Published on 12 August 2003 by Travel Age West & Travelagewest.com Although the Athens Olympics are less than a year away, many travel professionals are already ramping up for the 2008 Games in Beijing. “We plan for it to be a major part of what we do here for the next few years,” said Gilbert Whelan, […]
By Guy Rubin Centuries ago, in a cliff-face in the midst of China’s vast Taklamakan desert, artists hollowed, sculpted and painted 492 caves, creating over 450,000 square feet of spectacular murals, or more than thirty times the mural area of the Sistine Chapel. But whereas the Sistine Chapel was painted over a few years, the […]
Which Luxury Tour? 5 Critical Factors For Choosing A Luxury Tour by Guy Rubin You’ve paid top dollar for your “luxury tour” but find yourself continually eating in shabby restaurants, puzzled that tourist sites shut early each afternoon while souvenir stores seem permanently open. You are angered not only by your guide’s increasingly obvious dishonesty […]
Finding commonality at Beijing’s West Qing Tombs by Guy Rubin What is it that you, me and the last Qing dynasty Emperor, Puyi, could all have in common? Absolute power at the age of two? Two wives for our sixteenth birthday? A flawed come-back in our thirties? Or maybe it’s that now we can all […]
Two hours from Beijing, Baiyangdian in summer metamorphoses from a drab swamp into a colorful checkerboard of lotus patches and fish nurseries The sun may have taken the weather forecasters by surprise, but not the lotus flowers. Attuned to the barest climatic fluctuation, they are already on the threshold of their summer bloom. A gathering […]
