Ties that offer the best of both worlds

The recent spate of inclement weather in Beijing, the heavy rain and dull cloudy days, couldn't help but remind me of "summer" days in my home country of Britain. As a child, I spent many happy holidays in a town called Berwick-upon-Tweed.

On the coast of the English county of Northumberland, it is near many areas of great beauty, the lovely beaches on the coast, the nearby Holy Island of Lindisfarne and the attractive scenery of the River Tweed.

It is a town noted as much for picturesque location as it is for its history, having changed hands a dozen times between England and Scotland in border wars over the course of 400 years until it finally was retaken by England in 1482.