Sep 10th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
There was more than one Great Wall of China, a Chinese archaeology team has discovered.
Several portions of the wall are actually double, triple, or quadruple walls running closely parallel to one another. This was a common feature in many ancient fortifications because it made the position harder to take. Often the troops would be garrisoned between the walls for protection against surprise ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
china posts
The Great Walls of China
Sep 10th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
There was more than one Great Wall of China, a Chinese archaeology team has discovered.
Several portions of the wall are actually double, triple, or quadruple walls running closely parallel to one another. This was a common feature in many ancient fortifications because it made the position harder to take. Often the troops would be garrisoned between the walls for protection against surprise ...Photo of the day - Red lantern in China
Sep 8th, 2011 at 6:00PM:
Sometimes it's the simplest images that reach out and grab the viewer. Take today's Photo of the Day, snapped by Flickr user Bernard-SD, of a red lantern snapped in Yunnan Province, China. The lantern's glow is almost magical. Though Bernard-SD took this photograph in July, the image's deep warmth strikes me as particularly appropriate for early September, as summer's slow turn into fall ...Photo of the day - Butcher at work
Sep 2nd, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Today kicks off Labor Day weekend, the last long weekend of summer. Maybe you have plans for one last getaway or at least plan to explore your own backyard. However you spend the next three days, we hope it doesn't involve real work, er, labor. This fellow photographed by Flickr user Bernard-SD in Lijiang, China is working diligently on stripping the meat from this sheep carcass. While we may ...Pyramids and monasteries among the many ancient monuments under restoration
Aug 10th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
Around the world, ancient monuments are crumbling. As our heritage wears away through neglect, "development", or simply the harsh treatment of time, some countries are doing something about it.
The pyramid of Djoser, the oldest of the pyramids of Egypt, will be the object of a major restoration effort. The government recently announced that funding has been earmarked for restoration after the ...Traveler Q & A: Pavia Rosati
Aug 2nd, 2011 at 9:30AM: Pavia Rosati is the founder of Fathom, a recently debuted travel website. Fathom is smart and beautifully designed. It's full of exciting short briefs about various destinations across the globe.
Rosati, as you'll see from her answers below, is an experienced editor and an avid traveler. Her enthusiasm for Fathom's subject matter is palpable and infectious. We love Fathom and can't wait to see ...Not everybody wants a cruise ship in their back yard
Jun 28th, 2011 at 9:00AM: When cruise ships come to town it means big business for local merchants. Just ask Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, both on the blacklist of one cruise line or another. Either city would love to have cruise ships calling regularly but concern over the safety of passengers has some lines skipping the ports. Contrast that with Charleston, South Carolina where a group of local residents along ...VIDEO: Chinese popcorn cannon
May 10th, 2011 at 1:30PM:
Don't have 5 minutes (cooking times may vary, wait until you hear 2-3 seconds between pops) to wait for microwave popcorn? Perhaps this Chinese popcorn cannon from the streets of Shanghai is fast enough for you - it just takes a few seconds, provided you have a serious pressure cooker. This ingenious contraption can also be used for puffed rice or other grains, though we wonder how clean the ...
Ode to the expat newspaper
May 3rd, 2011 at 3:00PM: One of my favorite things about traveling, in addition to foreign supermarkets, oddball museums, and miniature toiletries, is the local English-language expat newspaper. When I'm home in New York, I tend to get all my news online, either directly from news websites through specific searches or curated from friends' links on social media (one of the best sources for news from US newspapers is ...Video of the Day: Yao Ming PSA about shark fin soup
May 2nd, 2011 at 6:30PM:
We recently covered the controversy over shark fin soup, so no need to rehash that. However, we were interested in this video staring Yao Ming, arguably the most famous - and popular - Chinese national in the world. In the ad, diners decline to eat shark fin soup after witnessing just how inhumane it is.
Yao, of course, is the dominant center on the NBA's Houston Rockets. That's when he's ...
Video of super DIY Chinese street-sweeper
Apr 26th, 2011 at 3:30PM:
One of the coolest things about China is this street sweeper. Fashioned from dried plants or perhaps straw of some kind, it is the sort of thing that is conceived in the pockets of China where rural life and modernity intermingle to create interesting contraptions with a foot in each century. With the functionality of its modern counterparts and the charm of peasant ingenuity, the device ...
Lost kingdom found in China
Apr 26th, 2011 at 10:30AM:
Archaeologists in China have discovered a forgotten ancient kingdom.
Working in Linfen city in the northern Shanxi province, the team of scientists found tombs with bronze artifacts bearing the name of the local ruler--Count of the Ba Kingdom. There was no previous record of this kingdom, although considering China's vast history such surprises shouldn't be, well, surprising.
The tombs ...China bans time travel, America still working on it
Apr 14th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
In their latest effort to uphold the country's values and not dare promote anything that would re-write history, Chinese censors told the film and television industry no more fictional time travel in the media. They should have waited a little while. Over here in America, physicists believe they have proved time travel is not even possible.
The Chinese government imposed a ban on all ...Proposed China hotel shaped like ping pong paddle
Apr 7th, 2011 at 1:00PM: File this under: Weird ideas that surprisingly make sense.
Only in China would a hotel designed in the shape of a ping pong paddle be been proposed as part of a sports complex. The new China hotel, located in the eastern city of Huainan, would cost approximately $46 million, the China Daily reports.
Located in $276 million sports complex, the hotel will feature three main sections:
The ...Video of the Day - Shanghai via iPhone
Apr 5th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Photographer Chase Jarvis has gained a notable amount of internet fame for coining the phrase "the best camera is the one that's with you". For anyone that travels extensively, this couldn't be more true.
If you love shooting video, then there's a good chance that you've already bought a professional DSLR or HDV camcorder. But what if you don't want to lug your expensive investment to a ...
25 newly-discovered travel destinations from Wanderfly.com
Apr 1st, 2011 at 12:30PM: If you've checked out Wanderfly, the new travel planning and booking service that suggests destinations and activities based on your interests, you know they've come up with some unique and untouristy destinations. Now they've gone beyond the beaten tourist track with 25 newly-discovered travel destinations. Why just see the Great Wall of China when you could see a whole city full of kittens in ...Top 10 Hong Kong experiences
Mar 31st, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Hong Kong is all about balance. Nature and steel. Silt and sparkle. Yin and Yang. This masterpiece of divergences is a Feng shui city bereft of boring angles or a predictable head turn. Spicy aromas billow from a flaming street wok. An animated hawker peddles jade from a humble stoop, his wispy beard blowing in a gust from a passing double-decker. In a corner office sixty floors up, a suited ...Video of the Day - Sunsets around the world
Mar 29th, 2011 at 10:30PM:
Seeing the sun set over a foreign land can lead to some of the most memorable moments on any given trip. Even though it's an event we witness every day of our lives, watching it dip over a new horizon always feels like a completely new experience. Today's Video of the Day is a collection of one backpacker's best sunsets from a 365 day trip around the world.
Romain Corraze decided to ...
Who is the world's most typical person?
Mar 7th, 2011 at 3:00PM:
Who is the world's most typical person? This enlightening video by National Geographic attempts to answer that question. By profiling the most typical person in the world, Nat Geo has unearthed several interesting statistics about our earth's population and disparities between the ways different cultures live. Some are obvious, some are strange, and some will make you feel like you use ...
Largest mall in the world is a Chinese ghost town
Mar 2nd, 2011 at 11:00AM:
Watch the full episode. See more POV.
While China recently announced 45 new airports due to booming travel growth, several of their development projects have been enormous duds. The New South China Mall is twice the size of Minnesota's Mall of America, but hovers at around a 1% occupancy. The rows of empty shops are piped with serene elevator music, and guards police the empty halls with ...
Photo of the day - Harbin Ice And Snow Festival, China
Feb 24th, 2011 at 4:00PM:
Today's Photo of the Day comes from Harbin, China's annual Ice And Snow Sculpture Festival. The festival starts in January and lasts about a month, or as long as the temperatures stay low enough not to melt the huge sculptures and buildings. Flickr user Bernard-SD took the shot on a -28C night. Sculptures are made with hi-tech methods like lasers, as well as lo-tech methods like lanterns ...
