The 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, or "The Tower? as it's known locally, is an edifice that invites exclamation. You hear plenty of it as you ride a series of elevators up to the 100th floor, where the Sky Walk proclaims itself the world's tallest observation deck.
It was kind of surprising to read about China's announcement in February that it intends to more than double the value of its entertainment and cultural industries to nearly 3 trillion yuan ($461 billion) over the course of the next five years. The goal: Encourage domestic consumption and promote Chinese culture abroad. The amount the country, government, industry or whoever is willing to shell out is pretty significant, especially considering that the country limits the number of foreign movie releases to about 20 per year.
The black-lacquered sign above the broad gateway proclaims that this is Comrade Soong Ching-ling's old residence. In smaller script right underneath the large characters is written her official designation ?honorary chairman of the People's Republic of China.
Schindler's List producer Branko Lustig was in Shanghai recently scouting locations for his new movie, an inter-racial romantic drama about Jewish refugees who found safe haven in the open port city during World War II.
French kings were once crowned at the cathedral at Reims. The Dresden Frauenkirche, firebombed to rubble during World War II, stands proudly rebuilt on the Elbe River with its distinctive "stone bell?dome. St. Peter's Basilica is the heart of the Vatican. But if I were traveling to Europe on this Easter Sunday, I would hope to spend the morning in a much different building: one of the historic wooden churches that dot communities in the region once known as Wallachia. Now cultural treasures of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, many of these sturdy houses of worship have been sanctified by UNESCO as World Heritage sites during the past three decades.
One of the must-dos on every mainland visitor's list is the Shi Lin Night Market in Taipei, usually on the last day of a hectic 10-day round-Island tour. Here, many of Taiwan's iconic "little eats", or street snacks, wait to tempt tourists.
Eight of us are trudging up a mountain ridge into thinning air. Soft, green grass shrouds the steep but graceful slopes that surround us. Near the end of a hike in a vertical field of wildflowers, the purple and yellow blossoms become dotted with familiar white star-shapes. At about 3,000 meters above sea level, our steps come more slowly but we are not hallucinating.
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Raymond Zhou
Op Rana
Berlin Fang
Zhu Yuan
Huang Xiangyang
Chen Weihua
