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Hanoi foodie tour

Planning to go away for a short break in June? Opt for Hanoi, where the weather will be lovely and the food is fantastic all year round. Local boutique agency Viet Value Tours offers a land package designed specially for foodies. You start your day with a typical Hanoi breakfast, the famous pho bo. Replete, you can walk off the calories at Hoan Kiem Lake before your English-speaking guide takes you for a morning cuppa with a difference - that thick local brew that you can almost spoon up like coffee jelly. Meander around the Temple of Literature before lunch at Dac Kim for bun cha, the grilled pork noodles. Spend the afternoon at the museums or shopping around the old quarter. Dinner, the highlight, is at a restaurant serving traditional Vietnamese food, with explanations of culinary methods and traditions by your guide. Prices range from $62 each for a group of 10 to $95 per person for a minimum of two. Details at www.vietvaluetravel.com.

The Cheung Chau bun festival kicked off on Wednesday on the island of Cheung Chau in Hong Kong. Twelve competitors climbed a 45-foot (14m) bamboo tower covered in buns while collecting as many buns as they could in two minutes. The annual Cheung Chau Bun Carnival goes back to the Qing dynasty, when locals gave thanks for the end of a plague. And recent incarnation of festival has parades and bun-scrambling contest.

The Netherlands by bike

Sporty travelers are being invited to tour the Netherlands by bicycle on 400 different routes during the Bicycling Month of May program, with stopovers in museums and farms.

Cyclists can choose from short trips, day-long tours and competitive races. A four-day tour through the western Frisian region will lead through fields of tulips in bloom and on top of grass-covered dikes near the city of Hoorns. Along the so-called "Smaakroute" (taste route) cyclists will pedal past a number of castles and fortresses - and sample the region's cheeses and fresh fruits along the way. Organizers reported a turnout of half a million along the various routes last year. (www.holland.com)

Beijing-Shanghai train trials

The high-speed train between Beijing and Shanghai has begun trial runs, one month before the link is due to go into commercial service. The service will halve traveling time from the current 10 hours to just under 5 hours. Trains will run at speeds up to 300 kilometers per hour, 50 km slower than the original speed planned. Prices of tickets have yet to be announced.

Nightlife in Sanya

Sanya is all about sun, sea and sand after the beauty pageants and economic forums take a break. But what do you do when the sun goes down? Bar-hopping is now popular, especially when there are top-class hotels to choose from. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel's aptly named al fresco Sunset Bar is a good venue to sip a fruity cocktail and watch the daystar sink into the sea. After your pre-dinner drinks, head for the resort city's famous seafood restaurants, where crabs, prawns, and other fresh catches will make dinner exciting.

The more adventurous can try fugu, the puffer fish so beloved by the Japanese. Wash it down with lots of beer from the bar street, where the variety and choice of venues rival the best of Shanghai and Beijing night spots. For more tourist tips, go to www.sanyaexpat.com.

KLM to put Facebook fan portraits on plane: Dutch airline KLM is to cover an entire aircraft with faces of fans from its Facebook page instead of its usual pictures of windmills, fishing boats and other typically Dutch scenes. KLM has recruited fans using a Facebook application and invited them to submit their images. The airline will take the project a step further and eventually paint an entire Boeing 777-200 aircraft entirely with the entries on the Facebook page.

More flights for Guangzhou-Liuzhou route: China Southern Airlines will add one more flight daily between Guangzhou and Liuzhou beginning May 18, from the current two code-share flights operated by China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. Special offers are expected, with the cheapest tickets at just 280 yuan.

New direct flight to Tokyo: All Nippon Airways will start a direct flight between Chengdu and Tokyo from June 20.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 05/15/2011 page16)