Olympics is a Great Business Learning Opportunity

The Olympics is not just about sports. It is also about doing business, business networking and for the younger generation, it is even a great chance to learn about business. I saw this interesting article from the George Washington University Hatchet this morning I thought I share (Click here for full article).

As part of a three-credit course called Behind the Scenes at the 2010 Winter Olympics Games, 28 graduate students are in Vancouver from Feb. 12 to 23, studying sport and event management firsthand.

"It's reinforcing things that they learned in the classroom. Here, it's a living laboratory. So they're hearing from the best of the best in terms of marketing and event management," professor and organizer of the course Lisa Delpy Neirotti said.

How much do Olympians Make?

An Olympian not only can get paid in gold, he or she can also expect a lot of green. According to Forbes.com, the top earning Olympics are (for video click here):

Number 5: Apolo anton Ohno - Speed Skating earn 1.5 million last year. Doing Dancing with the Stars might have helped him!
Number 4: Ted Ligety - Alphine Skiing earn 2 million last year.
Number 3: Lindsey Vonn - Alphine Skiing earn 3 million last year.

The number 1 spot is a tie between Kim Yu-Na (ice skating) from Korea and Shaun White (Snowboarding) from the US.

(photo courtesy of MSN.com)

They both earn 8 million last year. They are heavily sponsored by mega brands such as Hyundai Motors, Proctor & Gamble, Samsung, Nike, Universal Music, Burton, Target, Red Bull, Oakley, Ubisoft and AT&T.

Interesting note, 4 out of the top 5 are from the US! And pro athletes like NHL hockey players are not included in this list.

Millionaire Olympics are very few and far in between. There are still so many Olympic hopefuls are struggling and need our support! Keep their dreams alive!

A Very Gay Friendly Olympics

(photo courtesy of wikipedia.com)

While more than a third of the world is still hostile to gays and lesbians (shame!), west coast Canada is very gay-friendly. It is one of world's top gay wedding destination. When Olympics is going to be hosted here, it is no surprise that BC is going to show the world that we are very proud and want to celebrate of this fun loving culture.

Here are related events that are happening around Olympics period:

• Whistler Pride House's cocktail lounge: located at the Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre Hotel and features TV monitors to watch events, plush leather couches for relaxing and socializing and art installations.
• The 2010 Whistler Gay Ski Week will be held March 1 to 8, between the Olympic Winter Games and the Paralympic Winter Games.
• Vancouver Pride House, located at the Qmunity centre, 1170 Bute St., will also host events until March 21 and is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• For more information go to: www.pridehouse.ca

Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger! 新年快乐!

Happy Chinese New Year or Spring Festival! This year is the year of the tiger. This is the most important holiday to all who are ethnically Chinese.

CNY is based on the lunar calendar and the first day always falls on a different date. The best part for me growing up was CNY is actually 14 days long! Yes, you read it right, CNY is two weeks long! Needless to say, it is my favourite part of the year.

The Legend:

Long time ago, there was a beast named "Nian" (Nian 年 means year in Chinese). He terrorised the village every year on the first day. The villagers would leave out food offering for Nian, so he would not eat the livestock, crop and small children. This went on for years and years, the villager grew more scared, but angrier too. Finally, they decided to fight back. They made firecrackers that made really loud noises to scare Nian off. When Nian came to the village, everyone was still very scared. But one brave little boy who wore a red jacket stepped forward and threw the first firecracker at Nian. It worked! Nian ran off with his tail tucked behind his back. Therefore, the villagers every year celebrated the win over the beast with red decorations and firecrackers to keep Nian aka evil spirits away.

The Customs:

• To prepare for CNY, each family would clean the house thoroughly, get a new hair cut and even try to get rid of all debts (that includes library books on loan) to ensure a clean start for the new year.
  
• CNY is a family holiday much like Christmas. It is all about eating a large family feast on NY eve.
  
• In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (饺子) with vegetable and pork fillings. People also like to tuck a coin in one of the dumplings. Whoever is lucky enough to bit into the coin dumpling, it is said he or she is going to have a good year.
• In southern China, people likes to make a sweeter treat called new year rice cake (年糕).
• Children often receive red envelops containing cash from their older and married relatives such as parents, grandparents and etc.
• Chinese people considers themselves a year older on the first day of CNY, not on their actual birthday. Therefore, the Chinese population technically only has one birth date.

Year of the Tiger:

Chinese Zodiac is a series of 12 animals that represents every year. 2010 is the year of the Tiger. For people who was born as a tiger (1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998), it is said :

Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes tiger people come into conflict with older people or those in authority. sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons, and Dogs

My family and I will be celebrating in Vancouver amongst all the Olympics madness. I will be helping mom make won tons (since we are southerners) and other very yummy goodies. But no more red envelops for the very grown up me :(.

Olympics = $$$$$$ for the host city?

Other than Vancouver, many events are also held outside of the city. Many of the snow related sports are in Whistler. Recently, Whistler has made the news, not good news unfortunately. Whistler Ski Resort is owned by Intrawest who just ran into financial trouble aka missed a major debt payment. After the news broke, there was an air of panic whoever takes over Whistler was going to interfere with the Olympics only weeks away. Drama!

Before this, the construction of the Olympics village went way over budget by more than $100-million and has had to have its financing taken over by the city.

Is this type of controversy that sparks the debate whether the Olympics was a good idea in the first place? It is like a huge jigsaw puzzles with many uncertainties that has to come together and not to mention, it takes up massive amounts of resources. The cost almost always exceeds revenue.

I believe in Olympics is a good idea and a good financial idea. The key is not to expect the Olympics itself bring Vancouver any significant financial gain. The cost of the Olympics should be view as a marketing expense, a 580 million dollar expense. With revenue, the actual expense will not be as scary which we should be happy about.

As a host city of such massive international gathering, Vancouver is betting on the future. Let's use the Olympics in China as an example who viewed their Olympics as a coming out party for the county. It paid off almost right away. China was about to successfully negotiate with the World Trade Organization two months after it won the right to the 2008 Olympics in July 2001. The Olympics ultimately showed the world China's capabilities, infrastructure and resources which boosted trading and investment confidence the world has for her. During this economy recession, China was the first to bounce back while the rest world is still waiting.

I believe the 2010 Winter Olympics will do the same for Vancouver. More trading opportunities and more investment money will come as the world spot light shines on us for the next two weeks.

2010 Olympics! 2010 Olympics! 2010 Olympics!

Today is officially one week to 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver! For the next three weeks, I will mostly be doing blogs on my personal experience with the Olympics and Vancouver. Here it is a prelude.

Vancouver is one of my favourite cities in the world. Here is an amazing time laspe video of Vancouver created by David and Dan Newcomb featuring music by Linda Ganzini.




Many have described Vancouver as a big metropolitan with a small town feel due to its lack of highways and a forest of very tall buildings. Located in the most western province in Canada, Vancouver is the third largest city Canada behind Toronto and Montreal. Here are some quick facts:

Population: 2.6 million
Language: mostly English
Currency: Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Best time to travel: all year around depending on what you want to do
Weather:

• Nov to Feb – high of 8C (46F) to low of 0C (32F)
• Mar to May – high of 16C (61F) to low of 3C (37F)
• Jun to Oct – high of 22C (71F) to low of 10C (50F)

Most famous for:

• Majestic natural beauty. It is surrounded by water (Pacific Ocean) and mountains
• You can ski in the mountains, windsurf in the ocean and play a round of golf all in the same day
• Consistently voted one of the most liveable cities in the world
• Strong Asian presence and influence. Hence, some of the best Asian restaurants outside of Asia are here. Sushi is as fresh as it gets. Click here to follow my Vancouver restaurant reviews on Yelp.com.
  
• Rain, a lot of rain from November through March. But when the sun comes out, the city just shines.
• Host of Expo 86 and 2010 Winter Olympics
• One of the gateways to Asia Pacific. Shanghai is 9 hours away.

Surrounding Destinations:

• Whistler (2hr drive) - one of best snow resort towns in the world
• Victoria (2hr drive + ferry) – the capital of British Columbia province
• Tofino (2hr drive + ferry) – surfer paradise and rain forest
• Seattle, USA (3.5 hr drive)

I live in the heart of Vancouver and the Olympics, literally 10 feet away from BC Place which is where the opening ceremony is going to be held on February 12th at 6PM. Here are a few pictures of the area I overlook. It use to be an parking lot. Now it is tent city! The area is also heavily blocked off and surveillanced with CCTVs and a lot of police patrol. Now I only have one way in and out of my street. It is a bit, actually a lot of pain in my rear. But the Olympics hype is totally overriding that feeling.

To my back, is the Olympic Village. It is a beautiful area by Falls Creek and Science World (the big lit sphere). It is a fantastic area to go for a run. The athletics have already hung their country's flag proudly on the balconies. Very cool site!

Finding Pandora in China

Breaking all kinds of movie records, Avatar is a certified international mega hit. Being a travel buff, I left the movie wanting to visit Pandora. To my surprise, Pandora might not be that far.

MSNBC.com reports the floating "Hallelujah Mountains" was inspired by karst limestone formations in China. (click here for full article) James Cameron himself didn't not visit the locations. The Avatar designers and photographers visited Zhangjiajie and Yellow Mountain a few years ago and based the floating mountains these two locations.

China is now quick to capitalize on the enormous popularity of the movie and want to rename Zhangjiajie's "Southern Sky Column" to ""Hallelujah Mountain".

Check out blogs on my last trip to Yellow Mountain:
1. The Peaks of Yellow Mountain
2. Beyond Yellow Mountain

If you are interested in getting a glimpse of "Pandora", you are in luck, Ruby Roads Premium Travel and Events is offering a 12 day China tour package special at 50% OFF which includes 3 days in Yellow Mountain. Click here for full detail.

(Photo courtesy of www.news.cn)

What you don't know about the Great Wall of China (长城)

Everyone on the earth probably heard of the Great Wall of China. It is the symbol of China and pride of all Chinese people. How much do you know really know about the Great Wall. Do you know the wall was never a single continuous wall? Let's start from the beginning:

Who built it? The building of the wall started under the leadership of Qin Shi Emperor, the first emperor of China.

When was it built? It started approximately 2000 years ago during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206BC). Later emperors kept on building and restoring. Majority of the wall you see today was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Why such a long wall? To protect the Northern borders of China and to keep the Mongols out.

How does it work? Soliders were stationed at each watch tower. If one of the towers spots the enemy movement towards the border, the soliders will light a huge fire in their tower. The next tower over sees the fire will proceed to light a fire in its tower and so on so forth. This is a way to quickly inform everyon along the border to be on high alert and prepare for battle.

How long is it really? The Chinese refers to the Great Wall as "The long wall of 10,000 li" (万里长城). Li is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. It is equal to 500 meters or 1640 feet. However, the actual length including all of its branches of the wall is 8851.8 km.

What major cities does it stretches through? From east to west, Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu.

(Image from www.enchantedlearning.com)

There are many sections of the wall that are well restored and popular amongst tourists from all over the world. Notable sections are:

Badaling (八达岭长城) - It is closest to city of Beijing and most popular section of the wall. It is where Nixon visited and was the finish site of a cycling course in the 2008 Summer Olympics. It has very steep inclines and has the highest point along the entire length of the wall.

Mutianyu (慕田峪长城) - Also very close to Beijing, but less crowded and less work to hike than Badaling.

Simatai (司马台长城) - A bit farther out of Beijing, however it has the most authentic part of the wall. It is of the original construction unlike Badaling which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

Jinshanling (金山岭长城) - It connects to section of Simatai.

Shanhaiguan (山海关长城) - this section is actually located in Hebei and Tianjin. It is about 3 hours of train from Beijing. The wall ends into the sea.

Interesting facts you might not know:

• The wall is not a single continuous wall.
  
• Since the wall was discontinuous, the Mogol found a way to go around and eventually conquered most of northern China. They started the Yuan Dynasty and ruled all of China until 1368 when the Ming defeated them. It was said the Mongols were greatest warriors, but lacked management skills.
• Over the 2000 years, approximately 50,000km of the wall were built. The earth's circumference is about 40,000km.
• There are more than 10,000 watchtowers and beacon towers on the wall

Travel Tips about the Wall

The Great Wall offers scenery that varies with seasons. But the winter months can be bitterly cold. Spring and fall are still the best time to go. Wearing good shoes is important unless hiking up is not your cup of tea. Then there are cable cart to take you to the notable peaks. If hiking down is not to your liking either, you can luge down!

There are vendors all along the major sections of the wall. No need to panic and pack tons of food and water for the hike. In fact, don't be surprised to see an old lady vendor carrying 50 pounds of stuff on her back passing you.

Majority of the Great Wall is not restored which the locals refer to as "Wild Walls". These sections can be pretty dangerous due to loose bricks, rocks and unruly vegetation. In addtion, China has no system of mountain and wilderness rescue. However, it is still becoming very popular to hike and camp in these areas despite the potential danger of completely being on your own.

The Winter Olympics is Almost Here!!

Only 28 days to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics!! The city is already hooping despite the unpredictable weather (usually rain dump and high wind in the morning, followed by sun in the afternoon).

From Bombardier Streetcar to Heineken House, here is a list of free events happening during this big international event.

If you are a business and want an opportunity to be invited to exclusive networking events during the games, register your company with 2010 Commerce Centre.

Now we just need to pray the weather will hold up and we get a lot of snow (only in the mountains) and sunny!

Faye's List of Articles, Websites and Social Networks to Follow for China Bound Leisure Travellers

After I compiling a list of article, website and social networks for China bound business travellers, now it is leisure travellers' term:

• China National Tourism Office Website - This should be your first stop before you plan for your trip. The comprehensive website gives you straightforward information about China and its major cities.
• Before heading to China, do you need a visa? what to pack? worried about SARS? This article (click here for full article) should answer all these questions and more.
• China Trip Videos (YouTube) - A little self promotion here. This is a Beijing video from the last group I led. More China related videos in production. Stay tune.
• One of China's biggest attraction is shopping! My favourite! But shopping in China is an art form. Here are some rules and myths you should know.
  
• Learn a little Chinese - English is not very wild spoken in China. It will definitely help to learn a little basic Chinese. If you are lazy or too busy and have an iPhone, be sure to download the free app called iTranslator to take on the road. This translator translates other languages too. It is best free language app I have found so far. There is also a paid option for voice service.
• HongLaoWei (YouTube) - This one is just for fun! HongLaoWei is a Caucasian man who enjoys making videos about China (especially the Communist aspect of China) in Chinese. China is a great country to travel to and explore, but you will encounter aspects of it that are unfamiliar to you, just keep an open mind. After all, this is why we travel.
  

For a list of Articles, Websites and Social Networks to Follow for China Bound Business Travellers - click here.

To book your customized leisure or business travel to China, please contact me at faye@rubyroads.com or visit us at www.rubyroads.com.

Faye's List of Articles, Websites and Social Networks to Follow for China Bound Business Travellers

I decided to compile a list of article, website and social networks for China bound business travellers.

• baidu.com (百度) - this popular and large search engine is the equivalent of Google in China.
• doingbusiness.org - What is like doing business in China? Will it be difficult to hire contractors or employees? How safe will your investment be? The website lists the overall "Ease of Doing Business" rank (out of 183 economies) and the rankings by each topic.
• China Law Blog - China Law for Business
  
• This article (click here for full article) talkes about visa and other related issues when you travel to China for business.
• A lighthearted, but very true article (click here for full article) about what to expect when doing business in China.
• Chinese Name - It is good to give yourself a Chinese name before meeting your Chinese business partners. Because it is very tough for Chinese people to pronounce English names. This website will generate a name for you (usually so what close to your original name), teach you how to say it and give you the meaning of your name. But make sure still to get your Chinese friend to look it over or you can email me at faye@rubyroads.com.
  
• Follow China Business Watch on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChinaBizWatch - They collect realtime China Business News direct to your Twitter.
  

I will also post a list of Articles, Websites and Social Networks to Follow for China Bound Leisure Travellers in a few days.

To book your leisure or business travel to China, please contact me at faye@rubyroads.com or visit us at www.rubyroads.com.

China’s top 5 business law trends of 2010

Dan Harris is an international lawyer based in the United States. Here is what he thought China's top 5 business law trends of 2010 will be (Click here for the full article):

1. China will step up even further its crackdown on foreigners in China violating its visa/immigration laws. If you lack an employee visa, you may be at risk.

2. China will increase its efforts to root out and shut down illegal and unregistered foreign businesses. I have seen ample evidence of this already happening in the last 3-6 months and I have no doubt this will continue. Providing jobs to Chinese citizens does not let you off the hook.

3. China will increase its tax collection efforts. This has been going on at a rapidly accelerating pace over the last six months or so. If your China operations are not making a healthy profit, do not be surprised if the government imputes healthy profits to it. In particular, the government will look very closely at your transfer pricing and in many cases it will not like what it sees.

4. China now sees itself as a full-fledged economic power and with that perception we can expect it will be stepping up its anti-monopoly monitoring of mergers and acquisitions. I predict China will seek to impose at least some conditions on all mergers and acquisitions that touch on China, if only just to show that it can.

5. The number of cases brought by employees and resolved in their favor will continue rapidly increasing. This will be particularly true with respect to foreign companies as this will be a great way for the government to show its willingness to protect its own.

China in the Past Decade

Beginning of the millennium, the image of China to the western world was still farmland and rural people. Now it's the world's second largest economy. In 1999, the per capita income of Chinese urban dwellers was $700 USD - by 2009 that climbed to $2,774.88 USD. It is almost 2010. It seems appropriate to look back China in the past decade.

2001 - China became one of the last major trading nations to join that organization. This event fundamentally redefine China's relations with other countries, especially with the United States, its most significant export market, not to mention its neighbors in the Asian region.

2002 - Entrepreneurs allowed to join the Communist Party. According to old communist ideology, private state owners are considered capitalist pigs and not for the good of the common people. It was the first time in the 81 year history of the party that private entrepreneurs have been selected as provincial congress delegates.

2003 - China became the third nation to independently launch an astronaut into Earth orbit atop its own Long March 2F rocket. The astronaut Yang Liwei who is 5 feet, 6 inches tall came from a family of teachers was being held up to China's population of 1.3 billion as an instant hero.
China also went through a major political change, Hu Jintao replaces Jiang Zemin as president of China.

2004 - The total volume of China's imports and exports exceeded 1 trillion US dollars, making China the world's third largest trading nation after USA and Germany. At the same time, Shanghai overtook Rotterdam as the No 1 port in terms of cargo throughput, handling 382 million metric tons during this year.

2005 - China became the world's fourth-largest economy. It had squeaked by Britain by the tiniest of margins to become the world's fourth-largest economy, according to the World Bank. China produced $2.263825 trillion USD in output in 2005. That was just $94 million USD, or 0.004 percent, more than Britain. The Chinese government also stopped pegging the currency to the U.S. dollar.

2006 - To keep up with 1.3 billion people's energy demand and continue economical expansion within China, the Three Gorges Dam and railway to Tibet were completed. By the end of the year, China's foreign exchange reserves reach $1 trillion, becoming world's largest.

2007 - China surpassed Germany as world's third-largest economy. Its economy expanded by 13 percent to $3.38 trillion. That compared with Germany's 2007 GDP of $3.32 trillion. China was now behind only the United States and Japan. At the same time, the country topped the world with 210 million Internet users.

2008 - This is the year China offically came out to the world. It hosted the Olympics for the first time in a very spetacular matter. With Russia's help China stages its first-ever spacewalk later in the year. However, the year was also very bittersweet. Only 3 months before the Olympics, an 8M deadly earthquake in Sichuan left nearly 90,000 dead or missing. The country also became the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

2009 - China became the world’s second largest economy, passing Japan, which has held this distinction for decades. China’s 2008 GDP was $4.6 trillion and Japan’s was $4.9 trillion. The 2009 numbers are likely to be $4.75 trillion for China and $4.6 trillion for Japan. It will be several decades before China’s GDP can match that of the US. America’s gross domestic product will be over $14 trillion this year. China will gain on that number quickly if US economic output stays below 2% or 3% and China continues to expand at 10% or better.
China's communist party also turned 60 year old this year. 300,000 participants and 60 floats to highlight the country's achievements in various sectors of the society, economy and even military power.

Happy Holidays!

On behalf of Ruby Roads Premium Travel and Events, I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! Tis the season to reflect and set new goals and dreams for the new year to come.

A Christmas tree is displayed in front of the National Stadium,
commonly called the "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

Shao Lin Temple Going Public

I couldn't believe it when a friend told me the news that the local government entity in charge of managing the 1,500-year-old Buddhist temple's tourism-related assets plans to join with China Travel Service in a venture that will seek to raise up to 1 billion RMB (approx 157 million CAD) in a share listing on either a mainland market or in Hong Kong.

A spokeswoman for state-owned China Travel Service (Holdings) Ltd. in Hong Kong confirmed that the two sides have agreed on cooperation and said her company would be issuing an announcement later.

I have always been a bit critical of Shao Lin going commercial in the first. Now I think this has gone a little far. Somethings you just shouldn't try to make profits off of such as a religious temple.

Shaolin Temple (少林寺) is located near Luoyang (洛阳) and 80 kilometers west of Zhengzhou (郑州). Shaolin Temple became associated with martial arts in the 7th century when 13 Shaolin monks, trained in kung fu, rescued prince Li Shimin, the founder of the Tang dynasty. After this Shaolin expanded into a large complex. At its peak it housed 2,000 monks. In the 20th century it fell on hard times. In the 1920s, much of the monastery was burnt down . When the Communists came to power in 1949, Buddhism, like other religions was discouraged. Land owned by the temple was distributed among farmers. Monks fled. remained at Shaolin in the 1960s were destroyed or defaced during the Cultural Revolution. All but four of the temple's monks were driven off by the Red Guards. The remaining monks survived by making their own tofu and bartering it for food. In 1981 there were only 12 elderly monks at the temple and they spent much of their time farming. Their religious activities were performed discretely or in secret.

In 1982, a film called Shaolin Temple made the temple famous and launched Jet Li’s career. It remains one of the most popular kung fu films ever. After its success the government and entrepreneurs realized there was money to made exploiting the temple. Old monks were asked to come back and new ones were recruited. Today about 200 students study directly with the masters who live in the temple.

Shaolin, its monks and their distinctive form of kung fu became branded in the early 90's under the temple's business-savvy abbot, Shi Yongxin. He moved aggressively to promote and protect the Shaolin brand, threatening to sue companies that use the temple's name or image without permission and serving as executive producer for martial arts films centered on the temple. Shi also has sought to upgrade temple facilities - installing lavish visitor restrooms equipped with uniformed cleaners and TVs that brought criticism and controversy.

The Shanghai-based newspaper Oriental Morning Post and other reports said the temple itself was not part of the negotiations between Dengfeng and China Travel Service. That deal calls for China Travel Service to invest 100 million RMB for a 51 percent stake in a venture under the Shaolin brand name that will handle sale of admission tickets, operate its cable car, cinemas, hotels and tourist bus services in Dengfeng. Who knows, Shao Lin amusement park coming soon and get your monk plush toy on a key chain in the shopping plaza left to the temple.

Canada's China Speaks French (mostly)

Located on the Island of Montreal, Lachine means China in French and apparently named in mockery of its then owner Robert Cavelier de La Salle who explored the interior of North America, trying to find a passage to Asia. When he returned unsuccessful, he and his men were derisively named les Chinois (Chinese). The name was adopted when the parish of Saints-Anges-de-la-Chine was created in 1678, with the form Lachine appearing with the opening of a post office in 1829.

Ville de Lachine is far different from the China on the other side of the world. This tiny town of 65% French origin could be Montréal’s best-kept secret. Lachine’s remarkably vibrant culture and rich heritage, including its museums and concert hall, the Vieille brasserie (old brewery), and the heritage buildings lining the Lachine Canal and Lac St-Louis.

-----

Ville de Lachine --------------------------China (中国)

Want to have a Unique Destination Wedding?

Marriage is one of life's biggest moments. All couples want a memorable wedding experience not only for them, but also for their guests. Recently wedding trends, especially destination wedding trends has been moving toward from the beaches to even more exotic destination such as China.

Tie the knot, renew your love or honeymoon at YuZi Paradise (愚自乐园). Nestled among the beautiful mountains of Guilin, China, YuZi Paradise is a 1,350 acre sculpture park dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art and culture in China. This out of this world park consists of 200 contemporary works by artists around the world such as Eberhard Eckerle and Allen Jones. You can have your wedding reception or a romantic dinner in a cave.

(Cave Dinning)

How about this quintessential Chinese adventure with luxurious comfort. This four day river cruise down on the longest river in Asia provides breathless natural scenery. The colourful villages or jagged grey mountains rising from the Yangtze River gorge will be the perfect backdrop for your perfect wedding day.

Please contact me at faye@rubyroads.com (www.rubyroads.com) if you are interested in finding more about these amazingly exotic wedding packages.

Are Canadians really that nice?

Forbes.com published their friendliest countries in the world list. Canada is rated overall number 2 on the list. Aside from eating from a tree, I always thought being friendly is one of Canadian's more well known stereotypes and we are the best at it. Here is our rankings in detail and it looks like Canada needs to work on our friend making skills.

Making friends: No. 11
Making local friends: No. 2
Joining community groups: No. 1
Organizing school for my children: No. 5
Organizing my finances: No. 3
Organizing my health care: No. 1
Finding somewhere to live: No. 2

The data comes from The Expat Explorer survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International and conducted by the research company FreshMinds. More than 3,100 expatriates were surveyed between February and April 2009. The respondents were asked to rate 23 factors related to their quality of life, including food, entertainment, transportation, health care, finances, education and their ability to make friends. Each criterion was equally weighted to arrive at a score. The overall ranking is based on the average score for a country across the criteria. Eight measures were also selected to arrive at an integration score: organizing school for my children; organizing my finances; organizing my health care; finding somewhere to live; making friends; making local friends; setting up utilities; and joining local community groups. The integration score was used to determine the friendliest countries.

The top 5:

Number 5: Malaysia
Number 4: Thailand
Number 3: Australia

Drum roll...
Number 1: Bahrain

For the full list click here.

I absolutely looooved traveling to Malaysia and Thailand and highly recommended for anyone. But two of my less pleasant traveling moments happened in Malaysia and Thailand. One involved a taxi who didn't know where he was going and wanted to drop us off on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere. The other involved name calling by a very pissy vendor who thought I bartered too hard.

What is Approved Destination Status?

According to various literature on Approved Destination Status (ADS), it is a special policy China has adopted for its outbound tourism.

ADS agreement is a bilateral tourism agreement whereby Chinese government allows Chinese tour operators to organize tours to the counterpart country while the counterpart government allows Chinese tourists to travel into its territory with a special group ADS visa. Only countries with ADS can be listed as group travel destinations for Chinese tourists and promote their destinations in China.

China recognised early on its population creates a huge opportunity for the outbound tourism industry. Chinese outbound tourism started in the early 1980’s when residents of Guangdong province could visit Hong Kong and Macau, provided their relatives in those two cities could cover their expenses. During that period, the application for obtaining a passport was very complicated. An applicant needed to show invitation letters from overseas relatives indicating the expense source, a company letter indicating the permission of the trip, and purchase several official stamps from different government agencies before submitting it to the official corresponding passport office, which was a sub-department of the Police Bureau.

In 1988, Thailand joined Hong Kong and Macau to share the privileges to obtain Chinese visitors, followed by Singapore and Malaysia in 1990, and later Philippines in 1992. However, the visits were limited to business travel and visiting friends and relatives.

It was not until 1997, that the “Provisional measures concerning the administration of outbound travel of Chinese citizens at their own expenses” was promulgated and approved by the Chinese Government State Council, thus announcing the official start of the outbound travel by Chinese citizens Since 1999, citizens can apply for passports with their personal identifications, which is a significant step to ease the outbound traveling restriction. As can be noted, China is gradually relaxing its controls on the outbound market.

Australia and New Zealand obtained ADS status in 1999; Japan in 2000, and 26 EU countries in 2004. In January 2005, United Kingdom was approved.

With the ease of the passport restriction policy and the expansion of more destination choices, Chinese outbound tourism has skyrocketed since 1998, after steadily been increasing for the past ten years. This growth has drawn worldwide attention. Countries are now making great efforts to attract Chinese visitors, an enormous potential market with almost one fifth of the world population.

China Gives Canada Approved Destination Status

Canada is one of the last few western countries to finally get the approved destination status from China. This status will be a huge boost as much as 100 million dollars annually to the declining Canadian tourism industry. Tourism BC being so close to the pacific rim could see a 25% growth. Click here for the full article.

“We’re late out of the gate. Countries like Australia and the United States have had the status for some time, so we have some catching up to do,” said Gialloreto.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement from Beijing where he was meeting with Wen Jiabao, premier of China.

The United States received approved destination status in December 2007. At the time 134 countries were on China's approved destination list.

“Achieving approved destination status with China is a major economic and cultural step in terms of building our important relationship with China, particularly as we prepare to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Gamers,” B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said in the release.