If you pay the least bit of news to what is going on in this world of ours you know that China is a country on the move. Its economy continues to surge, its cities continue to be rebuilt and its culture continues to change. These are exciting and dizzying times in China. It is an excellent time to see a historic transformation while it happens by visiting the world’s most populous nation.

A unique way to experience China is on a cruise ship. For whatever reason, there aren’t tons ... [read more]

We’re a little over a year away from the 2008 Summer Olympics and by all accounts things are full steam ahead in Beijing, China. You better start training if you have any hope to win the speed walking competition. The Summer Games, along with the booming Chinese economy, is helping to transform Beijing each and every day. Gone are the small little alleys and side streets that were unique to Beijing. In are new, modern buildings, an improved infrastructure and an increasing number of residents living a middle class ... [read more]

Even if you live on the West Coast of the United States it is a long way to China, Japan and Vietnam. Modern airplanes have cut the travel time but you’re still looking at a ten-hour plus flight. That is great if you enjoy breathing stale air at 50,000 feet while you are forced to watch a Will Farrell movie (I swear, every plane I have been on for the past three years has shown one), but if you are adverse to flying or don’t have a ton of vacation days ... [read more]

Stretching more than 3,000 miles from the western shore of the Pacific Ocean across the face of Asia, China is a country of immense size and variety. Situated in northeast China, Beijing adjoins the Inner Mongolian Highland to the northwest and the Great Northern Plain to the south. Five rivers run through the city, connecting it to the eastern Bohai Sea.

Beijing grew up around its mythic Forbidden City, once home to Chinese Emporers. Also central to the city is Tiananmen Square. Covering 98 acres, Tiananmen is the world’s largest, and perhaps ... [read more]

East meets West in dynamic Hong Kong. This energetic city pulsates 24 hours a day with exuberance and the roar of merchant vessels. Hong Kong offers an ever-changing panorama of sights, sounds, and appealing Oriental magic. Wrapped in a concrete jungle, Hong Kong is a shrine to market capitalism. It’s perhaps the only city in the world where shopping surpasses any monument or historical site as the city’s main tourist attraction.

One of Hong Kong’s unique fascinations is the seamless way in which ancient traditions thrive in this ultramodern city. With 150 years of ... [read more]

Today’s Shanghai weaves the infamous seaport legacy of its past together with impressive new 21st-century architecture and grand 4 and 5 star hotels and shopping complexes. It is an intriguing, fast-paced city, where East meets West. No other city in the world is quite like it. Shanghai is an enigmatic city filled with modern contradictions still struggling to come to terms with its turbulent history. It’s New China – where an Imperial past wrestles with the Communist present and a neo-Capitalist future. It’s an intoxicating fusion. While Shanghai is China’s largest city, with 14 ... [read more]