Article archive
Thailand
28/02/2013 13:55
With sixteen million foreigners flying into the country each year, Thailand is Asia’s primary holiday destination. Yet despite this vast influx of visitors, Thailand’s cultural integrity remains largely undamaged – a country that adroitly avoided colonization has been able to absorb Western...
Bangkok
28/02/2013 13:46
The headlong pace and flawed modernity of Bangkok match few people’s visions of the capital of exotic Siam. Spiked with scores of high-rise buildings of concrete and glass, it’s a vast flatness that holds an estimated population of eleven million, and feels even bigger. Yet under the shadow of the...
Phuket
28/02/2013 13:45
Thailand’s largest island and a province in its own right, PHUKET (pronounced “Poo-ket”) has been a prosperous region since the nineteenth century, when Chinese merchants got in on its tin-mining and sea-borne trade, before turning to the rubber industry. It remains the wealthiest province in...
Ko Samui
28/02/2013 13:45
A million visitors a year, ranging from globetrotting backpackers to suitcase-toting fortnighters, come to southern Thailand just for the beautiful beaches of KO SAMUI, 80km from Surat. At 15km across and down, Samui is generally large enough to cope with this diversity – except during the rush at...
Ho Chi Minh City
28/02/2013 13:40
Ho Chi Minh City – or Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh, to give it its full Vietnamese title – is Vietnam’s centre of commerce and the country’s biggest city, though not its administrative capital – an honour that rests with Hanoi. As a result of the sweeping economic changes wrought by doi moi in 1986, this...
Hoi An
28/02/2013 13:40
Stubbornly traditional and jam-packed with sights, the small city of HOI AN also exudes a laidback, almost dreamy atmosphere that makes it an essential stop on any tour of the country. This intriguing place, with its narrow streets comprising wooden-fronted shophouses topped with moss-covered...
Hanoi
28/02/2013 13:39
By turns exotic, squalid, gauche and hip, the high-octane Vietnamese capital of Hanoi provides a full-scale assault on the senses. Its crumbly, lemon-hued colonial architecture is a feast for the eyes; swarms of buzzing motorbikes invade the ear, while the delicate scents and tastes of delicious...
China
28/02/2013 13:38
You can’t ignore China: more than a country, it’s a civilization, and one that has continuously recycled itself, not much perturbed by outsiders, for three millenia. Its script reached perfection in the Han dynasty, two thousand years ago, and those stone lions standing sentinel outside sleek new...
Shanghai
28/02/2013 13:36
Hong Kong on steriods is an apt description of present day Shanghai.
After years of stagnation, the great metropolis of Shanghai (上海, shànghăi) is undergoing one of the fastest economic expansions the world has ever seen. Nearly a third of China’s exports come from the area and it attracts almost a...
Beijing
28/02/2013 13:35
The brash modernity of Beijing (北京, běijīng; the name means “Northern Capital”) comes as a surprise to many visitors. Crisscrossed by freeways, spiked with high-rises, this vivid metropolis is China at its most dynamic. For a thousand years, the drama of China’s imperial history was played out...
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