Read up on China travel

The coming Olympic Games in Beijing have spurred production of a slew of new travel-related guides to China. Along with books from most of the major travel publishers come four noteworthy products, each offering readers a completely different experience: a literary companion, Mobil and Zagat guides and a bilingual map.

• China: A Traveler's Literary Companion (Whereabouts Press, $14.95), edited by Kirk A. Denton, provides a way to see the country through fiction "that offers a strong sense of place," Denton says in his introduction. The stories, written from 1921 to 2003, range in setting from the mountains and streams of West Hunan, to silkworm-raising country and sorghum fields, to the high plateaus where Tibetan culture mingles with that of the Han Chinese. Other stories are set in the booming metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Themes include the place of tradition in a modern society, changing values, poverty, the effects of globalization and identity.

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China Olympic Prayer Bands

Nearly 500,000 Olympic Prayer Bands have been requested to date. The Voice of the Martyrs is processing the orders as fast as possible. We are so thankful for the tremendous support from Christians in the USA who are willing to pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters in China during the Olympics. If you have already requested prayer bands, please be assured VOM will get them to you as fast as possible. If you would like to place an order, or order more to get more people involved, simply follow the link below. Prayer bands can be purchased for as low as $0.50 each. Distribution of the prayer bands is also underway in China to house church Christians who will be praying for you!

Click here to order an Olympic Prayer Band.

Is Mexico the “New” China?

When it comes to global manufacturing, Mexico is quickly emerging as the “new” China.

According to corporate consultant AlixPartners, Mexico has leapfrogged China to be ranked as the cheapest country in the world for companies looking to manufacture products for the U.S. market. India is now No. 2, followed by China and then Brazil.

In fact, Mexico’s cost advantages and has become so cheap that even Chinese companies are moving there to capitalize on the trade advantages that come from geographic proximity.

The influx of Chinese manufacturers began early in the decade, as China-based firms in the cellular telephone, television, textile and automobile sectors began to establish maquiladora operations in Mexico. By 2005, there were 20-25 Chinese manufacturers operating in such Mexican states Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Baja.

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Cargo Plane Crash in China being Investigated

SHANGHAI - A Zimbabwe-registered cargo plane that crashed in flames on takeoff from Shanghai's international airport, killing three American crew members, was not carrying any sensitive goods, a senior executive with the plane's operator said.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter aircraft was carrying "general cargo, such as electronics" and "nothing of any sensitive nature," Simon Clarke, the Chief Operating Officer of Harare, Zimbabwe-based Avient Ltd, told the Wall Street Journal.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency said the plane was bound for Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, when it crashed on Saturday morning in relatively good weather. Early reports indicated the tail of the three-engine jet may have impacted the ground before the crash. A team of U.S. investigators, led by an expert on engines, was preparing Sunday to head to China.

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US opens consulate in China industry center Wuhan

BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. opened its first new consulate in China in 20 years on Thursday as part of a shift of diplomatic resources away from Europe and toward the "new front lines of diplomacy."

The consulate in the central industrial center of Wuhan brings the number of U.S. diplomatic installations in mainland China to six, including the newly opened embassy in Beijing that is the largest operating U.S. Embassy anywhere in the world.

The Wuhan consulate will focus on providing emergency services to Americans in the region, promoting U.S. exports and economic ties, and expanding cultural and academic exchanges, the Embassy said in a news release. It will not issue visas, it said.

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China's Guidelines for Olympic Guests Has Arrived!

BEIJING -- Foreigners attending the Beijing Olympics better behave -- or else.

The Beijing Olympic organizing committee issued a stern, nine-page document Monday that covers 57 topics. Written in Chinese only and posted on the official Web site, the guide covers everything from a ban on sleeping outdoors to the need for government permission to stage a protest.

Visitors also should know this:

• Those with "mental diseases" or contagious conditions will be barred.

• Some parts of the country are closed to visitors -- one of them Tibet.

• Olympic tickets are no guarantee of a visa to enter China.

Fearing protests during the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, China's authoritarian government has tightened controls on visas and residence permits for foreigners. It has also promised a massive security presence at the games, which may include undercover agents dressed as volunteers.

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China and Taiwan Make Travel Agreement

by Edward Cody
(Washington Post Foreign Service)

BEIJING, June 13 -- China and Taiwan agreed Friday to allow 36 round-trip charter flights every weekend as the first step in a plan to dramatically expand visits to the self-ruled island by Chinese tourists.

The agreement, signed in Beijing after the first official China-Taiwan negotiations in a decade, was hailed as a starting point for what leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have promised will be a bold process of detente and, eventually, a peace accord setting aside half a century of hostility.

"The final aim is peace and shared prosperity," Chiang Pin-kun, Taiwan's chief negotiator and head of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation, told reporters at a news conference.

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China Execs Tour Hot New Travel Destination :Taiwan

TAIPEI (Reuters) - China travel industry executives this week set off on a tour of neighboring Taiwan, which agreed on Friday in the first talks in almost a decade to receive more than a million tourists per year from its political rival.

The 33 travel agency leaders reached Taiwan on Monday for 11 days of visit to landmarks across the island but have said little to their Taiwan counterparts or to the local media, which trailed the group on its first day.

Communist China has claimed sovereignty over democratic, self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

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Defiant Chinese Harassed, Jailed Before Games

by Edward Cody
(washingtonpost.com)

ZHENGDING, China - Behind the gray walls and barbed wire of the prison here, eight Chinese farmers with a grievance against the government have been consigned to Olympic limbo.

Their indefinite detainment, relatives and neighbors said, is the price they are paying for stirring up trouble as China prepares to host the Beijing Games. Trouble, the Communist Party has made clear, will not be permitted.

"My bet is the authorities won't let them out until after the Olympics," said Wang Xiahua, a veteran anti-government agitator from this farm town 180 miles southwest of Beijing and a supporter of the imprisoned farmers.

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China and Human Rights?

by Amnesty International

Posted: 01 April 2008

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and world leaders, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, must speak out strongly and in public against human rights abuses in Tibet and elsewhere in China or risk giving 'tacit endorsement' to human rights abuses being committed in preparation for the Olympic Games, Amnesty International said today in a new report.

The report, China: The Olympics countdown - crackdown on activists threatens Olympics legacy (PDF), shows a human rights situation that is getting worse, not better, in the run-up to the Olympics. In Tibet and the surrounding areas, the police and military crackdown on demonstrators has led to serious human rights violations in recent days. In and around Beijing, the Chinese authorities have silenced and imprisoned peaceful human rights activists in the pre-Olympics 'clean up'. Promises of 'media freedom' have not been honoured, with reporters denied free access to Tibet. Reports suggest that information controls are also being extended to cover SMS text messaging in Beijing.


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Snow, fog, rain likely to cause China travel chaos

BEIJING (Reuters) - Snow, fog and rain across China are expected to cause seasonal travel chaos for millions of Chinese returning from their home provinces this week as the Lunar New Year holiday draws to a close.

The Chinese New Year break, or Spring Festival, is the biggest of two "Golden Week" holidays which give migrant workers their only chance of the year to return home with gifts for their families.

Last year, it was disrupted by the worst winter weather in the south in decades. This year the holiday had little meaning for millions who lost their jobs when factories shut down in the once-booming south and went home early.

But the global financial crisis failed to dampen tourism as lower travel costs persuaded people to spend, according to statistics released by the National Tourism Administration.

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New U.S. Embassy To Open in Beijing, China, During Olympics Opening Day

by Windsor Genova
(AHN News)

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The U.S. Department of State said Friday that a new U.S. Embassy building complex will open in Beijing, China on Aug. 8, the opening day of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The new Beijing New Embassy Compound sits on a 10-acre lot by the LiangMa River and northeast of the Forbidden City in Beijing's Third Diplomatic Enclave, in the Liang Ma He neighborhood, according to a statement from the agency.

The NEC has five buildings, with the eight-story chancery building as the centerpiece. The embassy is the second largest overseas construction project of the Department of State cost $434 million.

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