Two short travel videos, presented by Ford Model Delphine… cute with some interesting off-track China tourism stuff. The first video covers Shenzhen, while the second covers her visit to Guangzhou and Shanghai…
Probably the one and only Disney theme parks that celebrates Chinese New Year, Disney HK is changing their costumes and settings to fit the festive season…
I think I should book my ticket to Hong Kong for next Chinese New Year… looks fun.
Some interesting culture and places in Hong Kong; as featured in the 6th episode of The Amazing Race Asia (TARA) season 3.
Central
Central is the major business district and also the administrative centre of Hong Kong; the area probably has the highest concentration of skyscrapers in Asia.
Beijing’s Forbidden City has long been one of China’s most popular tourist spots and iconic landmarks… but now, online visitors can experience the old dynasty culture without having to set foot on the Chinese soil.
After three years of development, the Palace Museum and IBM have unveiled on Friday (Oct 10) a virtual palace where online tourists can peek into the history and culture of the former imperial palace in a game-like 3D environment.
The project will allow people who cannot visit Beijing to experience the Forbidden City, while also providing a platform for further learning and refences for those who have visited the place in real life.
Image from the website’s photo gallery
The project looks pretty cool at first glance, but the loading speed is killing me… seems like it might take forever to download the software.
Some random news about Beijing 2008 Olympics…
The power of love
Matthias Steiner of Germany was the men’s +105kg weightlifting champion on Tuesday. When I first saw the picture, I thought of how romantic this guy was… I only knew a day later that the woman in the picture was his wife Susann, who died in a car accident last year, and it sparked plenty of emotions…
This will probably be the most memorable Beijing Olympics’ photo for me… it draws love, sadness, romance, pride, commitment and loyalty. If I am a woman I would probably fall in love with this guy.
Hotels in Beijing are slashing room rates for next month’s Olympics as the demand for hotel rooms are not as high as expected. It’s reported that some hotels are cutting their price by 10-30% as demand falters, but I think the price cut came a bit too late.
While the tighter security and visa rules have contributed the lower demands, the hotel businesses should really blame themselves for overambitious pricing at the very beginning.
I had been planning in 2007 to visit Beijing during the Olympics, but gave up the idea because of the high accommodation cost. Some of the three-star hotels were charging USD200 per night, which was quite outrageous by any standard. As much as I wanted to be at the Beijing Olympics, I’m not ready to being ripped off like that… and I believe there are lots of other foreigners who are being scared off by the price as well.
It’s not the end of the day for these hotels though, despite a lower-than-expected occupancy, they should still be able to make handsome profits because of the high pricing. But overall, I’m afraid it’s the country’s image that is being dampened… the Chinese should see the Olympics to promote China to the world, and not just a short term event to bank in some money.
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