12
The Historic Monuments of Dengfeng, China, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in August 2010, and now — to protect the buildings from damage caused by excess carbon dioxide, incense smoke and humidity levels — the government plans to restrict the number of tourists during peak travel times, according to China Daily.
The cluster of 11 monuments in the Songshan Mountains includes the Shaolin Monastery, Three Han Que Gates and the Observatory.
“Dwelling in the Fu-ch’un Mountains,” a 14th-century, 22½-foot-long and one-foot-tall Chinese scroll painting, was the magnum opus of Yuan Dynasty painter Huang Gongwang.
by Larry Hughes, Houston, TX
Long cruises have a certain appeal, and Holland America Line offers several. Labeled “grand,” these voyages are in excess of a month in length — some lasting as long as 100 days.
A group tour of Western Europe I took in fall 2010 included a visit to Amsterdam. While there, several tour members tried marijuana, bought from one of the coffee shops.
My friend Mary and I stayed at the Windsor Martinique Hotel (Rua Sá Ferreira 30, Copacabana CEP 22071-100, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; phone 55 21 2195 5200, fax 2195 5222), about a half-block off the Copacabana beach, March 22-24, 2010.
The staff spoke English and was very friendly and efficient. Even though the check-in time was 1 p.m., they gave us our room immediately when we arrived hours early.
During a trip to Eastern Europe, my husband, Eugene, and I stayed at a wonderful, small hotel called the Klezmer-Hois (Ulica Szeroka 6, Kazimierz, 31-053 Kraków, Poland; phone/fax [+48 12] 411 12 45, www.klezmer.pl), May 1-8, 2010.
Located in the Kazimierz (Jewish Quarter) of Kraków, it is the epitome of charm, the dining room giving the feel of being in your grandparents’ home — tables covered with crocheted lace cloths, lovely pictures covering the walls, comfortable old furniture, etc.
Lois Sundeen asked readers to write in on hostels (June ’10, pg. 14).
Flying Continental from San Francisco via Houston, my companion George and I arrived in San José, Costa Rica, on Oct. 26, 2009.
After flying 18 hours on Cathay Pacific from Los Angeles to Manila via Hong Kong, I continued on Philippine Airlines (PAL) to Bacolod, located on the island of Negros in the Philippines.
Sicily was an easy country to navigate. The drivers were aggressive but no worse than those elsewhere in Europe. Driving in the large cities was not much fun, but the freedom of having a rental car everywhere else made up for it.