Tuesday, August 28, 2012

CNNGo.com

CNNGo.com

World to tourists: 'Stop stealing everything!'

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 09:58 PM PDT

by CNNGo staff

Travel guides and websites are filled with advice for tourists on how not to get ripped off when visiting the world's great attractions.

But maybe it's the attractions that need tips on not getting pilfered by tourists.

From pieces of the Great Wall to live penguins, travelers looking for unique souvenirs will stuff almost anything they can into their luggage.

The latest uproar over theft of a public attraction comes from Boracay Island in the Philippines, where the magnificent white beach sands are suffering "blatant extraction" at the hands of the kinds of tourists that give the rest of us a bad name.

Responding to the threat to its most valuable natural resource, local officials passed an ordinance last week that greatly toughens the existing law for being caught carting off sand or pebbles from the Philippines' top tourist destination.

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Eating on Victoria Harbour: Hong Kong's most buoyant dinner

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT

by Zoe Li

I'm on a boat in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour with a spread of crab, clam and noodles in front of me giving off maddening smells.

It's quiet. There are other diners on other boats around us, but they are far enough that we can only hear murmurs. 

The temperature tonight is mild and there is a harbor breeze. The boat rocks gently like a baby's cradle.

I can't remember the last time a restaurant in Hong Kong made me feel so physically relaxed.

We're at Shun Kee, a floating restaurant made up of wooden boats in Causeway Bay's typhoon shelter, a protective area for vessels during a storm.

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Europe's most valuable monuments

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT

by Raemin Zhang

The Eiffel Tower: the most visited paid-for tourist attraction in the world.

If you thought people traveled to Paris for the romance and the café culture, you may need to think again.

A new study has found that the Eiffel Tower is Europe's most valuable monument, worth US$544 billion to the French economy, nearly a fifth of the country's gross domestic product.

That's substantially more than Rome's Colosseum (US$114 billion) in second place, and more than the other six European monuments included in the study combined. They included the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona and the Tower of London.

The study, conducted by Italy's Monza and Brianza Chamber of Commerce, found the monetary value of monuments according to their "image, branding and aesthetic qualities," combining the results of 10 other studies and statistical analyses.

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Kawagoe: The 'most Japanese' destination of all

Posted: 27 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT

by Mike Nakada

Tight streets lined with gabled buildings and tiled roofs -- it's an image many visitors, particularly those of an older, pre-Pokémon vintage, hope to find when they come to Japan for the first time.

Sadly, with most Japanese cities having the architectural appeal of a pile of gray cardboard boxes, it's an image they never truly find.

The truth, however, really is out there.

It lies not in Kyoto, Nara or any of the other celebrated "historic" towns, but in a little city right on the doorstep of Tokyo.

Kawagoe City in Saitama Prefecture has preserved an area of streets lined on both sides with buildings that look like they've been taken straight from a samurai period drama.

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at 9:43 AM