Remember the crystal clear water in Hero, nominated for best foreign film at the Oscars last year? Much of the filming took place at Jiuzhaigou Valley, a place recognized in the Chinese mind as Heaven on earth, a gift bestowed by nature in Sichuan, one of China's western provinces. You can book a China Hotel through web and come here to take a look.

Jiuzhaigou Valley, eulogized as a world of magical fairytale, has for years enchanted tourists with its mountains and luxuriant forests, colorful lakes, gushing waterfalls and abundant wildlife. In 1992 it was put on the World Heritage List by UNESCO.

It is said that the Jiuzhaigou Valley( Jiuzhai means nine villages)was named after the nine villages contained in the vast nature reserve. Lots of rare species inhabit the area including Pandas and Golden monkeys. The three main gullies-Shuzheng, Rize and Zechawa form a Y shape, with 108 mysterious lakes scattered around and a plethora of connecting waterfalls and brooks.

Legend has it that long long ago, a beautiful Goddess received a mirror from her lover. The goddess was so excited that she dropped the mirror, smashing it into 108 small pieces. Over the centuries those pieces gave birth to 108 wonderful lakes.

Jiuzhaigou's spirit is its pure, crystal clear water.

Five-Coloured Lake

There is a fairy tale in ancient China that the princess of heaven has a five-colored lake called Yaochi in her palace. In Jiuzhaigou Valley you can see that lake of legend. Through forest clearings and the briefest of glimpses between needle clad branches you may catch a glimpse of the water which sparkles in a kalaidescope of sky blues, light greens, yellows, greys, pinks and blues.

Five Flower Sea

Rize Gully Five Flower Sea is even more magnificent. Surrounded by mountains, the sea looks like a huge calabash infusing colorful water continuously into the foot of the mountain. The strange part is that on the belly of the calabash, there is a ten-meter long light blue design which looks like the leg of a deer. Legend has it that it is the residing spirit of a spotted deer which slipped and fell down the cliff.

The Changhai Sea

A large lake located at an altitude of 3000 meters, Changhai, ‘the King of the Lakes' is surrounded by snow year round. In spring and autumn, the lake reflects the mountain snow or the maple trees. In winter the lake freezes into a spectacle of icy beauty.

Waterfalls

Waterfalls make attractive views. Jiuzhaigou Valley is a paradise surrounded by mountains, with tranquil lakes like pearls. But the quietness is sometimes broken by the waterfalls, which take you to another world. The waterfalls of Jiuzhaigou are like green looms weaving different silks. Varying in shape some are like dragons, some like snow and some like pearls. The sun often casts rainbows across their fronts.

The Nuorilang Waterfall is a perfect case in point. At the top of the great waterfall, which is about one hundred meters in width, are a line of willows which form a monumental green wall. Like the teeth of a comb their trunks seem to be running constantly through the water, untangling it.

Pear Shoal Waterfall is one of Jiuzhaigou's most mysterious waterfall. It takes its name from the water that thunders into the stones below forming pearl-like waterdrops.

Colorful Forest

Colorful Forest is something you can't miss. With more than 2000 different plants, beautiful flowers, lovely grass and numerous rare species the forest is unique in China and is the stuff fairytales are made of. In deep autumn orange trees, golden yellow birches and red maples flourish in warm autumnal glory. In winter, the forest becomes a twinkling wonderland of grace and elegance.

Jiuzhaigou Valley feels like a dream. Beautiful scenery greets you wherever you look. Nature is all around, quiet and still yet more alive, more vibrant than the busiest of cities.

Only 60 km away from China`s huge capital Beijing there is this lovely little village called Chuandixia. This village is known for its well preserved 689 Ming and Qing dynasty-style houses owned by 76 families.

These houses are built on the side of a hill. surrounded by mountains and forests. Steep stairs and lanes paved with rocks are simple and unadorned.

The village was rated as a village of great tourist value and has been placed under national level cultural relics protection. It is a great place to take photos. Almost every family at the village now receives tourists.

The village is also near spots like Shuanglong Gorge. with its rivers and falls. the Pearl Lake and the Longmenjian grand canyon.

To get there: take bus 929 from Pingguoyuan subway station to Chuandixia village.

The accommodation: China Hotels booking. 

1) If you do plan to spend much time in Pingyao, there are many ancient ruins and courtyard houses to see outside of the city. Tours organized by local hotels or hostels could take you there, but a simple taxi is also a good option.

2) Speaking of taxis, they are available (rickshaws in the city), but if you're going around the city its best just to walk. Don't forget to bring good walking shoes, though, because a day on the feet can be a killer! Another option would be to rent a bike, something we weren't able to do because of the chilly weather.

3) If you're around Pingyao during the Spring Festival, get excited! Although the temperature might be a bit cold, you'll forget about the weather when you see all of the decorations, lanterns, and fireworks they put on. Instead of the old grey that usually covers the city you'll be treated to a display of color and lights that really give the city life.

4) Although you'll probably pay the general admissions fee to get around the city, don't go to all the included sites. Most of them just aren't worth it. Rather, take a stroll around the parts of the city where you don't see tourist, where the people live. Here you'll get to really experience a taste of what it was like to live in ancient China. China Hotel here is also afordable as cheap as other place in China.

Cost:
Enter the City and Wander: Free
General Admissions Ticket: 120 RMB per person

Author: Martin Cowen | 16 September 2008

A joint study from Whatsonwhen and Travolution has found that search engine optimisation is picking up the lion's share of any increases in the online marketing budget of a travel company over the next year.

Nearly 90 businesses across all sectors responded to the survey, which was carried out in July.

Search engine optimisation spend is being increased in over two-thirds of the companies which answered the question. Investment in content is on the up in half the businesses, while adword spend is on the up in 46% of cases.

The traditional banner ad has been under pressure recently, with the survey showing 21% of businesses actively reducing spend in this area.

However, overall budgets for online marketing are on the up, with more 50% planning to increase their spend with 32% keeping it level. Nearly 11% of respondents planned to increase their online marketing budget by over 50%.

The survey also confirms that travel businesses are recognising that the web site content is about generating revenue, with "increasing conversion" the top priority when spending on additional content. The second priority was to target specific customer sectors, with building their brand and improving the customer service coming in closely after that.

However, despite recent anecdotal evidence that video is starting to increase conversion rates, only 28% of responding businesses were investing here. One-third were planning to spend some of their content budget on facilitating user generated content.

Just over half the companies surveyed either already outsource their content (34.1%) or plan to (17.1%). The remainder (48.8%) plan to continue to service their content requirements in-house.

The businesses were circumspect about their customer acquisition costs. The average spend was £7.12 per customer, although the responses were spread over a wide range. Taking out the two businesses who said that they paid £25 and £40 per customer and the two who claimed a cost of £0.001, the average came down to £3.46.

"Morning. Which place to go today? We haven't been to that one beside the Machine Tools Factory for a long time. How about that? Alright, I'll meet you there". It is 6:30 in the morning. Lao Wang, a middle-aged man is making a call to an old friend to discuss the breakfast café they are going to meet at.

He runs a China Hotel in Wuhan, a city in central China dubbed as the stove city for its hot weather in summer. Their breakfast get-together (can be literally translated as Guo Zao: to spend the morning) has a history of 10 years since Wang was laid off. So are many other people of this city. Thanks to the rich variety of snacks in Wuhan, a leisurely taken breakfast with friends has long been a necessary start for hundreds and thousands of locals.

The most popular snack for breakfast is undoubtedly Re Gan Mian (Hot noodles with sesame paste mixture). To make it, you need spaghetti, sesame paste, soy sauce, salt, black pepper and green onion. If you can find some, the flavored chopped dry radish (Luo Bo Gan) would be a great icing on the cake. The spaghetti should be prepared the prior night, boiled and dried --- but not too dry in case the spaghetti get stuck together --- and processed with some kind of alkali. When making the noodle, immerse the spaghetti into boiled water for a while and dry it out. Then put the put the premade sesame paste, soy sauce, salt, green onion and black pepper in and mix them up. The taste is probably a bit strange for most first-timers --- think of the noodle with very little water but rich flavour --- but nearly all who takes another try will love it at once. The phrase Re Gan Mian is probably the most written word in the home letters of Wuhaners in foreign places. It has become a symbol of the city, like hamburger is to the Americans.

Like milk is for bread, soymilk is the best companion to Re Gan Mian. It is the rich creamy milk made from whole soybeans. To make it, the soybeans are soaked for a few hours before grinded with water. The fluid which results after straining is soymilk. In different places, soymilk can be made from a variety of beans, ranging from black soy beans to mung beans. In Wuhan however, most if not all soymilk peddled are made from soya beans.

Other popular breakfast snacks include rice wine (Mi Jiu), a lite wine made from rice and tastes like Japanese sake; Dou Pi, steamed rice covered by a thin skin of egg-bean powder mixture; and Zha Ci Ba (fried glutinous rice cake), a rectangular fried cake made of glutinous rice.

Most people take their breakfast at little roadside stalls or small restaurants near home or office. The usually one-hour long breakfast is unthinkable in western cities. However, besides the delicious snacks, conversation at breakfast is probably another reason for people to stick to it. It is a major circumstance of social communication. Very often a breakfast can start with two people and end with five --- more new friends are made thereafter. Topics can range from family trivial to international relationship. Right or wrong is not a major concern here. Even children can join in at times, if they are bold enough to challenge their fathers. That is partly how tradition is formed, I guess.

7: 50. Lao Wang has taken his last drop and is saying goodbye to his friend. You will probably see him again tomorrow morning at another stall, with an old friend. Or a new one?

Two things set the main theme of my maiden tour to Shenzhen, the youngest city in China.

One is a construction blueprint erected outside Baoan District Stadium marked with all sorts of building schemes and functional district plans for Baoan's future infrastructure constructions. All public facilities are virtually pictured on the now enormous clayed wastelands among construction sites. Later on however, I learned that the blueprint, designed by the British designer Atkins, is already abandoned by the District government and they decide that a dozen of changes should be made to the original scheme. Buildings are removed; parks are gone; fishing sites seen no more; art center is suspended and cinemas are miraculously turned into a blank spot. What will be their replacements is anybody's guess. The government and the people of this land have not made up their new decisions.

The other is a news report I came across. The local TV news program reported an armed robbery at around 11 a.m. on a busy downtown street. The gunman hijacked two trucks in turn on his escape and fired one shot, injuring one of the truck drivers. His gain from this action, if successful, would be around 2000 RMB (roughly 270 USD) for that's the amount truck drivers have on them usually. The crime however will put him into jail for 15 years if proved guilty.

Looking from the terrace of my hotel in China, Shenzhen, the landscape is filled by 20+ storied residence or office buildings, construction sites and barren lands. The land is cut into all kinds of irregular pieces, either of buildings or marked "in construction".

This is the characteristics of Shenzhen. Still at its 20s, it has infinite possibilities and the resolution to pursue each of them. There would be mistakes and start-overs but they won't drag his leg. The booming Chinese economy can provide this frontrunner all the things he needs to forget the failures and start anew. Like a young man, it has the right to do all those silly things. That is also why I see the change in the blueprint an understandable occasion.

However, adolescent stupidity can also result in problems that need much greater effort to resolve, like the robbery. The city is growing too fast and too rigorous now that public security service and other facilities are only striving to keep up with. On the outskirts of Shenzhen (known as Guanwai), robberies and thefts rates are higher than other parts of the country. People are used to news reports about robberies around. Most people have experiences in thefts. The government even banned the use of motorcycles for the increasing cases of speed robbery --- two men driving a motorcycle to rob necklaces or mobile phones from pedestrians.

This is only the first impression I have during my first two days in Shenzhen. However, it is also the most exciting one as other cities rarely have such vitality and so much possibility. I am eager to indulge deeper to find other possibilities as soon as the thunder storm stops.

We arrived in Kunming on Tuesday 21st October. We found Kunming something of an anti-climax after Beijing but we could at least breathe more easily in the better air quality. The guide book tells us that Kunming is the City of Eternal Spring but alas for us it was not and we have had a few days of heavy rain. Close to the hotel (unbelievably comfortable mattress) we have found another lake to run around. Early in the morning it is full of badminton players, Tai Chi groups, opera singers, town criers and people doing all manner of other interesting exercises. We didn't feel out of place running a few laps amongst them.

We have had some nice days out, also in sunshine.

We went on Thursday to Dianchi, a large lake just south of Kunming, where we climbed the Western Hills, past various highly-decorated temples and up to Grand Dragon Gate. There were some beautiful views over the lake.

On Sunday we went to the Stone Forest, an hour and a half bus ride from Kunming. The Stone forest is a strange (karst)landscape of rocks and cliffs rising up from the ground, one of the major attractions in the  We found it quite spectacular.

Unlike most of China, Yunan Province is known for its local goats cheese (although not as tasty as the geitenkaas from Holland). Also, the China hotel booking in Kunming is much easier than other places.

"Morning. Which place to go today? We haven't been to that one beside the Machine Tools Factory for a long time. How about that? Alright, I'll meet you there". It is 6:30 in the morning. Lao Wang, a middle-aged man is making a call to an old friend to discuss the breakfast café they are going to meet at.

He runs a China Hotel in Wuhan, a city in central China dubbed as the stove city for its hot weather in summer. Their breakfast get-together (can be literally translated as Guo Zao: to spend the morning) has a history of 10 years since Wang was laid off. So are many other people of this city. Thanks to the rich variety of snacks in Wuhan, a leisurely taken breakfast with friends has long been a necessary start for hundreds and thousands of locals.

The most popular snack for breakfast is undoubtedly Re Gan Mian (Hot noodles with sesame paste mixture). To make it, you need spaghetti, sesame paste, soy sauce, salt, black pepper and green onion. If you can find some, the flavored chopped dry radish (Luo Bo Gan) would be a great icing on the cake. The spaghetti should be prepared the prior night, boiled and dried --- but not too dry in case the spaghetti get stuck together --- and processed with some kind of alkali. When making the noodle, immerse the spaghetti into boiled water for a while and dry it out. Then put the put the premade sesame paste, soy sauce, salt, green onion and black pepper in and mix them up. The taste is probably a bit strange for most first-timers --- think of the noodle with very little water but rich flavour --- but nearly all who takes another try will love it at once. The phrase Re Gan Mian is probably the most written word in the home letters of Wuhaners in foreign places. It has become a symbol of the city, like hamburger is to the Americans.

Like milk is for bread, soymilk is the best companion to Re Gan Mian. It is the rich creamy milk made from whole soybeans. To make it, the soybeans are soaked for a few hours before grinded with water. The fluid which results after straining is soymilk. In different places, soymilk can be made from a variety of beans, ranging from black soy beans to mung beans. In Wuhan however, most if not all soymilk peddled are made from soya beans.

Other popular breakfast snacks include rice wine (Mi Jiu), a lite wine made from rice and tastes like Japanese sake; Dou Pi, steamed rice covered by a thin skin of egg-bean powder mixture; and Zha Ci Ba (fried glutinous rice cake), a rectangular fried cake made of glutinous rice.

Most people take their breakfast at little roadside stalls or small restaurants near home or office. The usually one-hour long breakfast is unthinkable in western cities. However, besides the delicious snacks, conversation at breakfast is probably another reason for people to stick to it. It is a major circumstance of social communication. Very often a breakfast can start with two people and end with five --- more new friends are made thereafter. Topics can range from family trivial to international relationship. Right or wrong is not a major concern here. Even children can join in at times, if they are bold enough to challenge their fathers. That is partly how tradition is formed, I guess.

7: 50. Lao Wang has taken his last drop and is saying goodbye to his friend. You will probably see him again tomorrow morning at another stall, with an old friend. Or a new one?