Travel

Escaping _______(from/in) Japan

In Japan, Travel on 7 November 2007 with no comments

I read a great paragraph in Monocle a couple of months ago that encapsulated the difference between expatriates in Japan and the country’s native residents:
Leaving Japan is like emerging from a cosy cocoon into a harsh, brusque world. Well-heeled foreign residents, frankly, have the best of all worlds: the low crime, the good food and [...]

“They’ve got our future, damn it.”

In Future, Innovation, Japan, Tokyo, Travel on 5 November 2007 with no comments

Charlie Stross, on Japan:
They’ve got our future, damn it.
They’ve got express trains that run on time and accelerate so fast they push you back into your seat like an airliner on take-off. They’ve got skyscrapers with running lights, looming out of the sodium-lit evening haze — a skyline just like the famous nighttime scene [...]

China’s Chicago, etc.

In China, Development, Globalization, Travel, Urbanism on 2 November 2007 with no comments

What do Chongqing, Wuhan, Ningbo, and Dalian have in common? They’re China’s second-tier cities. And they’re booming:
They are attracting more and more tourists as well as investors from home and abroad. These cities are endeavoring to form their own unique character, attempting to evolve into Chinese versions of Chicago, Hawaii or Bangalore.
In an article from [...]

Travel article on Carnegie’s relationship with Pittsburgh

In History, Pittsburgh, Travel on 23 October 2007 with no comments

A New York Times travel article deftly interweaves the history of Andrew Carnegie’s Pittsburgh with the Pittsburgh of today.
Pittsburgh remains a place where the gulf between capital and labor is large. Nobody had more capital there than Carnegie, and nobody tried harder to bridge the gulf, though his efforts were not altogether welcome. The fact [...]