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China

A gargantuan mix of modern and primitive, free and authoritarian, China boasts some of the most impressive and iconic sights in the world, as well as some spectacular scenery. (We hear the lo mein's not bad, either!)

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Comment by EnLinea Media on January 14, 2010 at 8:14pm
Tripatini invites all China group members to join the newly created group Beijing, specializing on the dynamic capital of this great country!
Comment by José Balido on January 5, 2010 at 8:14am
China: Hainan to become global tourism destination

BEIJING - The Chinese government said on Monday that it aims to build the southern island of Hainan into a top international tourism destination by 2020.
Comment by José Balido on December 5, 2009 at 4:27pm
Comment by EnLinea Media on November 4, 2009 at 10:47pm
Tripatini member Eric Hiss gives us the scoop on go-go Shanghai this week in the blog!
Comment by David Paul Appell on August 15, 2009 at 7:07pm
Interesting piece in yesterday's NY Times re Shanghai sprucing itself up for the 2010 World Expo: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/world/asia/15iht-letter.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=shanghai&st=cse.

I was particularly bemused to read the following passage:

"But amid all of this busy re-engineering, both physical and social, Shanghai has overlooked what is perhaps the most basic campaign of all: a hospitality campaign aimed at persuading Chinese people that they are the common siblings of the rest of mankind.

Why, one might ask, should there be such a need? The answer lies in the daily experience of any foreigner who wanders off the main streets, and it sometimes includes experiences on the main streets as well. Foreign visitors can often still draw stares as if freshly descended from the moon. People may talk about you in your presence, on the assumption that you don’t understand their language or, worse, that it doesn’t matter if you do. And the term “lao wai,” a less than endearing word for foreigner, hangs thickly in the air. Even the English word “hello” can take on a strange new meaning here, delivered as it sometimes is more as a sing-song taunt than as a true greeting."

This brought me back to my first visit to Shanghai, back in 1993, when a fellow lao wai and I became tourist attractions while strolling along the Bund -- a couple of locals even took photos of us! With everything that's been going on in China since -- and especially in its largest and supposedly most cosmopolitan city -- I would've thought things might've changed just a tad in 16 years. But old habits die hard, I guess!
 

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