens traveling abroad. Among the tips: don’t spit, don’t litter and don’t speak loudly in public.
New China-Tibet Train Derails
by Jim Benning | 08.31.06 | 3:31 PM ET
Reports Reuters via the New York Times: “One of China’s new trains to Tibet, the world’s highest railway, derailed, disrupting the line for five hours and delaying thousands of passengers, state news media said. No one was injured. Malfunctioning signal and switching equipment was said to be the cause. It was the first mishap on the rail system, which reaches altitudes of 16,400 feet above sea level, since it began operating July 1.” Also, earlier this month, a 77-year-old tourist from Hong Kong died of altitude sickness while aboard the train.
China, Taiwan to Officially Discuss Opening Island to Mainland Tourists
by Michael Yessis | 08.30.06 | 2:09 PM ET
After years of back-channel talks, China and Taiwan will officially sit down this September to discuss removing the ban on travel from the Chinese mainland to the Island, according to an Asia Times story by Ting-I Tsai. The potential talks come after China’s founding of the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, and Taiwan’s development of the Taiwan Strait Traveling and Tourism Association, two ostensibly private organizations created to handle the negotiations. China, a rising tourist power, currently allows its citizens to travel to just 81 countries, according to the Times.
The Travels of Jiang Zemin
by Michael Yessis | 08.22.06 | 7:39 AM ET
Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin visited more than 70 countries during his 13-year rule, and he apparently chronicles a great deal of those trips in a 654-page travel book that came out recently. The book is called “For a Better World: Jiang Zemin’s Overseas Visits,” and according to an AP story, it’s more about Jiang’s “desire…to be remembered as the leader who presided over China’s rise to unprecedented importance in trade and global affairs” than his desire to be the next J. Maarten Troost. Via Gadling.
Moscow vs. Lonely Planet
by Michael Yessis | 08.10.06 | 4:08 PM ET
Politics, business and travel often intertwine. Take, for example, Lonely Planet. Recently, the guidebook giant has lobbied the United States Congress to support a National Passport Month. In 2002, Hong Kong took issue with Lonely Planet’s guidebook coverage. In 2004, Burma Campaign UK called for a boycott of the guidebook giant simply for publishing a book about the country. Now it’s Moscow’s turn to take some shots at LP. From a story by Tom Parfitt in the Guardian: “Moscow officials have launched an attack on Lonely Planet, saying the backpackers’ guide portrays the Russian capital as a gangster-infested Gotham and presents an image of the city that is at least 15 years out of date.”
Xeni Jardin Hacks the Himalayas
by Michael Yessis | 08.09.06 | 6:21 AM ET
This week National Public Radio’s “Day to Day” is broadcasting Xeni Jardin’s four-part series about how Tibetans are coping with encroaching technology. Jardin traveled through Tibet, India and China, and her reports explore “how Western ‘hackers’ are building low-cost communications networks to bring phone and Web service to displaced Tibetan refugees—and how native peoples are trying to hold onto their culture in an interconnected world.” Jardin has supplemented her stories with photos and audio on the NPR Web site, and extra commentary and video on her personal page.
Why Should You Give Care’?
by Jim Benning | 07.20.06 | 4:51 PM ET
Needless to say, after spotting this sign during my visit to Beijing, I gave tons of care.
Photo by Jim Benning.