China Travel Guide
8/21/2008 at 2:45 PM
Tags: Afterlife Travel, Hungry Ghost Festival, China, Festival Travel (all tags)
Feed Casper now: The traditional Chinese celebration of the Hungry Ghosts is being honored in cities around southeast Asia through the end of August with public performances and bonfires.
Folk tradition holds that deceased ancestors return during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar (August), where they can hear prayers said by their living relatives, consume elaborate meals and get directions to heaven. The devout will even build papier-maché houses and burn them, along with "hell money" bills representing wealth, thereby "sending" them to the afterlife.
You can experience Hungry Ghost Festival celebrations all over China, but also in Hong Kong, Thailand (where it is known as Por Tor) and Penang, Malaysia. Don't be surprised if you don't see a lot of people out at night for the next week or two: Those hungry ghosts are considered a menace to the living when they aren't fed.
Related Stories:
· The Ghost Festival [Chinavoc.com]
· Buddhist Ant Crisis in Malaysia [Jaunted]
· Festival coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: e-chan]
by egw
8/21/2008 at 9:00 AM
Tags: Beijing Travel, Tourist Attractions, Trains, Great Wall of China (all tags)
Determined to tick the Great Wall off your list in your Olympics-inspired visit to China in the future? The Chinese have just created an even easier way for millions of tourists to head out to Badaling, the most popular part of the Wall for snapshots and tacky memorabilia.
The Great Wall Express is a direct train halving the travel time from central Beijing to the wall. Only it doesn't quite take you all the way there: You still have at least a fifteen minute walk ahead of you, but they're "working on it."
The nice part about the Great Wall Express train is that you get to bypass all those nasty traffic jams that would otherwise await you riding in and out of Beijing by bus or taxi. That, and that at just 17 yuan ($2.50) for a first class seat, it's really cheap.
Related Stories:
· All Aboard for the New Great Wall Express [The Age]
· Beijinging: Tick the Great Wall of China Off Your List [Jaunted]
[Photo: auws]
by amandak
8/15/2008 at 8:45 AM
Tags: Celeb Travel, Olympics, Beijing Olympics, David Beckham (all tags)
The world simultaneously giggled and rolled its eyes when the Guardian newspaper released a photo gallery of President Bush up to his usual hijinks at the 2008 Summer Olympics with wife Laura and daughter Barbara. But he's not the only non-competing celebrity to be hanging out in the host city, hoping to bump into Michael Phelps.
Blogger Beijing Boyce has been collecting celeb sightings of people like Bill and Melinda Gates on the Olympic green, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling at (where else?) the baseball stadium, and Jared Leto just about anywhere.
David Hasselhoff and John Mayer are rolling into town to celebrate the last leg of the Gumball 3000.
But the best celebrity leak so far involves a bunch of civilians who are being pressed into action to represent their country at the last minute. No, not as an ad hoc water polo team, but at the closing ceremonies Led Zeppelin will perform with Leona Lewis and David Beckham will speak for the next summer Olympics, in London in 2012. Reportedly, they will all have a red double-decker bus for a platform, which makes us both excited and nervous.
Related Stories:
· LOL Bush: The president at the Olympics [Guardian.co.uk]
· Beijing Olympics Celebrity Watch [Beijing Boyce]
· Gumball Rally To Arrive in Beijing Tomorrow [2008 Games Beijing]
· Beckham to appear at closing ceremony [BBC]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[LOLBush: the Guardian]
by egw
8/14/2008 at 4:30 PM
Tags: Olympics, Beijing Olympics, China Travel, Embassies (all tags)
If you've never been to an American embassy, we're here to tell you that it's not actually that much fun. (Well, maybe it's fun if you're invited to a party, but that's not why we stopped by!) Still, the new diplomatic mission in Beijing looks good enough to compete with The Bird's Nest and The Watercube.
The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill building opened the same day as the games, August 8, and is second in size only to the US embassy in Baghdad. The eight-floor facility covers 10 acres and cost $434 million to build. It's just outside Beijing's Third Ring Road.
Inside, you'll find a rich collection of contemporary art, including pieces from Louise Bourgeois, Martin Puryear, Maya Lin, Cai Guo-Qiang and Robert Rauschenberg. Because the embassy had a budget of "only" $800,000, many of the works were either donated or sold way below cost to the State Department. One exception is Jeff Koons' "Tulips" which is on a 10-year loan from the artist.
Related Stories:
· About the Embassy [Official Site]
· Cool New US Embassy in Beijing [BlackBook]
· More Embassy Travel: Let's Go See the Queen! [Jaunted]
[Photo: SOM]
by pbb
8/14/2008 at 1:00 PM
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Olympics, Dispatches from Beijing (all tags)
A friend of Jaunted is on-hand for the Olympics, and she'll be doing her best to keep us posted on what it's really like for a spectator in China. Here's her report from August 13:
My family and I started the day off early with a visit to the Great Wall of China. We thought we were getting a head start arriving at 8:45 am, as we had gone to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, which is usually less crowded and more scenic than the Great Wall at Badaling. But instead, we found an unusually big crowd--due to the Badaling area being closed for an Olympic cycling race on the roads nearby.
MORE...
by pbb
8/13/2008 at 5:00 PM
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Olympics, Dispatches from Beijing (all tags)
A friend of Jaunted is on-hand for the Olympics, and she'll be doing her best to keep us posted on what it's really like for a spectator in China. Here's her latest report:
It's my family's first full day in Beijing, and it's not as smoggy or hazy as we had expected. I heard that the conditions were so hot and humid that quite a few cyclists in the race on Sunday pulled out because of the tough conditions. Rain on Sunday evening might have helped clear the air over yesterday and today.
I thought I would be seeing this intense layer of smog, however, it's just hazy. Instead of checking out the Olympic events, we toured the city. We have a terrific private guide, who makes navigating the city so much more manageable!
MORE...
by pbb
8/13/2008 at 11:00 AM
Tags: Olympics, Beijing Olympics, 2008 Olympics, Beijing Olympics 2008, Music Travel (all tags)
Finally, someone to speak for the expats: Rapper Eli Sweet found his niche as a performer-slash-English teacher after moving from Hotlanta--to Chengdu, China.
His MySpace page still lists him as Atlanta-based--and as "the dopest white rapper without a fade"--but after graduation from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Sweet, who had been studying Chinese on and off for years, took an unconventional path to musical recognition in becoming perhaps the only white rapper in Chengdu. NPR's videos of Sweet in Chengdu present a completely different side of the Olympic hosts, but inspire us to visit just as much as those sweeping shots of the Watercube.
We wish Sweet were a more regular blogger, based on a March '07 entry about the popularity of the combover, the state of the bathrooms and what Chinese people think of their neighbor, Thailand. His on-the-ground knowledge of what Asian rap sounds like alone is priceless.
Related Stories:
· American Rapper Eli Sweet Reflects On China [NPR]
· This Is Why I'm Hot [Eli Sweet's MySpace Blog]
· Beijing Olympics 2008 coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo of a rap concert in Shanghai: nicklui]
by egw
8/12/2008 at 5:15 PM
Tags: Beijing Olympics, 2008 Olympics, Beijing Olympics 2008, Olympics, Boingo, WiFi (all tags)
Worldwide wireless provider Boingo has just launched 349 new hotspots in Beijing, a move timed to coincide with the Olympics.
The full list of hotspots is here, though it currently only shows 329 places to jump online. You can use Boingo's new Aspirin promotion, but since these connections are overseas, you'll have to pay a "premium fee" to get online.
Presumably, the WiFi is still under the same restrictions as all internet access in China, so your mileage may vary. Earlier this year, we discussed some strategies for circumventing state control of the internet.
Related Stories:
· WiFi coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: jon crel]
by pbb
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