Air China to Fly Direct to New York
China's flagship airline will launch the first direct route from Beijing to New York, passing over the Arctic Circle as a shortcut to reduce flight time, the government news agency said Thursday.
( 07/25/2002 11:10 AM PDT)

Perth offers stunning sunsets, relaxed atmosphere
What's it like to live in a far-off place most of us see only on a vacation? Foreign Correspondence is a weekly interview with someone who has lived in a spot you may want to visit. Richard Monti, 37, is a geologist working in his hometown of Perth, Australia.
( BY JOHN BORDSEN, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 07/15/2002 10:37 AM PDT)

Singapore resort offers a tamer Thai-style party
A bar in this squeaky clean city-state hopes to match the success of the dance-till-dawn "Full Moon" parties that attract thousands of revelers to Thailand's beaches each month, officials say.
( Associated Press, 07/15/2002 10:18 AM PDT)

Baksheesh: In Iraq, don't leave home without it
Before you book your next vacation to Baghdad, there are a few things you ought to know that the travel agent might forget to mention. Iraq is a lovely country to visit - a place that combines the charms of North Korea, the geography of the Sahara and the hospitality of Sudan - but for the typical American traveler, a bit of preparation will make your holiday more enjoyable.
( BY HOWARD WITT, Chicago Tribune, 07/15/2002 11:07 AM PDT)

Vietnam on the verge
At the Blue Ginger Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City's First District, tourists from Japan, Europe, Australia and the United States listen raptly as young women perform music as delicate as the French-Vietnamese cuisine being served.
( By PAUL HORSLEY, The Kansas City Star, 07/08/2002 10:14 AM PDT)

Bali brims with spirituality and natural beauty
The woman's movements were slight, nearly imperceptible. She waved her right hand over burning incense; she held a delicate bamboo tray filled with fragrant frangipani flowers in her left.
( By Rebeca Rodriguez, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 06/24/2002 08:42 AM PDT)

South Australia city of Adelaide is friendly, fairly undiscovered
Apparently we've got it all wrong. The Australians don't put shrimps on the barbie, they don't insist on "G'day" and they didn't all descend from convicts.
( BY LUAINE LEE, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 06/24/2002 11:12 AM PDT)

Wild monkeys enjoy a hot-springs heaven
The scene is rugged. Cliffs jut up from around a snow-fed stream, then taper off into rolling evergreen forests and, farther off, into the frosted peaks of the central Japan Alps.
( ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press, 06/17/2002 12:21 PM PDT)

River of change
These are the scenes of a 1960s issue of National Geographic come alive: A man in a conical straw hat tending his terraced fields. A boy in gray underwear wading into the muddy river, brandishing a fishnet on a long bamboo pole. The lilting pagodas of the 2,000-year-old White Emperor City perched on a jungled cliff, high above the water. A troop of golden rhesus monkeys swinging through the trees along the 2,450-foot-high gorge wall.
( BY JANE WOOLDRIDGE, jwooldridge@herald.com, 06/17/2002 12:36 PM PDT)