The much-hyped New 7 Wonders of the World project finally reached a conclusion on the weekend. In Portugal, symbolically on 07-07-07, the results of 100 million internet and text message votes decided the modern version of the 7 Wonders of the World.
So congratulations are in order for Petra, Jordan; Machu Picchu, Peru; the Statue of Christ the Redeemer, Brazil; the Chichen Itza pyramid, Mexico; the Roman Colosseum, Italy; the Taj Mahal, India; and the Great Wall of China. They now have one more promotional tag. Significant losers included the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Sydney Opera House.
If you've been under a big rock the past year or so and feel like you've missed out, don't fret. The organizers have obviously realized they're on to a good thing--there's a lot of travel involved in a project like this--so now the quest to find the New 7 Wonders of Nature begins.
Results of the The New 7 Wonders promotion are getting closer: on 07.07.07 (yep, that's July 7 this year), the big announcement will be made in Lisbon about which seven tourist sights should expect an environment-destroying boost in visitor numbers in the coming years. If you want to get into the spirit of world wonders before then, you can always listen to the official New 7 Wonders of the World song.
That's right--such a song exists. British band The Dolmen sing a sentimental try-hard tune with lines like "Dreaming as children/On the threshold of history" and a chorus repeating "New 7 Wonders of the World" a couple of times to often. Don't say we didn't warn you.
This month, pretty online mag Pology features a story on the ol' dead guy, Ho Chi Minh. Writer Jennifer Anthony isn't quite sure about going to see dead people, likening it to a greedy relative peeking in the coffin before the will is read.
An interesting discussion on the Vietnamese attitude to Americans follows, and as one of her guides told her:
"The war is over." He, like the cyclo driver and everyone else I've met, don't harbor ill will or malice towards Americans, or the French, or the Chinese, all who have a history here. They have moved on.
Good to know. Jennifer ended up skipping the mausoleum and there's a good tip in it for you--avoid heading to see the bearded guy on weekends, when long, long queues of Vietnamese wait to pay their respects. Or perhaps if you want to meet some locals, it's a good place to hang around.
We're still pretty sure that the Japanese win the prize for recreating the largest number of world tourist attractions at home, but a current festival in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City is giving the Japanese a good run for their money. The Wonders of the World exhibition being held until February 25 at HCMC's Zoo and Botanical Garden features miniature versions of half the world.
Some 30 tonnes of steel and thousands of lanterns and lights have been used to recreate sights like the Great Wall of China, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and (of course) the Eiffel Tower, along with some local Vietnamese sights like the One-Pillar Pagoda and the beautiful Halong Bay. Scales for the models vary from 1:10 to 1:30, so you should still get a good image of what you're not seeing. Or, of course, you could go to Vietnam and see the country itself.
You might remember that a guy with a bright idea and an urge to travel around the world for a long time (at someone else's expense) came up with the idea of voting for the world's New 7 Wonders, with it all winding up on 7/7/07. As the tour progresses, some nominated wonders are not acting so wonderfully.
Egyptians in particular are unhappy that their pyramids were nominated at all. They think as the only surviving ancient wonders of the world, the pyramids don't need the humiliation of being involved in a vote where they have only a 1 in 3 chance of ending up a Wonder--Egyptian government officials even refused to meet with the New 7 Wonders team.
Meanwhile down in Sydney, tourism officials are campaigning for people to vote for the the Sydney Opera House as it languishes in the bottom 7 of the 21 nominated wonders, according to recent voting updates. And the Peruvian government has paid for posters on city streets to urge locals to vote for Macchu Pichu. Might the New 7 Wonders just be a matter of who has the best marketing? Not that we'd be cynical about this, of course.
Do you vaguely remember learning about the seven wonders of the world back in middle school? We don't either. So we did some hard-hitting research and discovered they were first chronicled by some old, dead Greek guys interested in sightseeing. Cool, right? Well, the old wonders are all but gone now. But, luckily the quest continues for the world's favorite new wonders.
In a (seemingly effective!) publicity stunt, "film producer, author and aviator" Bernard Weber has asked the world to decide which of its landmarks are the most wondrous. We first told you about the short list last year, but now that voting clock is ticking. Admittedly, this whole operation seems a little fly-by-night, but, hey, we're not entering our credit card info. (You do have to register with the site to vote for your fave wonders.)
There are a couple surprises among an otherwise impressive field. Like the Eiffel Tower--a bit too small and too easy to find, we think. And the Christ Redeemer statue in Rio--a little too chintzy, no? What about the Giza Pyramids? They're already a wonder of the world! The rest of the contenders, though, definitely have wonder-of-the-world potential--including Petra, above, which you'll remember from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
The New 7 Wonders is a group trying to come up with a new list of amazing structures. Public voting on the places began on the 1st and will continue through the year. The shortlist of places is after the jump -- decisions, decisions.
We are thinking the Pizza Hut Pyramids might not make it this time around.
