A comic take on drinking up fine-wine culture

TOKYO: The aroma is like a rock concert, with notes of butterflies dancing over a pond and an aftertaste of Jesus Christ and his disciples.

The final chapter?

Roaming about a bookshop used to be the favorite pastime for Huang Jiwei, a famed Beijing-based writer, publisher and avid book collector. He takes great pleasure in spending hours sauntering among the stalls and shelves, discovering interesting titles and taking them home.

Life Expat

Great haul of China

They are here for a good time - and a long time. When months stretch into years and life becomes a string of farewell parties for friends returning home, there comes a time in an expatriate's life when they must ask: have I gone native?

Spin-doctor prescribes eating, drinking and being happy

When Jean-Michel Dumont first came to Beijing after whooping it up at the Brazilian Carnival in Rio de Janeiro in 1986, the capital city seemed "gray and dull". Little did he know that this would be where he would spend the next 21 years - and perhaps the rest of - his life. "I have to admit, my first impression wasn't the best one," the 46-year-old Parisian said. "But within two months, it was my favorite city."

Global village

SHANGHAI

Life Travel

Getting there

Zhangjiajie City has its own small airport. There are direct scheduled flights from Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong, though these are not all daily. The city also has a railway station with direct links to Hunan's capital, Changsha, and the Hubei city of Yichang, close to the Three Gorges Dam.

Pilgrims trek path to temple Enlightenment

BODHGAYA, India: In hardly any other place in India do economic poverty and spiritual wealth go hand-in-hand than in the northeastern state of Bihar.

Nature's skyscrapers

World's highest railroad, fastest train, biggest dam, tallest building. The Middle Kingdom's stellar list of engineering achievements has earned it many doting admirers, though perhaps Mother Nature is not foremost among them. Not only has China's remarkable industrialization drive left scars on her landscapes. It's also pilfered her best designs.

Life Health

A bitter pill to swallow

HAMBURG: Medical experts are grappling with the looming problem of how to effectively help a largely underestimated number of people addicted to prescription medicine.