Destination Focus: China

With the world's attention on China for the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, the award-winning Global Travel Writers team brings you a diverse range of stories from this, the world's most populous nation:

• Karen Halabi visits Shanghai and discovers the modern face of 21st century China, where things are changing at a rapid pace.
  
• John Borthwick disappears down the Silk Road
  
• Roderick Eime tramps the streets of Beijing in search of Mao memorabilia and unearths the secrets behind the buried warriors of Xian
  
• Sally Hammond takes a hands-on look Beijing, discussing the lead-up to the games, where to stay in the city and other things to see and do before and after the Games;
  
• Graham Simmons breathes the rarefied air of EastTibet
  
• Sheriden Rhodes ventures to where the Chinese themselves spend their holidays, on Hainan Island;
  
• Philip Game vaults across "Tiger Leaping Gorge";
  
• Thomas E King tees off in Kunming
  

And if what you need is not covered above, Contact us!

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Seachange in Byron

Karen Halabi reports from idyllic Byron Bay on the Australian East Coast. She's been checking out the surf, the best eating spots, the best spots to stay and the burgeoning coffee plantations which are making Byron one of Australia's premier coffee growing regions.

Former Sydneysiders Tristan Grier and Kassia Picone are the enthusiastic new owners of the famed Harvest Café at Newrybar in the hills outside Byron Bay on the Australian East Coast. The dynamic duo have just taken over at this must-stop eatery on the northern NSW coast.

They are just two of the people for whom life in Byron has become a “seachange”, joining the throngs of Southerners from colder climes in Australia who are moving north from cities such as Sydney and Melbourne to find their own little place in paradise.

GTW-er Karen Halabi met them when she was compiling a story for the website on The Best of Byron.

Byron Bay may once have been Australia’s alternative capital but these days its gone very much mainstream, probably a sign of our new found environmental and global warming consciousness.

Byron has also attracted such people as Gregg Cave, co-owner (along with singer Olivia Newton-John) of Gaia retreat and Spa in the Byron hinterland just a short drive from Harvest. Everyone’s here for the same reason – lifestyle; they’re escaping the urban rat race for a simpler more idyllic life in the If you’re interested in a story on Byron, Australia’s answer to …., contact Karen (karen@globaltravelwriters.com) or check out the website at www.globaltravelwriters.com

Podcast: Seduced by the Islands of Love

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Postcard from South Georgia

From Rod's journey to Antarctica.
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Where are they/where are they going?

The peregrinations of the Global Travel Writers: July 2007

• Tricia Welsh is just back from Libya, and found this formerly renegade nation a total surprise. She will shortly be reporting on Libya, and also on a new, luxury Nile cruise in Egypt
  


• Roderick Eime tramps the streets of Beijing in search of Maoist memorabilia


• Philip Game takes in some fresh-air fun in Brisbane and goes road-tripping in Western
  Scotland


• Karen Halabi goes kayaking on the mighty Katherine River, and meets colourful local characters in Australia's Northern Territory


• Glenn A Baker finds Calming luxury in Lisbon


• Graham Simmons goes on an unlikely search: Finding Green in Taiwan, and will shortly be reporting on preparations for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung


• Sheriden Rhodes finds an unknown gem, Woodwark Bay, in the Whitsunday Passage of Queensland, Australia


• Thomas E King tees off in India, Hitting Hyderabad Greens, and explores the hidden Gems of Gibraltar, and


• Sally Hammond takes an in-depth look at the Paris Metro

We'll have more lavish and glorious details on their travels for you shortly.

Pardon My French

Shortly before leaving Australia, committed Francophile and Global Travel Writer, Sally Hammond, tempted fate when telling friends about her planned trip to France.

“I’ve never had a bad meal there,” she asserted with apparent confidence. Fortunately they couldn’t see her fingers crossed behind her back.

So is this going to be the trip to prove her wrong?

With her husband Gordon, the tireless ‘Mad Photographer’ at the wheel, Sally zips off on another adventure – firstly south to Burgundy and Provence then heading west across the country, swiftly dipping into Spain and even more swiftly out again, and then dawdling up the west coast via Gascony, the Dordogne and the Loire.

Among many other things Sally and Gordon trace mineral waters to their sources, learn of donkeys in PJs, tour champagne cellars, a famous cognac house and an underground chateau, and sleep in an 800 year old castle.

Then one lunchtime Sally samples a mystery ingredient which turns out to be a little more than she’d planned on.

So here’s the invitation: “Please come along for the ride,” she says. “Think of it as a ‘tour de France’ – without the bikes.”

Paperback | 2007| New Holland | Cookery, French – France – Description and Travel |ISBN 9781741103960 | $24.95