We're less than a week away from Thanksgiving (gasp!). One thing I'm thankful for: Thanksgiving doesn't involve giving gifts. I still have another month to thinking about gifts (thank God!). Here are some other things to be thankful for.
Since the weekend is upon us, ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
China
Gadlinks for Friday 11.20.09
We're less than a week away from Thanksgiving (gasp!). One thing I'm thankful for: Thanksgiving doesn't involve giving gifts. I still have another month to thinking about gifts (thank God!). Here are some other things to be thankful for.
Since the weekend is upon us, ...Visitors from outside the U.S. down 9 percent, spending a lot less
Visits from outside the United States continued their slide in August. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that 5.4 million people visited the United States from other countries in August this year. Unfortunately, that's a drop of 9 percent from August 2008. And, ...Five ways Wal-mart in China is way different (and way more intense) than at home
Faced with errands for unrelated items – body lotion, slippers, yogurt – I decided that today I needed some one-stop shopping. Visiting individual shops and bargaining down the price of each item would take me an afternoon.
So where do you head for one-stop ...Lost? Phone a friend (or get an iPhone)
I'm new in town. There are no mountains to establish my location. Roads don't follow a tidy grid. Pedestrian and motorbike thoroughfares duck under highway overpasses, with nearly a dozen outlets – or so it seems.
So, walking back to my hostel one night I got lost.
...Gadlinks for Wednesday 11.18.09
We're halfway through November. For those of you living in the northern hemisphere, if you haven't felt winter yet, you will soon! Here in Hawaii, winter is rainier but the waves are bigger and better. I guess that goes for most parts of the world: the weather may stink, ...Gadling's 13 stranger than strange sites for Friday the 13th
Happy Friday the 13th! Tributed to being an unlucky day thanks to wives tales, religion and mythology, this is a day when people might think about altering their travel plans. The thought is, why push your luck? Franklin D. Roosevelt was one such person. He never traveled on ...Burping and slurping: All the stuff you can do in China that you can't do back home
It doesn't take long for me to adjust to the manners of China - the spitting, the ear-cleaning, the belching. While some folks are aghast at the bodily -function decibels reached (and indeed, the Chinese government is trying to curb some of the habits, with a campaign -- in ...Forty-two hours on a train in China
Amtrak it ain't.
On a budget, with time to spare and feeling guilty about my carbon footprint, I decided to brave the train from Shanghai to Kunming. A soft-sleeper (equivalent to first class) wasn't any less expensive than the plane, so I opted for the hard sleeper class ...Miners accused of destroying part of Great Wall of China
It was built to keep out foreign invaders, but apparently the Great Wall of China can't protect itself from the greed of Chinese corporations.
The Hohhot Kekao Mining Co. is accused of destroying 330 ft (100 m) of China's most famous structure while prospecting for gold. ...Why we love Shanghai dumplings
I thought I would never move beyond curry as my favorite Asian food, but within 24 hours of arriving in China, a dumpling local to the Yangtze river delta is giving my complex curries quite a run.
My friend took me to a small corner "restaurant," a typical Chinese joint ...Exploring the Mekong River
Some of the most amazing adventure destinations center around the great rivers of the world. Whether it's rafting the Rio Grande, kayaking the Congo, or simply taking a leisurely cruise down the Nile, we seem to have a fascination with these waterways that have played an ...Giant jellyfish cause boat to capsize
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/11/06/giant-jellyfish-cause-ship-boat-to-capsize/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
A school of giant Nomura's jellyfish are being blamed for the sinking of a fishing boat earlier this week, sending the three man crew overboard, ...Shanghai to get a Disney theme park: Does it need one?
In five to six years, Shanghai will have joined Tokyo, Hong Kong and Paris as a city out of the U.S. with a Disney theme park. China may or may not need a Disney theme park, but Disney's aim is that the Shanghai location will help create a mighty want for Disney products ...Packing light for a cold trip
I'm a proud packer, but until now my longer trips have either been in warm places, or to countries where I planned to be very stationary (and didn't care if I looked like a 20-something grungy backpacker, because that's what I was). Flimsy skirts and tank tops were the norm. ...Cycling the Silk Road
Cycling tours have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially amongst adventure travelers who are looking to explore the world from the seat of their bikes. One of the leaders in organizing these kinds of adventure cycling trips has always been Tour d'Afrique ...The international top five crappy pizzas
Bad pizza? Isn't that an oxymoron? Nope - despite the simplicity of melted cheese on dough, there is indeed such a thing as horrible pizza. I know; I ate some in Kaili, China - a town that has maybe 3 Westerners living in it, in a country that generally doesn't do bread or ...Planeterra Foundation gives sight to the blind in Tibet
Tibet is one of the most visually stunning places on Earth, but many Tibetans can't see it. Blindness is a serious problem in the developing world. Poverty and lack of rural health care means that millions of people around the world go blind because of easily curable ...Gadling Take FIVE-- Week of Oct. 10 to Oct. 16
During this week, the start of Gadling's 5th birthday celebration, we've also highlighted aspects of eco-friendly travel and have continued to ferret out travel bargains. Brenda found a screaming deal on a trip to China. Heather's weighed in on how to get free beer from a ...WWOOF: A cheap, eco-friendly way to travel, except in China
I've always been intrigued by the organization WWOOF ("World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms"), which connects organic farms around the world with willing workers who are usually travelers looking for a deeper connection to a country. Every person I know who has worked ...China's Dwarf Empire home to 80+ performing dwarves
In a southwestern province, 6000 feet above the sea, sits a city. A short journey from that city is a tiny village. And in this village, tiny people live in mushroom-shaped houses. No, this isn't a fairy tale -- there truly is a "Dwarf Empire" outside of Kunming, China in ...
