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Disneyland Shanghai Coming in 2015; Get Your 'Made In China' Mickey Ears Out!

Here's to unholy matrimony: Disney announced yesterday that China has allowed them to move forward with construction of a new park in Shanghai, its first new resort since 2005's Hong Kong Disneyland and its third in Asia. You thought the fight over EuroDisney was good? Wait till you see the Chinese version of "It's A Small World."

According to the New York Times, the park has been in the works since the 1990s when a mayor of Shanghai visited Disneyland in Anaheim and could take up to 6 years to build. At 1,700 acres, the planned park, in the city's Pudong district, will be slightly bigger than Original Flavor Disneyland but resemble the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World.

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Tags: Air China / New Routes / China Travel / → All Tags

Air China Looks Like They're Going For World Domination

Air China last came to our attention with their cheap and lucky tours; now they want to make us happy (and make themselves some money, no doubt) with a bunch of new domestic and international routes.

China-side, there are now flights between Beijing and Daqing, Chengdu and Zhuhai, and Shenzhen and Dazhou, making it easier to get around this large land. And to get there in the first place, Air China has started new routes between Beijing and Tokyo's Haneda Airport, and from Hangzhou to Frankfurt, Germany.

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Copenhagen's Little Mermaid And Hans Christian Andersen Get Shipped To China

Last year there were rumors kicking around about a Disney park being built in Shanghai. At this time, there’s still no solid plans to get Mickey and friends a passport, but there are some other fictional characters looking to call China home in 2010. The stories of Hans Christian Andersen are set to come alive in a theme park that would open just in time for the 2010 Word Expo. The park will begin to welcome guests on May 11—the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Denmark.

The park certainly won’t be the biggest and best theme park, but 20 acres will be dedicated to characters from stories like the Little Mermaid and the Emperor’s New Clothes. It’s important to remember that there’s no fresh crab sidekick in Andersen’s story of a girl under the sea, so if you’re looking for Ariel, you’ll just have to wait until Disney builds their park. The ride and attraction details are lacking at this point, so we don’t know if the Ugly Duckling will be making an appearance in roller coaster form.

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Tags: Southwest China Field Trip / China Travel / Asia Travel / Tibet Travel / → All Tags

Southwest China Field Trip: Life's Good In Shangri-La, But Not For Yaks

All this week, Jaunted special embed Claire Duffett will be relaying the joys and jumbles of her travels through Southwest China including Tibet. Finally, she reaches Shangri-La:

Oh, Shangri-La. In a cynical attempt to drum up tourism, the Chinese government renamed the town of Zhongdian, which is a pleasant city with a lovely old town, after the fictional Utopia in Lost Horizon. Copies of the book are sold in every shop, so we read it, and no, there’s really no similarity between the fictional land and the town in northwestern Yunnan. But it is TIbetan, and that's cool.

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Southwest China Field Trip: Tiger Leaping Gorge-ous

All this week, Jaunted special embed Claire Duffett will be relaying the joys and jumbles of her travels through Southwest China including Tibet. Today, a gorgeous gorge:

Tiger Leaping Gorge is a (novice) trekkers dream. For the masochistic hikers, it’s probably too easy. But we’re all for maximum payoff at minimum effort, and the gorge offers incredible vistas of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain from along well-trod dirt paths, with plenty of guesthouses eager to offer respite and lunch.

That’s not to say the two-day trail isn't without challenge. Old Naxi men trail the weakest-looking trekkers (this writer, for example) with donkeys, offering to sell them a ride when the trail gets to the “28 bends”—a steep, direct ascent from the middle of the mountain almost to the top. They pick off stragglers like lions on a herd of antelope and pocket their prize.

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Southwest China Field Trip: Scaling Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

All this week, Jaunted special embed Claire Duffett will be relaying the joys and jumbles of her travels through Southwest China including Tibet. Today, discovering Lijiang and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain :

Lijiang is indisputably remarkable as a town in Southwest China. Because of its charm and attractions, it’s also packed with tourists. The old town is a hodgepodge of ancient Chinese buildings, topped with low, ceramic roofs and connected by a series of narrow walkways all flanked by open waterways where crystal clear water flows from Jade Dragon Snow Mountain looming above.

It seems every other doorway leads to a guesthouse with small, wooden rooms surrounding a garden courtyard. Few cost more than $15 per night. This is the first place in Yunnan, heading up from the capital of Kunming, where elevation gains might make you drowsy. And for those heading farther north to Shangri-La and into Tibet, it’s nice to start adjusting to the thin air, slowly.

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Southwest China Field Trip: Dali's Darling Charm

All this week, Jaunted special embed Claire Duffett will be relaying the joys and jumbles of her travels through Southwest China including Tibet. Today, discovering the cute cultural town of Dali:

Sandwiched between a mountain and a 22-kilometer lake, Dali is a small, walled town next to a real Chinese city that doesn’t try to be charming and whose tallest building is a multi-story Wal-Mart. We found it helpful to split our time between the Disneyland of Dali and the real world of its neighboring city and the “real” people who ride the public buses throughout. Boat rides are expensive but lovely, as is the cable car ride to the top of the hill behind the town.

Fewer Chinese tourists and more western hippies give the town of Dali an atmosphere distinct from Lijiang, its neighbor four hours northwest which often stands in the spotlight due to its bigger size and history. Both towns come with stone streets and open waterways that run alongside the sidewalks and over quaint, wooden wheels. The atmosphere is charming to some and hopelessly contrived to others. We were among the tourists who embraced it.

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Tags: Travel Deals / Air China / China Travel / → All Tags

$888 Will Get You Ten Days In China, Plus Lots Of Luck

We're not always big fans of package tours, but a deal we just heard about from China Spree sounds like it could be a great way to see the musts of China if you don't have too much cash or too many vacation days. Their 10-day Golden Triangle Tour is priced at a lucky $888 (well, a lucky number for the Chinese, at least) and whirls you around China's highlights by plane and train.

Flying direct with Air China from San Francisco to Beijing, the tour takes in the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China and the Summer Palace, then you spend a night on a train to get to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors. A flight to Shanghai to shop and sight-see rounds out the trip.

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Southwest China Field Trip: A 40-Hour Train Ride To Start

All this week, Jaunted special embed Claire Duffett will be relaying the joys and jumbles of her travels through Southwest China including Tibet. Today, a marathon of train travel:

From China’s massive northeastern cities, we traveled by 40-hour train to the Yunnan Province in the country’s southwest, where the landscape and the people all transform into a varied amalgam of Han Chinese, Tibetan, and minority influences.

The area is one of China’s most diverse and it converges with the Tibetan plateau, giving it snow-peaked mountains and a multitude of cultures. We then turned northward from the province’s forgettable capital, Kunming, through valleys, around mountains, stopping in the historic towns of Dali, Lijiang, and “Shangri-La,” the town China renamed after the fictional utopia from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon.

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China Bans Tourists From Tibet To Lower Riot Risk...Again

If you're not already in Tibet today, it's going to be a little while before you're allowed to enter the region. The Chinese government has stopped issuing the special permits that foreigners require to enter Tibet and won't let any tourists in again until October 8.

This kind of behavior is, of course, nothing new. China spent decades banning tourists from Tibet until it was opened up a bit in the 1980s, and banned foreigners again in March 2008 in response to rioting.

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A Chocolate Theme Park Will Hatch In Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium Next Year

Important statistical news just in: the number of chocoholics found in China is rising. This could be bad news if we think of having to share the world's supply of chocolate with an increasing number of people, but the flipside is positive stuff—China's going to open a "world chocolate dream park" in Beijing next year.

The theme park will be housed in the Olympic Green (where the famous Olympics "Bird's Nest" stadium is) and will include five indoor pavilions and two outdoor sites full of chocolate-themed exhibits. They say this will include life-size, edible chocolate versions of the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army.

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Live Our Beijing Stories With a 10-Day China Adventure at a Major Discount

Hopefully you are following Jaunted correspondent Claire Duffett's China travel diary, a series of entries which chronicles her journey around the country in vivid, first-person detail. If Claire's travels, the recent Olympic games, or China's captivating history in general have inspired you to take a trip there yourself, then thank the deal deities for shining down on you.

Friendly Planet Travels, an "all-inclusive escorted" tour company is currently offering their popular "Taste of China" package at a discount of up to $600, provided you act quickly and book your spot by September 23rd. The tour starts in Beijing, where a guide will show you around Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Panda Zoo. While most stretches of the 10-day tour are guided, you do get free time to wander the included cities on your own. Other stops on the excursion include Xi'an and Shanghai, where more gardens, art museums, and the Pearl Tower await.

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