Portrait: Sun Tzu, The Art of War

26 April 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  12 minutes

Statue of Sun Tzu © 663highland/cc-by-2.5

Statue of Sun Tzu © 663highland/cc-by-2.5

Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher who lived in the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, a widely influential work of military strategy that has affected both Western and Eastern philosophy. Aside from his legacy as the author of The Art of War, Sun Tzu is revered in Chinese and the Culture of Asia as a legendary historical figure. His birth name was Sun Wu, and he was known outside of his family by his courtesy name Changqing. The name Sun Tzu by which he is best known in the West is an honorific which means “Master Sun.” Sun Tzu’s historicity is uncertain. Sima Qian and other traditional historians placed him as a minister to King Helü of Wu and dated his lifetime to 544–496 BC.   read more…

The National Library of China in Beijing

6 May 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries Reading Time:  5 minutes

© flickr.com - Shanghai.Dennis/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Shanghai.Dennis/cc-by-sa-2.0

The National Library of China or NLC in Beijing is the national library of the People’s Republic of China. With a collection of over 33,78 million items, it is one of the largest libraries in Asia and one of the largest in the world. It holds the largest collections of Chinese literature and historical documents in the world.   read more…

The Venetian Macao

13 April 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hotels Reading Time:  5 minutes

© flickr.com - Dennis Wong/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – Dennis Wong/cc-by-2.0

The Venetian Macao is a luxury hotel and casino resort in Macau owned by Las Vegas Sands. The Venetian is a 39-story, $2.4 billion anchor for the seven hotels on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The 10,500,000-square-foot (980,000 m2) Venetian Macao is modeled on its sister casino resort The Venetian Las Vegas, and is the seventh-largest building in the world by floor area. The Venetian Macao is also the largest casino in the world, and the largest single structure hotel building in Asia. The main hotel tower was finished in July 2007 and the resort officially opened on 28 August 2007. The resort has 3000 suites, 1,200,000 sq ft (110,000 m2) of convention space, 1,600,000 sq ft (150,000 m2) of retail, 550,000 square feet (51,000 m2) of casino space – with 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables and a 15,000 seat CotaiArena for entertainment and sports events.   read more…

Zhongnanhai in Beijing

29 January 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  6 minutes

Xinhua Gate, Gate of New China © PENG, Yanan/cc-by-sa-3.0

Xinhua Gate, Gate of New China © PENG, Yanan/cc-by-sa-3.0

Zhongnanhai is an imperial garden in central Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China and the State Council (Central government) of the People’s Republic of China. The term Zhongnanhai is closely linked with the central government and senior Communist Party officials. It is often used as a metonym for the Chinese leadership at large. The state leaders, including Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, and other top CPC and PRC leadership figures carry out many of their day-to-day administrative activities inside the compound, such as meetings with foreign dignitaries. China Central Television frequently shows footage of meetings inside the compound, but limits its coverage largely to views of the interior of buildings.   read more…

The Quantum of the Seas

14 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Cruise Ships, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  8 minutes

© royalcaribbean.de

© royalcaribbean.de

Quantum class is an upcoming class of cruise ships from Royal Caribbean International. On February 11, 2011, Royal Caribbean announced that they had ordered the first of a new class of ships from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg scheduled to be delivered by Fall 2014. At the time, the project was code-named “Project Sunshine”. The Quantum-class ships will surpass the earlier Freedom-class ships by over 14,000 GT, becoming the second largest class of passenger ships behind Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis class ships on a gross tonnage basis. The first three ships of this class, Quantum of the Seas, delivered in November 2014, Anthem of the Seas, expected to be delivered in November 2014, and Ovation of the Seas, expected to be delivered in Fall 2016. Quantum of the Seas will spend its inaugural 2014-2015 season sailing from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey, before repositioning to China in May 2015. Beginning late June 2015, the ship will sail three- to eight-night itineraries year-round from Shanghai to Japan and Korea. Anthem of the Seas will spend its inaugural 2015 season sailing from Southampton, Hampshire, before repositioning to Cape Liberty in November 2015. As of April 2014, no ports or itineraries have been announced for Ovation of the Seas.   read more…

Portrait: Marco Polo and the Book of the Marvels of the World

14 January 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  14 minutes

Travels of Marco Polo - Marco Polo in China

Travels of Marco Polo – Marco Polo in China

Marco Polo (September 15, 1254 – January 8–9, 1324) was a Venetian merchant traveller whose travels are recorded in Livres des merveilles du monde (Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300), a book that introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned the mercantile trade from his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, who travelled through Asia, and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, returning after 24 years to find Venice at war with Genoa; Marco was imprisoned and dictated his stories to a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married, and had three children. He died in 1324 and was buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Venice. Marco Polo was not the first European to reach China (see Europeans in Medieval China), but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. This book inspired Christopher Columbus and many other travellers. There is a substantial literature based on Polo’s writings; he also influenced European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map.   read more…

The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge

9 August 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

© Pechristener/cc-by-sa-2.0

© Pechristener/cc-by-sa-2.0

Jiaozhou Bay Bridge is a 26.7 km (16.6 mi) long roadway bridge in eastern China’s Shandong province, which is part of the 41.58 km (25.84 mi) Jiaozhou Bay Connection Project. As of December 2012, Guinness World Records lists the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge as the world’s “longest bridge over water (aggregate length)” at 41.58 km (25.84 mi).   read more…

Shanghai World Financial Center

28 June 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Shanghai World Financial Center (left) and Jin Mao Tower © Mr.XY/cc-by-sa-3.0

Shanghai World Financial Center (left) and Jin Mao Tower © Mr.XY/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Shanghai World Financial Center is a supertall skyscraper located in the Pudong district of Shanghai in China. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by the Mori Building Company, with Leslie E. Robertson Associates as its structural engineer and China State Construction Engineering Corp and Shanghai Construction (Group) General Co. as its main contractor. It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, and ground-floor shopping malls. Park Hyatt Shanghai is the tower’s hotel component, comprising 174 rooms and suites. Occupying the 79th to the 93rd floors, surpassing the Grand Hyatt Shanghai on the 53rd to 87th floors of the neighboring Jin Mao Tower. It is the second-highest hotel in the world after The Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong, which occupies floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre. The building has a floor area of about 380,000 m² (4,107,500 sq ft). The construction costs reached USD $ 1.20 billion.   read more…

Shanghai, Paris of the East

23 November 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Pudong © J. Patrick Fischer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Pudong © J. Patrick Fischer/cc-by-sa-3.0

Shanghai is the largest city by population in the People’s Republic of China and the largest city proper by population in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities of the PRC, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010. It is a global city, with influence in commerce, culture, finance, media, fashion, technology, and transport. It is a major financial center and the busiest container port in the world.   read more…

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