Travel

If you're going to try the most famous Chinese dish in the world, then what better place to go than the place that keeps on winning awards for the best Peking Duck in Peking?

Do you think of huge, bustling Beijing as a city with eco lodges at its doorstep?

You know you're in for a different sort of dining experience when the place supplies disposable plastic gloves. We've come up steep, narrow stairs to a tiny box of a restaurant lined with white plastic walls.

Best to take a half-empty suitcase if you visit Shanghai. The shopping is vast and varied, from to the very best brands in the world to fake knock-offs you can bargain hard for.

It's easy to think of reasons why China might not be on your places-to-see list. It's so big and so foreign, huh? All those vast cities, language you don't understand, food you might not warm to?

When you're a tourist it's hard to get in amongst the lives of people in other countries. You see them hurrying about on their daily round but there are few glimpses of their quieter times.

Countries are often identified in strangers' minds by what's in tourist shops. In New Zealand it's the tiki, the fern the koru and the colour green. For China we think of panda bears, pagodas, ornate fans and everything decked in red and gold.

Mark and I are so excited to be once again setting off on an Avalon Waterways cruise in Europe tomorrow, so wanted to share a few thoughts as to why we enjoy travelling with Avalon Waterways so much.

Today it is Friday. Muslims believe that Allah told them that Friday is the day to glorify. The Jews consider Saturday as their special holy day and the Christians celebrate Sunday.

This will be my last report from Dubai, before I flit off to have other adventures in different countries. Because the majority, or over 80 percent of the Dubai population of 4.5 million is a large international block of foreigners, I felt you could be in