Insights into tourism branding

By
Anita Mendiratta, CNN Task Group/eTN |
Nov 04, 2011

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The travel and tourism (TT) sector takes great pride in its statistics. 940 million international arrivals in 2010 – a staggering increase compared to 687 million just a decade earlier. Traveler receipts of almost US$1 trillion in 2010 – a quantum leap from the sector’s US$482 billion in 2000. Significant contributions to trade, investment, national competitiveness.

And, critically in these challenging times worldwide, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. One in twelve jobs worldwide, to be exact.

Were this the housing or .com sectors being examined, the cautioning word “bubble” would be part of the analysis of where the sector is going. A decade of such dramatic growth, even with economic, political, natural, and social crisis? Sounds suspect.

The TT sector is different, however. As it has proved for the past decade, and confidently demonstrates in future projections, growth is not about hot air and hot assets. It is about hard work, aimed directly at getting travelers traveling so that nations and their nationals can get working.

As analysis backwards shifts to projections forwards, the trend remains solidly upwards. Growth in traveler activity appears to be unrelenting. Tens of millions of new travelers are entering the sector each year, with certain regains certainly outpacing others. The UNWTO’s (UN World Tourism Organization) recently released “Tourism Towards 2030” outlook, which confidently projects the sector to see 1.8 billion international arrivals in just two decades time, sees the Asia and the Pacific region accounting for 30% of arrivals in 2030, up from an already fast-growth share of 22% in 2010. At the same time, Asia-Pacific’s share of outbound travelers continues to rise, quadrupling in regional contribution from 2010 to 2030. Their first port of call? Europe. Why? Because now they can!

The future is ready for Travel and Tourism. The question, however, is:
is Travel and Tourism ready for the future?

HONORING THE INTEREST
Increase in traveler numbers is inspiring. The data, with all of its upwards arrows and skyward bar charts, allows sector leaders, and followers, to feel a sense of confidence in the future. Even with the array of challenges that have faced the industry as the world worked through the farthest reaching and deepest penetrating economic and emotional conflicts of our times, from natural and man-made disasters to fuel price increases and while business readers ache at the omnipresence of their “R” word, “recession,” the travel and tourism sector holds on tightly to its “R” word, the force of nature that helps the industry keep its chin up and eyes forward: “resilience.”

Still, with all of these things working for the tourism sector as the future unfolds, with its promise of continued growth, are destinations actually ready for all of the interest coming their way? Are the fundamentals of good business practice being practiced? Is tourism honoring its opportunity for growth by honoring the travelers taking the time and trouble, and making the personal investment, to visit?

Opening our doors, and simply standing back to allow the growing waves of travelers to enter, is simply not enough. Not if we, as an industry, wish to serve the promise and potential of the sector for upliftment of both the traveler, and the place travelled.

Case in point: China.

China, a travel market that makes even the most skeptical of industry watchers sit up straight and listen, has made an enormous contribution to outbound travel numbers. The nation has offered an invaluable booster to industry numbers, especially over the past three years where global economies have faced both economic recession and emotional depression. While many western travelers found themselves grounded (even if desperately needing a holiday to get away from endless job insecurities and dept stresses), China National Tourism Administration, China’s official national tourism authority, counted outbound departures from 2010 at over 57.39 million. One nation, over 57 million outbound travelers. For China this represented year-on-year growth in outbound travel of nearly 20%, and over US$48 billion in overseas spend. CNTA’s predictions for 2011? 65 million outbound travelers, an increase of 33%. This is exceptional news for traditional destinations in Europe, especially Germany, France and the United Kingdom that saw a 23% increase in Chinese travelers, as well as new-interest markets to the Chinese such as USA and Canada. Even Australia and Africa benefited with over 80% growth in Chinese visitors.

As the people of China increase in their desire, and ability, to travel, these numbers are only set to increase. Destinations across the globe are blessed with an opportunity to channel their efforts towards attracting a massive population of new travelers so anxious, excited, and able to run through their front door – seeing for themselves a whole new world.

Such temptation. Yet also such risk.

Why? Because tourism is a sector for the long run, not the short sprint. The ability to cash in on short-term opportunity may, in fact, yield a higher cost to the destination than ever anticipated. We need to ensure that, as the future opportunity of tourism unfolds, we design a sector ready to carefully, consciously, credibly and consistently honor the promise of tourism.

And so, in this particular case, the million dollar (and million tourist) question is: are we China ready?

- Do we have a destination engineered to welcome, host and fully satisfy the unique needs of these travelers?

- Are our visa and other visitor policies aligned to take full advantage of visitor interest?

- Is it easy to access our destination, physically (both from abroad and internally), and psychologically?

- Are we speaking their language, literally and figuratively, in our destination communication (online, in trade, etc.?)

- Are we making these visitors feel at home? Is our accommodation reflective of their desired comforts when to comes to beds, washroom facilities, and the like?

- Are our attractions packaged and promoted to respond to their interests? Can we bet on their buying in?

- Are we creating destination experiences that showcase our communities and culture, creating greater understanding of who we are as a people and place – not just as a tourism product?

- Is our destination monitoring not just the economic impact of increased numbers of tourists, but also social and environmental impact?

- Are we creating initiatives that create opportunities for jobs and advancement of our people, as part of the tourism sector and success story?

- Are we developing our industry in human capability / soft infrastructure as strongly as we are with hard/physical infrastructure?

- Do the people of the destination understand, appreciate, and take pride in the value of tourism to their lives and livelihoods?

- Is our opening of our doors to the world strengthening our identity as a nation?

Such basic, almost obvious questions, yet more often than not, destinations wishing to attract Chinese travelers are simply not doing enough. They are not gearing up their destination in the most obvious ways.

Why? Because in our confident quest to attract all of that world of interest, we forget to humbly, honestly, and holistically experience the destination from the perspective of the traveler. And yet the importance of reaching across the great traveler divide is so obvious when one thinks about it: if so dearly wanting to go to visit the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, but only able to find travel websites in Chinese, are you still going to make the trip? Can you? Or is it easier to just go somewhere else?

One example, a world of relevance.

INVESTING IN THE VISION
For the tourism sector to have such a confident, convincing vision of the future is an immense blessing. Particularly in these times of enduring risk of economic troubles. With Tourism Towards 2030 now published as a promise for future, tourism-based opportunity and prosperity, as stated by the Secretary General of the UNWTO: “the next twenty years will be of continued growth for the sector. They can also be years of leadership: tourism leading economic growth, social progress and environmental sustainability.”

In these times of ongoing, enduring and spirit-challenging crisis, having a vision is synonymous with having hope. Visions fuel direction, determination and imagination.

They do not, however, stand alone.

For a destination to realize the future opportunity that the sector has created for it, it must actively and assertively step out, and up, to turn vision into reality. This requires clear, confident steps towards achievement of clearly defined destination goals, programs and brand promises.

And, importantly, it demands ownership of the future of the destination, by the destination.

MOSCOW (AP) — It seemed more like a bizarre reality TV show than high-tech international space travel experiment: Six men lived in cramped, windowless compartments for more than 17 months to simulate a mission to Mars.

When they emerged from their claustrophobic capsules Friday in western Moscow, the researchers in blue jumpsuits looked haggard but were all smiles — dreaming of lying in the sun at the beach, taking long strolls and driving fast cars.

Organizers said the 520-day experiment was the longest mock space mission ever, measuring human responses to the confinement, stress and fatigue of a round trip to Mars — minus the weightlessness, of course. They describe it as a vital part of preparations for a future mission to the Red Planet, even though it may be decades away because of huge costs and daunting technological challenges.

The facility at Moscow’s Institute for Medical and Biological Problems, Russia’s premier space medicine center, included living compartments the size of a bus, connected with several other similarly sized modules for experiments and exercise.

There have been other confinement experiments, including Biosphere 2, a giant glass-and-steel facility in Arizona in the 1990s that housed four men and four women in self-sustaining two-year isolation. That project was dogged by controversy and technical problems.

Scientists who organized the mock Mars mission said it differed from the other experiments by relying on the latest achievements in space medicine and human biology.

Emerging from their isolation, the crew of three Russians, one Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese carefully descended a metal ladder to a greeting from crowd of officials and journalists Friday.

“The international crew has completed the 520-day experiment,” team leader Alexey Sitev told Russian space officials. “The mission is accomplished. The crew is in good health and is ready for new missions.”

Organizers said each crew member will be paid about $100,000, except for the Chinese researcher, whose compensation hasn’t been revealed by officials from his country.

The crew will spend three days in quarantine before holding a news conference. They spoke to relatives and friends from behind a glass panel to minimize the risk of infection.

Sitev, who led the team into the quarters in June 2010 — just a few weeks after getting married — said he dreams of going to the beach.

“I want to go somewhere to the warm sea as we have missed two summers here,” he said in remarks carried by RIA Novosti news agency shortly before wrapping up the mission. “My thoughts are drifting toward swimming at sea and basking on warm sand.”

His Italian-Colombian crewmate Diego Urbina told RIA Novosti that he would also like to have a vacation in the Caribbean and would spend his earnings on a sports car and a pilot training course.

Sukhrob Kamolov, the Russian mission doctor, said he thought the $100,000 was a lot of money when they went in, but after a year and a half in the confined space, it didn’t sound so big.

During the simulation, the crew members were under constant surveillance by scientists and communicated with their families and space officials via the Internet, which was delayed and occasionally disrupted intentionally to imitate the effects of space travel. They showered only several times per month — once every 10 days or so — pretending to conserve water. Their food was similar to what is on the International Space Station.

Midway through the mission, the crew even conducted a mock landing, venturing from their quarters in heavy space suits to trudge into a sand-covered room and plant the flags of Russia, China and the European Space Agency on a simulated Martian surface.

Scientists say that long confinement without daylight and fresh air put team members under stress as they grew increasingly tired of each other’s company.

Psychological conditions can be even more challenging on a mock mission than a real one because there would be none of the euphoria or danger of space travel.

“If anything, the make-believe nature of this exercise’s goal — a simulated Mars walk — would have made it even harder psychologically than a real mission,” said James Oberg, a space consultant and NASA veteran. “So the team’s success is even more impressive, not less so, because it was ‘only a game.’”

In an email to The Associated Press, Oberg said he was particularly impressed with the crew’s ability to overcome the language barrier, but added that the absence of women in the experiment was a major flaw.

“Aside from the absence of physiological factors such as weightlessness and cosmic radiation, the most glaring shortcoming of this exercise was the all-male composition of the crew,” he said. “Psychological studies of frontier life and extended expeditions suggest that aside from specific skills they contribute, the presence of women in an isolated group is a positive, ‘civilizing’ effect, not a stress-inducing distracting influence.”

The organizers said they had considered women for the experiment but left them out for various reasons. They denied deliberately forming an all-male crew because of the failure of a similar simulation in the past.

A 1999-2000 experiment ended in acrimony after a Canadian woman complained of being forcibly kissed by a Russian team captain following a fistfight between two Russian crew members. Russian officials attributed the incidents to cultural gaps and stress.

There was no sign of strain Friday as the crew flanked each other, smiling and waving to cameras.

“We hope that we can help in designing the future missions to Mars,” Frenchman Romain Charles said.

Urbina said the crew was proud to complete the longest space flight simulation so that “humankind can one day greet a new dawn on the surface of distant but reachable planet.”

A real flight to Mars is a distant prospect due to challenges such as creating a compact and relatively lightweight spacecraft that would shield the crew from deadly cosmic radiation.

Vitaly Davydov, a deputy head of the Russian space agency, said the simulation will help pave the way for a real Mars mission. He added that it’s not expected until the mid-2030s and should be done in close international cooperation.

NASA is aiming for a landing on an asteroid around 2025 and Mars in the 2030s.

<!–enpproperty 2011-11-05 08:27:19.0Ye JunTravel, chocolate inspire cuisineTravel, chocolate inspire cuisine1161356Life2@cndy/enpproperty–>

I have tried chicken prepared in many different ways, but covered in chocolate was a first. And it was amazing! The bitterness of the chocolate enhanced the aroma of the roast chicken and enhanced its tenderness.

Chef Chakall (aka Eduardo Andrs Lopez) from Argentina has traveled to more than 100 countries, which partly explains why he is able to come up with such novel dishes. He was demonstrating his diverse culinary skills to media at Astor Grill, St. Regis Hotel, on the evening of Oct 17, the last day of his four-day visit to Beijing.

The chef explained that his chicken Oaxaca was inspired by his travels in Latin America, where chocolate is widely used in dishes, in its bitter rather than sweet form.

The evening’s dinner was a mixture of culinary traditions from various countries and regions. Coconut pumpkin soup was a mix of Thailand and Latin America, with a touch of lime juice. Martini prawn served with fried bread was a combination of Italian sweet vermouth and Sichuan pepper, garlic and coriander.

Fish fillet with dry prunes and panko crust served on chickpea puree comes from living in Portugal and being educated in Lebanon. Following that was a champagne and lemon ice cream, in which lemon cello of Italy met France. The main dish was Argentinean rib eye with potato and three sauces, including a chimichurri mix of dried herbs and fresh parsley, with a pinch of chili.

Chakall said he was pleased to be given the opportunity to show off some of the dishes he had cooked on TV shows in China and Europe, and at his restaurants. He has published cookbooks in many languages and received awards for some of them.

“This is the third time I have come to China. I have been tasting and cooking in Guangdong and Shanxi provinces and recently visited Ningxia,” he says. “Every place has fed me with new ideas and new technical skills.”

Born in Tiger, Buenos Aires, on June 5, 1972, Chakall is a child of five different cultures, his family being of Galician, Swiss-German, French Basque, Italian and Argentinean descent. He loves traveling to distant places and discovering new flavors. “Food is about history, and I have transported a bit of my personal history in this menu,” he says.

The chef recently appeared on China’s National Geographic TV, and on China’s CCTV for a program called Chakall Tiger.

He says Cantonese food touches him deeply and after a month in the province he saw things he had never imagined. These experiences led to the creation of a sweet dim sum filled with mango and passion fruit, served in a vanilla sauce – his version of steamed Cantonese dumpling.

The meal finished off with a dessert of ice cream and chocolate cake called the “mashalla” – which means “made by god” in Arabic.

Tasting his food, Chakall helps diners travel the world with their tongues and the food tastes even better when they are embellished with his tales about gourmet discoveries on the way. He is indeed a chef who both cooks and travels with passion.

China Daily

(China Daily 11/05/2011 page12)

China Travel International said on Friday it has scrapped indefinitely plans to spin off its hotel operations and acquire a project due to market conditions.

“In view of the unforeseen adverse market condition and current continuing market volatility, the board considers that it is not the best time to proceed with the proposed spin-off and the proposed acquisition,” China Travel said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

In July, China Travel said it was considering a spin-off for its hotel operations and that it was also in talks to buy Qingdao Ocean Spring project in Jiangsu province.

The Hong Kong stock market, like other global bourses, has been experiencing volatility due to uncertainties in the world’s economy from Europe and the United States’ lingering debt woes.

HANGZHOU, China – From the outside, Amanfayun looks like the traditional Chinese village it used to be when several hundred tea farmers lived here.

Each day they would tend the nearby fields, growing the renowned Lingying Dragon Well green tea, for which this West Lake area of Hangzhou, 200 kilometres from Shanghai, is famous.

The Fayun villagers would also worship at the five Buddhist temples within walking distance of their homes. Lingyin Si (“Soul’s Retreat�) dates back to 326 AD and is one of the most important temples in China.

Today, while the villagers have moved on (the Chinese government relocated them so it could develop the tourist potential of Fayun), their homes remain – now transformed into five-star accommodation by luxury travel’s Amanresorts, which develops and operates unique luxury resorts around the world.

“We want our guests to experience what life would be like living in a Chinese village,� said Ketut Bagiartha, resident manager.

“Around 300 families used to live here. Most of the village was rebuilt in the early ’90s with the typical heavy dark timbers, clay tile roofs, walls of brick and earth and stone tile floors (now with the radiant heating Aman installed) — although some of the 47 dwellings are more than 100 years old. We added only a couple of buildings — to house the restaurant, for example.�

The ambience lingers: saffron-gowned monks walk along the cobblestone path, the Fayun Pathway, which still bisects the village. And you can almost picture the villagers gathering by the stream which flows through the 14-ha property — bathing, washing clothes, gossiping.

Today’s inhabitants – the guests at Amanfayun – bathe in the circular wooden tubs at the spa, or in the swimming pool tucked into a verdant hillside. If nobody happens to be using the pool, attendants will quickly set up the lounge chairs with towels, fresh fruit and bottled water.

And that’s what my companion and I noticed over and over during our visit: the genuinely friendly, willing service provided by all the staff – from the welcome upon arrival to the restaurant servers to the greeting from staff stationed along the pathway.

It’s a natural, well-meaning attitude, rather than a big-city formal approach.

Even the occasional glitch is more amusing than annoying. For example, the phone rang one evening. It was housekeeping and we eventually deciphered what was being said: “Would you like to have your daybed made up?�

I replied: “No thank you, it’s now 10 p.m. and we’re going to sleep in our night bed. Perhaps tomorrow.�

Aman resorts are renowned for their spacious suites, and Amanfayun is no exception. The basic Village Rooms average 66 sq.m; the Deluxe Village Suite we stayed in was 135 sq.m and had a private double-massage treatment room across our stone courtyard.

We chose to have a massage at the Aman Spa, which comprises five buildings surrounded by lush bamboo groves, tea bushes and magnolia trees. We had experienced hot stone massages before, but here we were treated to a hot bamboo massage: warmed bamboo used both as part of the massage and also placed under parts of the body. It was hard to stay awake.

At the end of our treatment, we were served tea in delicate china with matching patterns; Aman is known for its attention to design and detail.

The formal tea ceremony was demonstrated during one of the afternoon tea interludes held every afternoon in Fayun Place, which consists of two stately houses dating back to the 1800s in the centre of the property.

Different presentations are offered to guests — handicrafts, traditional Chinese medicine, regional cultural practices — accompanied by music played on traditional instruments and complimentary savoury and sweet snacks. This created such a relaxing atmosphere we often almost drifted off to sleep.

Cultural events take place at other times, too. One evening, the resort hosted a performance featuring a traditional wedding ceremony accompanied by music played on traditional instruments.

One tradition we thoroughly enjoyed was sampling the variety of food available at the five restaurants in the village. We would have breakfast and sometimes lunch at Amanfayun Restaurant (with its carefully ironed tablecloths), which serves Western cuisine. We have yet to taste better fresh pineapple juice or more succulent crispy salmon paired with sea bass.

Hangzhou House and the Steam House served local and other Chinese dishes, but for us the Lingyin Vegetarian House’s tasting menus were so unusual, so creative, so beautifully served – so memorable for various reasons – we had to return for a second dinner.

The food descriptions alone can be interesting. One of the items on the 10-course, $90 Karma Fast (presumably Feast) tasting menu was Golden Mushroom Medlar and Safflower Soup.

Perhaps I’m glad I didn’t look up “medlar� until after the meal because it turned out to be a member of the rose family, somewhere between a pear and a hawthorne, whose fruit must be “bletted� or left until half rotten to break down the acids and tannins to be edible.

On the other hand, there were some dishes we declined to try – like the bowl full of duck heads at the market food stalls where we had lunch during our visit to the popular Hefang Street shopping area in Hangzhou.

We went for a boat ride on West Lake, this area’s most famous attraction and probably the best known of China’s 36 West Lakes – designated last June as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

However, if you are used to Canada’s wilderness nature sites, you might feel a bit hemmed in by the crowds visiting this hill-surrounded lake whose average depth is less than two metres – and be relieved at the end of the 20-minute taxi ride when you return to a more peaceful, serene, uncrowded version of nature at Amanfayun – just in time for afternoon tea.

Former Vancouver Sun money columnist and now travel writer, Mike Grenby teaches journalism at Bond University on Australia’s Gold Coast — mgrenby Check www.amanresorts.com/amanfayun/home.aspx (toll-free in Canada 1-800 2255 2626), and tripadvisor.com (which ranks Amanfayun 28th of 1,159 hotels in Hangzhou) for a variety of guest comments.

Rates range from around $700 a night for a Village Room to $1,600 for a Village Villa (and $2,300 for the two-bedroom two-bathroom, two-level 290 sq.m. Amanfayun Villa) plus 15 per cent surcharge for tax and services. Perhaps I’m glad I didn’t look up “medlar� until after the meal because it turned out to be a member of the rose family, somewhere between a pear and a hawthorne, whose fruit must be “bletted� or left until half rotten to break down the acids and tannins to be edible.

On the other hand, there were some dishes we declined to try – like the bowl full of duck heads at the market food stalls where we had lunch during our visit to the popular Hefang Street shopping area in Hangzhou.

We went for a boat ride on West Lake, this area’s most famous attraction and probably the best known of China’s 36 West Lakes – designated last June as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

However, if you are used to Canada’s wilderness nature sites, you might feel a bit hemmed in by the crowds visiting this hill-surrounded lake whose average depth is less than two metres – and be relieved at the end of the 20-minute taxi ride when you return to a more peaceful, serene, uncrowded version of nature at Amanfayun – just in time for afternoon tea.

Former Vancouver Sun money columnist and now travel writer, Mike Grenby teaches journalism at Bond University on Australia’s Gold Coast — mgrenby Check www.amanresorts.com/amanfayun/home.aspx (toll-free in Canada 1-800 2255 2626), and tripadvisor.com (which ranks Amanfayun 28th of 1,159 hotels in Hangzhou) for a variety of guest comments.

Rates range from around $700 a night for a Village Room to $1,600 for a Village Villa (and $2,300 for the two-bedroom two-bathroom, two-level 290 sq.m. Amanfayun Villa) plus 15 per cent surcharge for tax and services.

Early this week, China launched an unmanned Long March 2F rocket–an over-1 million-pound rocket carrying the 17,817-pound Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, The Shenzhou spacecraft had its rendezvous with the Tiangong-1 spacecraft on November 3. This docking marked a big step forward in space technology and travel for the Chinese.

The docking is the first time that China has ever joined two space vehicles together. After 12 days of orbiting Earth, the two spacecraft will separate and attempt a second docking before detaching and autonomously deorbiting. This unmanned docking is the precurser to a manned mission in 2012 that will dock with Shenzhou 9.

China’s is one of only three space agencies to ever achieve automated rendezvous and docking. The Kurs docking system, developed by the Research Institute of Precision Instruments, provided automated docking for Russian vehicles, including the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft that docked with Mir. Later, the European Space Agency developed the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)–an unmanned resupply spacecraft–which was designed to re-supply the International Space Station.

The Tiangong-1 spacecraft, launched on Sptember 29, 2011, is a test vehicle used to conduct orbital docking and operations testing. It will dock not only with the Shenzhou-8 but also with the manned Shenzhou-9 and 10. Tiangong-1 has a habitable pressurized area, solar panels, propulsion systems, sleep areas, and exercise gear.

With the success of the Tiangong-1 docking missions, the Shenzhou spacecraft, and the 100-percent success rate of the Long March 2F rocket, China plans to begin building a 60-ton space station by 2020. China also has a Mars probe (November 2011 launch) and a lunar-lander and rover (2013 launch) in the works.

To date, there are a number of space programs and companies around the world working on launching higher and higher. With one more to the competition hopefully space travel costs will drop and let us all go to the stars.

[io9, BBC, ITN News]

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An exchange program that would have brought eight Chinese school administrators to Wisconsin to job-shadow eight Wisconsin administrators has been postponed until further notice.

The U.S.-China Administrator Shadowing Project was announced over the summer and includes Sturgeon Bay Superintendent Joe Stutting and Algoma Superintendent Ron Welch. Twenty-four school administrators from around the country are participating in the exchange.

The original plan was for the Chinese administrators to come to Wisconsin in November and for the Wisconsin administrators to travel to China in April.

“The portion of the Chinese administrators coming here has been postponed,” Stutting said.

Stutting explained that he received a letter notifying him that the China Educational Association of International Exchange Heilongiang Bureau of Education is being investigated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in China) for “irregularities committed in the pre-departure permission process.”

“I have absolutely no idea whether that means something big, something small, I have no idea,” he said.

It could be tied to bureaucracy.

“They have a lot of red tape to get through to get out of their country,” Stutting said. Two of the eight Wisconsin-bound administrators did not receive approval.

At the moment, the eight Wisconsin administrators are still on track to go to China next spring once they have been paired with different hosts. Stutting is expecting that the next group of administrators will be from near Beijing.

“I’m not going to hold my breath, I guess. I’m assuming everything will fall back into place, but I can’t assume that,” he said.

The postponement is unfortunate because preparations were already under way for the job shadow and additional activities to welcome Stutting’s administrator, Chen Tian, from the Qiqihaer Experimental Senior High School in the Jianhua district. The district is located in the Heilongjiang province.

The postponement did not cost the district anything other than time, Stutting said.

River run … climbing at Moon Hill, near Yangshuo. Photo: Getty Images

Like generations of poets and artists, Daniel Rath is inspired by Yangshuo’s ‘natural gallery’.

Around every twist in the road and bend in the river, Yangshuo has picture-perfect photo opportunities. With its towering, mist-shrouded, limestone karst peaks, the stunning landscape is the real drawcard of this southern Chinese town in Guangxi province. But as we discover, there’s a lot more to Yangshuo than just the scenery.

The locals are rightfully proud of their natural heritage, which has long been an inspiration for artists and poets and has become a popular backdrop for filmmakers.

A young boatman on our rafting trip down the Li River tells us his brother is a water policeman and beams as he names of the peaks between which the river snakes.

Although we’ve seen travellers being paddled up the Yulong River on bamboo rafts, the vessels on the Li are motored. We chug along the river in the morning, waving to people on passing rafts. Some of them return the favour by squirting water at us from their water-pump guns, narrowly missing our cameras.

Everyone on the river except us is wearing life jackets, making us wonder whether we’re headed for rapids along this otherwise quiet stretch of river. We needn’t have worried; as we float around a bend, our boatman passes us life jackets and warns that if we don’t wear them, we’ll run foul of water police – quite possibly his brother. We don the vests obediently and luckily so; several police boats speed past with sirens blaring.

The Li River meanders from the city of Guilin in far southern China to Yangshuo. The journey is spoken of as “a natural gallery” and we can see why. The remarkable karst formations of the region make the ride a spectacular one.

The Chinese have long appreciated this landscape; indeed, most carry reminders of it every day as the peaks are pictured on the Chinese 20 yuan ($3.20) note. Our boatman points this out and asks me to hold a note towards the mountains to compare.

International tourists have also discovered the tranquillity and beauty of Yangshuo. Cheap hostels are dotted around the town. Backpacker favourites, such as banana pancakes and apple pie, are on many menus, while cheap bars cater to those wanting to drink all night and nurse their hangovers by the banks of the river the next day. Costume-clad spruikers entice us to enter these gaudy bars with nightly drinks specials. A pedestrian-only strip is full of tourist shops selling cushion covers and beaded sandals, fake North Face jackets and jewellery.

A mysterious man, who follows us for five minutes, makes me suspicious until I realise he’s cutting out a silhouette of my face. He gets the nose and chin wrong and I resemble Woody Allen but it’s a unique memento nonetheless.

We’ve chosen to stay about 10 minutes by taxi from the tourist busyness, at the eco-friendly Yangshuo Mountain Retreat on the banks of the Yulong River. Despite our proximity to central Yangshuo, we feel miles away as we relax by the river.

The ultimate indulgence is having a massage in our room overlooking the river, followed by a beer at the bar. We’re here for for five days break, fenjoying a respite from the smog of Beijing, where we live.

One morning we wake feeling energetic enough to climb to the top of Moon Hill – a mountain with a natural hole near its peak in the shape of a crescent moon. We’re followed up by amazingly athletic elderly women carrying makeshift cool boxes filled with iced water they hope we will buy. At first we resist but, with the stifling humidity, it gets harder with every step up the steep slope.

Thrill seekers are able to climb the mountains here; there are adventures to be had below ground, too, in the area’s caves. After the hike on Moon Hill, we soak in mud baths, hot springs and a cold waterfall shower at the Black Buddha Cave.

Outside Yangshuo, small villages dot the countryside, some holding weekly markets. We spend hours at the Fuli market, watching the locals and enjoying the friendly haggling. At meal times, we sample their cuisine, although we try to steer well clear of the dog-meat dishes – a delicacy in these parts. One lively waitress assures us the meat delivered to our table really is pork. “Dog meat is more expensive,” she explains.

After several meals like this, we feel inclined to cook for ourselves so we take a beginners’ cooking class.

We buy produce at the farmers’ market and learn to make simple but tasty dishes with Chinese cooking techniques involving woks and cleavers. The egg-wrapped dumplings and stir-fried eggplant dishes we make are winners; our steamed chicken with mushroom and stir-fried pork with vegetables and oyster sauce less so.

Hiring bikes from our hotel, we cycle through rice paddies, past farmers walking their buffaloes and big farmhouses with vegetables laid out to dry in their yards. We ride past children finishing school for the day who display the telltale signs that foreigners have been here before. “Money? Money?” they ask as we stop to chat with them and take pictures.

Our few Mandarin phrases are enough to distract them so they make fun of our accents instead.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

China Southern Airlines has a fare to Guangzhou from Sydney and Melbourne for about $690 low-season return, including tax. Fly to Guangzhou (about 9hr) then to Guilin Liangjiang Airport (70min); see cs-air.com.au. Australians require a visa for a stay of up to 30 days. Yangshuo is about 90 minutes by road from Guilin. Minibuses leave from Guilin station.

Staying there

Yangshuo Mountain Retreat has river-view rooms from $HK366 ($44) in winter; see yangshuomountainretreat.com.

The Rosewood Hotel in Yangshuo has twin rooms from 288 yuan ($42); see yangshuorosewoodinn.cn.

Cooking there

The Yangshuo Cooking School has two locations: at a farmhouse just outside Yangshuo and another on the Li River.

One-day to week-long advanced courses are offered. A four-hour beginner’s class costs 170 yuan; see yangshuocookingschool.com.

More information

See cnto.org.au.

China appears to be fielding four new nuclear-ready ballistic missiles and designating an increasing share of its bombs for use on missiles able to travel greater distances, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reported in its latest edition (see GSN, Aug. 26).

(Nov. 4) –
Chinese missile launchers, shown on display during a 2009 military parade in Beijing. An expert assessment suggests China is deploying four new nuclear-ready ballistic missiles and devoting an increasing share of its warheads for deployment on long-range missiles (AP Photo/Vincent Thian).

Authors Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris estimated that China now possesses 240 nuclear weapons as well as some 140 ballistic missiles fielded on land, 72 missiles with ranges that can hit U.S. targets and 40 missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland.

However, Beijing has run into problems in developing a sea-based platform for its nuclear warheads, according to the authors. “Efforts to deploy JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missiles on [the] new Jin-class SSBNs [ballistic-missile submarines] have suffered setbacks. Because of this, China does not have any operational [submarine-launched ballistic missiles].”

“China’s main concern is the survivability of its minimum nuclear deterrent, and it spends considerable resources on dispersing and hiding its land-based missiles,” Norris and Kristensen wrote. “This makes its SSBN program even more puzzling, for it is much riskier to deploy nuclear weapons at sea, where the SSBNs could be sunk by unfriendly forces.”

“The U.S. government has complained for years that China is too opaque regarding its military forces and budgets and that it needs to be more open,” the authors noted (see GSN, Oct. 28; Kristensen/Norris, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November/December 2011).

Even as it adds to its stockpile of weapons capable of striking the United States, the People’s Liberation Army is also aiming missiles at Russia and India, the Times of India reported. The DF-31 is capable of traveling nearly 4,500 miles.

Sources within India’s government are concerned that much of the buildup of Chinese nuclear forces is taking place in the Delingha region, which is only about 1,240 miles away from New Delhi.

Indian government personnel fear their country is under particular consideration for targeting by China, unlike other nearby nations such as Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan.

Kristensen cautioned, though, that China’s nuclear posture is focused on countering a number of possible antagonists.

“One factor that can contribute to making the situation better or worse between China and India is of course India’s own military modernization along the India-China border as well as India’s development of longer-range nuclear missiles that are more directly aimed at China,” Kristensen told the Times.

The Bulletin report notes that “deployment of the DF-31, first introduced in 2006, continues at a slow rate; China is using the DF-31 ICBM to replace its older DF-4 missiles. We estimate that China deploys 10-20 DF-31s, with the same number of launchers” (Sachin Parashar, Times of India, Nov. 4).

By The Associated Press

Cosmetics maker Estee Lauder said Thursday that its fiscal first-quarter net income rose 46 percent, helped by strong sales globally, particularly in its travel retail segment, which includes airport stores, and emerging markets.

CEO Fabrizio Freda talked with analysts during a conference call about Estee Lauder’s travel retail segment.

QUESTION: How has travel retail has looked to date?

FREDA: Travel retail (revenue) has been growing more than 40 percent. And the quarter specifically was 35 percent. Now, this is coming from travel retail traffic around the world growing about 6 percent. And we’re growing much faster than that, because of building market share and increasing conversion of travelers into shoppers. …

The majority of the increase comes from China consumers, so all our investment and success in China also has the effect of pushing our travel retail globally. Having said this, we remain cautious on the volatility of China retail.