Travel and Leisure

Internet access in China

It was difficult getting internet access in China a mere 6 years ago. Corporate leased line were difficult to apply for, hotels had no internet access, dial-ups were extremely unreliable, xDSL or cable were largely unavailable and cybercafes largely denied foreigners access.

Today, China is one of the easiest country in the Asia to make internet accessible to businesses, homes, travellers and students.

If you are a business traveller or tourist, you will be pleasantly surprised that almost all hotels, down to 3 stars hotels, even in more remote cities offer broadband internet access in their hotel rooms. Most rooms will have an ethernet port for you to hook up to the hotel’s broadband. Access is mostly automatically DHCP with dynamic IPs but in certain hotels, you may need to call the reception to allow access from your room.

You can also visit a cybercafe or ‘wang ba’ as they are known in China. Cybercafes are everywhere in China and can be a dingy 5 computer setup to large cybercafes with hundreds and hundreds of computers. Most cybercafes in China are patronized by young people whose sole purpose are computer games or online-chatting. These youngsters can spend days in the cybercafes without going home. If you find them too noisy for your liking, you can even request for a private VIP room to surf in peace and comfort!

As a foreigner, you will need to show your passport before you can be allowed access to a cybercafe. In many provinces, the local law requires your picture to be taken and your particulars submitted to a central database. The cybercafes are pretty strict about this or they are liable to have their operating licences taken away. Cybercafes are lucrative businesses in China and you can be sure that they implement the required laws most strictly!

One of the problem that you may face in a public cybercafe is that all the log-in procedures and computer operating systems will only be in Chinese even in the touristy areas. Hence, you will need the cybercafe operator assistance before you can eventually start answering all your Hotmails and Gmails.

If you like visiting coffee cafes, you will also find that many of the newer cafes offer internet points for you to plug in your laptop. Most of the time, usage is free. At this point of time, wireless internet access does not seem to be entirely popular as compared to wire access in these cafes.

If you are running a business, getting a corporate lease line or xDSL broadband is a breeze with very competitive ISP fighting for your business. Monthly charges are low and access speed is decent. In fact, many newer office buildings offer broadband access as part of the rental deal and you need not apply separately to the ISP.

Home users are well taken care of as well. Many new apartment also comes with broadband access or you can apply to the ISPs directly. Charges for monthly sDSL broadband can be as low as US12.

Control of the internet

China is one of the countries with strict internet laws. Having said that, internet usage in China is very, very high for both business and social use. Because personal computers are still expensive by China’s income standard, most people access the internet from cybercafes or from offices.

All websites hosted in China needs to be a approved by a government unit. One of the first thing you will notice in China is that domestic sites are blazingly fast but foreign hosted sites tend to be very slow. This is due to foreign sites having to go through a proxy as well as a bottleneck on China’s limited conduit out to the international internet pipes.

Many foreign sites such as CNN, Falungong, Playboy and other sites deem sensitive to China’s society are blocked.

Web applications and development in China are often of a high standard. Many domestic sites such as Alibaba and Sohu has made it to the very competitive top internet arenas. Many web development companies from Taiwan, South Korea and even the USA has also made China their development base for their web applications as China offers a large pool of competitive and high qualified web developers.

A Introduction to Historic Charleston and Surrounding Areas: Mount Pleasant and Islands, West Ashley, John’s Island and Summerville

Charleston (Downtown)

Travel %2B Leisure magazine’s readers survey has rated Charleston and its surrounding area one of America’s five Best Cities. Charlestonians regard that as somewhat incorrect, as there obviously are no better cities than Charleston. Almost 300 years old, Charleston wears its age with pride in its history and a lively willingness to engage the future.

Charleston history is a gloriously colorful tapestry of events that are in many ways unique. It has been captured and occupied during two major wars: the Revolution and the Civil War (still known among graciously firm minded ladies of a certain age as “The Late Unpleasantness”). It’s been attacked by pirates, burned to the ground, destroyed by earthquake, and walloped by several huge hurricanes. All of these events were generally regarded as irritating interruptions in the continuation of Charleston’s stately lifestyle.

When you visit Charleston, you find yourself in a city that’s European in many aspects. The colorful downtown area is really a walking city, best seen from the sidewalks. There are shops, antique stores, restaurants, coffee houses, art galleries, taverns, and a wide variety of performing arts, not to mention festivals. There’s even the Market, a covered area full of little places and stalls where almost anything you didn’t know you wanted can be found for sale. Market Street is composed of small shops that are equally eclectic in their wares.

In true Charleston juxtaposition, only a block away is King Street, the main shopping thoroughfare with large and small stores featuring everything from designer clothing to jewelry to antiques. Unique items such as original sculpture and hand rolled cigars can be found on King or its side streets.

Away from the shopping areas, there are narrow streets full of houses that are up to two hundred and fifty years old. Several of these are open for you to tour and others have become small inns. A stroll through the old section (South of Broad Street) is the best way to see what Charleston looked like back in its first glory period as a major eighteenth century seaport or get a feeling for how people lived before the Civil War. The churches are worth a look-see, too. Many of the graveyards are open to visitors, and the old grave stones tell a vivid story about city residents of centuries past.

Charleston is also, among many other things, a college town and the Bohemian aspects of some parts of the city reflect the presence of the College of Charleston in buildings, dormitories, and fraternity houses scattered throughout its heart. Young men and women in uniform are walking evidence of the Citadel, one of the few remaining state military colleges. The Citadel has dress parades every Friday afternoon and visitors are welcome to tour its beautiful campus at any time. Located in the hospital section along western Calhoun Street is the Medical University of South Carolina, another of the major centers of learning that the city hosts.

A wide variety of restaurants cover every aspect of the dining spectrum, too. You can have a sandwich in a fast food shop or dine on expensive haut cuisine. In between are places that feature down home Charleston cooking, excellent sea food, or just a good cup of coffee and a pastry.

West of the Ashley (West Ashley, James Island, John’s Island, Folly Beach)

Cross over the Ashley River bridges and you’re in one of the major suburbs of Charleston, but it’s more than a residential area. Follow Old Town Road to Charles Towne Landing, a state park located where the first colonists landed. The park has a brand new interactive Visitors’ Center that graphically portrays early eighteenth century life in early Charles Town. For a different dose of history, travel Highway 61 and you pass several classic plantations, all open for touring, that give a visitor the feeling of pre-Civil war plantation life.

On James Island, follow Folly Road to its end and you’re at Folly Beach, the “Edge of America”. It’s a laid back fun and funky little beach town that is known for a relaxed lifestyle, sense of humor, and some of the best surfing on the east coast. Lie on the beach, walk out on the fourteen hundred foot fishing pier, or dine at any of several little restaurants during your visit. You’ll enjoy it all.

Rural John’s Island is pure South Carolina back country within easy reach of the city. Gorgeous moss-hung oaks line the roads, but the grandfather of them all is the Angel Oak, nearly 14 centuries old and massive in stature. It’s truly living history.

East of the Cooper (Mount Pleasant, Sullivan’s Island, Isle of Palms)

Cross the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, an architectural wonder that’s the longest cable span bridge in America, and you are in chic Mount Pleasant. Here you’ll find exclusive communities surrounding a small town full of outstanding shopping and dining. Along the Cooper River is Patriots Point Museum with it’s collection of naval ships from the 20th Century, including the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.

For the beach lover, Sullivan’s Island and the Isle of Palms both offer beautiful clear sand and rolling waves. Sullivan’s Island is a classic small beach community with the amenities of a county park while the Isle of Palms features upscale homes, a great resort, golf, and exclusive island living.

North Charleston

The city of North Charleston is the area’s business, transportation, and manufacturing center, but it also has the North Charleston Coliseum with its Convention Center and Performing Arts Center featuring national touring entertainment. The Warren Lasch Conservation Center houses the conservation efforts for the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship – in 1864. The sub and the ongoing work of conservation may be viewed on weekends.

Summerville

The bedroom community of Summerville was originally where Charlestonians went to escape the heat and humidity of the Charleston summer. Nowadays, modern air conditioning makes that effort moot, but Summerville is still worth a visit since it has over 700 buildings on the National Historic Register. Every spring, The Flowertown Festival celebrates the blooming of azaleas in public parks and private gardens that turn the city into a riot of color and natural beauty. Although growing, Summerville still has its small town feel.

There’s no single color, shape or tone to Charleston and its surrounding area. Instead, the old city and its environs have a kaleidoscope of shifting aspects, so you’d best be prepared for something a little different everywhere you look. The one constant to Charleston is its courtesy to everyone. So feel welcome, visitor. Please enjoy your stay.

Constant travelers who want to score the best deals in every continent that they step into should never do without a copy of travel and leisure magazine. This magazine which is well known as travel + leisure magazine provides the A lists of the best hotels, restaurants, wellness clubs, cruise ships, events and festivals, resorts and beaches, food and drinks, and other significant facts that are essential to the well-being of one’s travel itinerary. The travel and leisure magazine is a top rated, professional travel companion that would make sure you do not lose your way in every travel decision that you make.

The travel and leisure magazine used to be a compiled journal of travel photographs which placed emphasis on leisure travel and often features contributions from novelists, poets, travel columnists, artists, and avid travelers who are eager to share their acquired wisdom and serve as a helpful guide especially for those who are still neophyte in the realm of travel. The magazine publishes in a monthly basis and has several international editions such as China, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, and South East Asia though most of them were already defunct.

The magazine is famous for their World’s Best Awards which is announced every August and has been practiced since 1995. This is an award body created on a basis of an annual survey from magazine readers who gave out their quantitative rating of world’s best travel destination and accommodation. For the 2010′s survey of the World’s Best Awards, the travel and leisure magazine offers a chance to those who will take the survey of winning a $10,000 dream trip. This award has various categories namely hotels, islands, cities, airlines and cruises, wellness and spas and business hotels. These categories are featured on all continents that the travel and leisure magazine encompass such as US and Canada, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, Europe, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, and South Pacific. Last 2009, the Bushman’s Kloof atop the Cedarberg Mountains in Western Cape, South Africa emerged as the record holder of the number one spot in the survey with an overall score of 98.67.

Aside from the World’s Best Awards, the travel and leisure magazine also has what they call T+L 500 Best Hotels and America’s Favorite Cities where subscribers and magazine readers rank cities in the U.S. based on several categories. The categories are very informative because it covers almost all the things that one needs to know in famous cities such as their culture, hotels, nightlife, shopping malls, food and dining places, and airports.

The travel and leisure magazine also provides educational articles that are full of ideas not just about traveling but also informative discussions such as books and movies, charity programs, sports and fitness, gadgets, arts and culture, and basic photography lessons.

For those who are interested in subscribing to the travel and leisure magazine, the publication is giving out two risk-free issues of the magazine.

When it is time to plan a vacation or a weekend trip, you may need to find travel and leisure hotels that will work with your budget. You also want to find choices that offer the amenities you need and the location you want.

The Internet is a good place to locate travel and leisure hotels. Many travel sites offer an excellent starting point, although few have enough information available to make your final decision. However, you can find the names of the travel and leisure hotels that meet your minimum requirements and then visit their home pages individually.

Start by answering why you need to find travel and leisure hotels and for whom. Are you traveling for business or taking a romantic vacation? Who will be in the party? Will it be adults only, or will children be included? If children are going, what are their ages? Will you need child care services? Do you plan to rent a car or walk to local attractions? Once you have defined why you are looking for travel and leisure hotels and who will comprise the party, you can start looking for travel and leisure hotels that will fit those needs.

As you find hotels that might suit your requirements, map out their locations in relation to other attractions you want to visit. Travel and leisure hotels with a slightly higher daily rate may not be the best option if everything else is on the opposite side of a large city, since taxi fares will quickly exceed any savings.

Investigate all amenities offered by all the different hotels. If you work out daily, you might want to find one with a free gym for guests. Perhaps you want a hotel with an indoor pool for taking the children for a swim. You might want to limit your potential travel and leisure hotels to those with 24 hour room service, particularly if you are planning a second honeymoon or romantic weekend. Or if you are traveling on business, you might need on-site cleaning and laundry service.

Certain individuals with health needs may need travel and leisure hotels with specific amenities. For example, those who need to keep insulin refrigerated would probably prefer a room with a mini-fridge. Those with breathing problems might prefer a room on a lower floor just in case there is a power failure or other emergency requiring the use of stairs.

Perhaps you want to narrow your search for hotels to only those with onsite restaurants. This can save time and make it easier when traveling with a large party, since people can eat when they want and there is no need to try to coordinate a meal time for a group.

Once you have a list of hotels that seem like suitable candidates, you can check further on things like cancellation policies, check-in and check-out times and procedures, and parking availability. You may also want to know if there is a club, spa, or convenience store onsite.

With just a little research, you will no doubt find many travel and leisure hotels that interest you. By finding the one with the most qualities you desire, you will make sure that you and everyone traveling with you will have the best trip possible.

If you are planning to embark on a luxury cruise voyage, then do not hesitate any more. As much as it may look like just an ordinary leisure outing, at the end of it all you will have developed great and lasting friendship with your cruising partners. It is from such friendships that you get to learn very many things that you never knew.

During your journey, you will be overjoyed to spend some time in the travel and leisure resorts which offer marvelous services and delicacies. As you cruise all over the fabulous ports and any other place that the cruise ship sails, you should not be worried of where you will sleep or eat. Almost all travel and leisure resorts operate all day and night long. Other than the mega cruise liners, there also exist a number of various types of ships that are of different sizes. Despite the big craze of travelling in the big ships, the smaller cruise ships are better when it comes to inland waterways navigation. This makes it very simple to view historic landmarks and cities.

Travel and leisure resorts offer some good place to relax after all the day’s site seeing and travelling. If you choose to travel on a larger cruise, they organize one or two shore excursions at every port of call. You get to go for one excursion in the morning hours, and the other one in the afternoon then from there you get your time to rest at any of the travel and leisure resorts. After the first excursion, all people gather back at the travel and leisure resorts for a sumptuous lunch buffet.

Although travel and leisure resorts also offer dinner, you might always miss it on the days that you go out for an afternoon excursion and come back late at night or early evening. However, you should not miss out on any adventure just because of one meal or two. The travel and leisure resorts are always open and all of them offer very good and high quality meals. Sometimes, you can even explore the city, an island, town, or other landmarks and tourist attractions on your own provided you get to the ship on time or else, it will sail without you.

Do not forget that your vacation time is limited. You should distribute your time effectively so that you do not spend too much time in the travel and leisure resorts at the expense of shore excursions. The other very important thing that you should not forget to carry with you is the travel guide book. Without this book, you may end up lost or you may never know where certain sites are found. Some travel and leisure resorts have these guides but they cannot allow you to leave with them. Similarly, you can also carry a camera which you will use to take photos and videos. You should therefore make sure that the memory card is big enough to store all those images and videos.

Travel and leisure world is one place that everybody wishes he or she can go to. This is most common in Europe where millions and millions of tourists flock each and every year. Europe, more than any other continent is known for its grandeur and ambiance. There are the Royal Caribbean Cruises which make this wonderful travel and leisure world more than just a mere vacation. As you set out on your journey, be sure to start your experience of a lifetime in this fleet of ships. They have everything that anyone could expect in a travel and leisure world.

You should never get worried that you will miss a chance in these luxurious ships because they are always available. What prompts anyone who has been in these ships to call them a travel and leisure world are the amazing features that you find in them. Secondly, they have very courteous and friendly cabins on board who offer quality services. As you plan on how much you are going to part with, you should first realize that there are several options to choose from. The Royal Caribbean Cruises are quite a number and it depends on your choice of which one to travel in.

Your decision should be first and foremost influenced by your financial position and capability. Secondly, you should consider whether you are going to travel as family, couple, or as friends in a group. This travel and leisure world offers you the power to develop the cruise setting that you want. As if that is not enough, you are also left with the option to choose between cabins as well as dining options. As for the restaurants, they are quite a number.

The services and foods offered in this undisputed travel and leisure world are nothing but a mixture of brilliance and quality. There are both options of fine dining as well as casual. Generally, anybody or family which chooses to travel through this means is spoilt for choice. Even if you have a young child, you can order for anything that the baby eats and within a few minutes, you have it ready. This feature is what has brought the great fame and popularity that the Caribbean Cruise enjoys.

However, despite all the above favors the main aim of your vacation should not be over shadowed by these wonderful offers. You should make sure that you have a clear view of all sites in the travel and leisure world. This calls for hiring a person who will guide you on the ports to follow. He or she should also help you to organize your cruise and journey in such a manner that you are able to have a clear and good view of your favorite cities.

During your journey throughout Europe, especially in Ireland and Great Britain, you will get a clear and precise answer as to why this continent is referred to as the travel and leisure world. There are numerous sites which are not only natural tourist attractions, but they also tell so much about the continent’s history.

At the end of your travel and leisure world visit, you will have more than stories to tell.