https://www.scmp.com/rss/268009/feed Tasmania-born journalist, travel writer and photographer, Tamara Thiessen, is also a global hotel correspondent. Like an arctic tern, she migrates regularly between Australia and France, but consider hotels her true pied-à-terre. She writes for business and leisure travel publications, in-flight magazines and newspaper travel supplements worldwide, and is the author of several books including travel guides to Vienna, Barcelona, Australia, Switzerland, Borneo and Rome. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Shuo Fang is sitting nervously in his student accommodation in Davis in the US state of California, waiting to see if he will be able to board his flight to Shanghai, China, on May 26. The 22-year-old university student has bought several tickets in recent months in the scramble to flee the coronavirus pandemic in the US for the relative safety of home. Every one of those flights, bar the upcoming one – so far – has been cancelled, he says. Like many other Chinese students in the US, Shuo has... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3085195/chinese-students-stuck-us-suspect-airlines-cash-grab?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3085195/chinese-students-stuck-us-suspect-airlines-cash-grab?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 May 2020 21:00:10 +0000 Jan Latta’s interest in wild animals was piqued when, as custom publisher of a magazine for Regent International Hotels, she read a photo essay about African animals by conservationist and wildlife photographer Karl Ammann. “That was it. I had to see Africa,” she says. “Karl organised a trip for me to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, and when I came face to face with one it changed my life, and my career. My guide said there were only 600 mountain gorillas left in the world. I wanted to do... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3045126/how-coming-face-face-gorilla-wild-changed-career-childrens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3045126/how-coming-face-face-gorilla-wild-changed-career-childrens?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jan 2020 04:15:09 +0000 Far from your usual aloe vera and turmeric potions, luxury resorts from the Amazon to Australia are harnessing traditional wisdom and indigenous ethnobotany ingredients for contemporary healing and well-being menus. Nature and wellness go hand in hand for Peruvian Amazon foragers The indigenous Ese Eja people of the Amazon basin, southeastern Peru, are considered by anthropologists as one of the rainforest’s most botanically knowledgeable tribes. The huge inventory of jungle plants they use for... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3041392/forget-aloe-vera-2020-ethnobotany-all-about-africas-miracle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/leisure/article/3041392/forget-aloe-vera-2020-ethnobotany-all-about-africas-miracle?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Dec 2019 04:00:14 +0000 The Chinese adventure seeker summoned up his courage before he jumped out of the plane, soaring high above the remote landscape. “I started to free-fall … the wind felt like ice skates being beaten on my face,” he recalls. “My ears were snap frozen. After about a minute, the parachute opens and the temperature rises, and finally you get to enjoy the heavenly scenery. You then start to glide through the air with the parachute, very smoothly.” Skydiving earlier this year was a source of wonder for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3038962/skydiving-paragliding-abseiling-chinese-adventure-tourists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3038962/skydiving-paragliding-abseiling-chinese-adventure-tourists?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Nov 2019 18:00:08 +0000 A sweeping stairway curves up towards the Hong Kong skyline, marked by bold geometric forms, abundant gardens and people congregating on the stairs. The path leads up to a plaza with spectacular views of Victoria Harbour. This is the arching rooftop walkway on West Kowloon Station, designed by architect firm Aedas’ Hong Kong-based global design principal, Andrew Bromberg, as a place for social connection and greenery in the city. That image takes pride of place on the website of the architect,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3031434/architect-hong-kongs-high-speed-rail-terminus-west-kowloon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3031434/architect-hong-kongs-high-speed-rail-terminus-west-kowloon?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Oct 2019 06:30:09 +0000 A tropical mecca for over a half a million holidaying Chinese every year, Sabah state in Malaysian Borneo is enjoying a tourism boom, and a string of recent diving and snorkelling tragedies has not dampened the enthusiasm. Despite the potential fallout of departure levies on foreign visitors, and claims by local operators that their livelihoods are being corroded by overseas interests, Chinese enthusiasm for Sabah shows little signs of waning. At the launch of a new China-built luxury yacht in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3031103/malaysian-borneo-natural-wonder-will-chinese-tourist-boom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3031103/malaysian-borneo-natural-wonder-will-chinese-tourist-boom?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Oct 2019 10:15:12 +0000 Chinese consumers are buying luxury French beauty products like never before. But it’s not all about irresistible French allure – the demand for non-stop innovation is a game-changer for the likes of L’Oreal, and LVMH-owned Sephora and Guerlain, who must constantly reinvent and create niche products for the Chinese. A perfect example is the China Red cosmetic range from the Sephora collection, first presented at Luxe Pack Shanghai in April. Nina Zhong, director of Sephora Collection Asia, says... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3030592/why-french-luxury-cosmetics-need-compelling-brand-story?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3030592/why-french-luxury-cosmetics-need-compelling-brand-story?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Sep 2019 09:00:07 +0000 Diminutive, with expressive, smiling eyes, Jane Qing Yang is standing outside a picket-fenced cottage, as brightly and imaginatively garbed as one of the paintings hanging in her home. Alongside her is her husband, Donald Yue Dong, who has not only been her strongest promoter since they settled in Launceston, the second biggest city in the Australian state of Tasmania, in 2015, but is also her translator. Despite her success as an artist in Tasmania, Qing has not picked up the language, even if... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3023122/three-chinese-artists-inspired-beauty-tasmania-why-they?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3023122/three-chinese-artists-inspired-beauty-tasmania-why-they?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Aug 2019 21:00:05 +0000 Why has a Chinese architect been chosen to put a spiralling viewpoint in the Netherlands’ first migration museum? Because the Fenix – a historic, harbourside warehouse that will house the museum – stands in what was one of Europe’s oldest Chinatowns. Beijing-based Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects, will add a “theatrical staircase” to Rotterdam’s Landverhuizersmuseum, eddying through the centre of the building to a rooftop observation deck. Today, the old storehouse sits among the dockland... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3019557/chinese-architects-tornado-inspired-staircase-take?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3019557/chinese-architects-tornado-inspired-staircase-take?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Jul 2019 05:00:12 +0000 A great paradox of urban life is that even – or perhaps especially – in areas of high-density living, people feel increasingly alone. A 2015 study in Hong Kong showed that several of the city’s suicide hotspots were in deprived areas with high population densities and a profusion of public housing, such as Sham Shui Po and Kowloon City. Many observers feel architecture has a key role to play in addressing the social fragmentation of such districts, where a lack of community causes despair and is... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3008985/can-architecture-help-mental-health-high-rise-housing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3008985/can-architecture-help-mental-health-high-rise-housing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 May 2019 23:45:04 +0000 News headlines have been sounding alarm bells over the past year about the relatively new phenomenon of “overtourism”. Cities such as Venice, Madrid and Dubrovnik – the Croatian town where some of HBO’s Game of Thrones was shot – are feeling the strain. From Antarctica to the redwood forests of California, even the world’s wilderness areas have been impacted. But it is small islands with fragile ecologies that bear the brunt, as tourist numbers swell beyond their capacity to support them. The... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3008433/boracay-maya-bay-how-fix-overtourism-travellers-tips-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3008433/boracay-maya-bay-how-fix-overtourism-travellers-tips-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 May 2019 21:00:08 +0000 Two of Australia’s leading daily newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age launched an advertising campaign recently to demonstrate their commitment to investigative journalism. Headlined “It’s Your Future, You Deserve to Know”, the campaign featured four broad areas of coverage, including one titled “China’s Growing Influence”. Articles in that category were described as revealing the “true scale of China’s ambition for power” and examining if Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3003327/whats-driving-china-conspiracy-theories-australian-media?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3003327/whats-driving-china-conspiracy-theories-australian-media?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Mar 2019 23:30:08 +0000 Standing amid the misty hills and highland rice terraces of Longsheng in southwest China in 1997, Keren Su had a vision. “I dreamt about building a house just like the traditional houses in surrounding villages, which are built the ancient Chinese way: entirely wooden and not a single nail. It took me nine years to fulfil that dream.” A peek inside the US$6 million floating home that can withstand a hurricane At the time, Su was photographing the so-called Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces, some... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/2188473/how-global-traveller-came-home-reconnect-china-his-youth-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/2188473/how-global-traveller-came-home-reconnect-china-his-youth-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Mar 2019 12:46:59 +0000 When she visited China for the first time in 2004, Australian-born photographer-turned-director Olivia Martin-McGuire fell in love with its “pioneering spirit and upbeat pace”. A decade later she found herself living in Shanghai with her husband and children. Over the course of four years in the city, Martin-McGuire became fascinated by love and romance in Chinese society – in particular the phenomenon of the lavish pre-wedding photos. Bridge of size: 4 photographers offer viewpoints on... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/2183928/china-love-documentary-explores-countrys-us80-billion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/2183928/china-love-documentary-explores-countrys-us80-billion?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Jan 2019 10:21:15 +0000 First they were hailed as Europe’s green saviours – cheap, imported Chinese electric bicycles that could help the continent tackle traffic, environment and health issues all at once. Now the European Commission considers them a threat to sales of pricier bikes made by European companies. Following a year-long inquiry, the European Commission (EC) wants to impose duties on Chinese-made electric bicycles it claimed were being sold at heavily-discounted prices by manufacturers it said benefited... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2182221/war-wheels-europes-love-hate-relationship-cheap-chinese-electric?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2182221/war-wheels-europes-love-hate-relationship-cheap-chinese-electric?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Jan 2019 13:00:30 +0000 Wherever you go in France these days there is a good chance you will come across a Chinese film or television crew. At least, that is what French media reports would have you believe. “Filming of a romantic Chinese [TV] series in the Pyrénées”, “Bordeaux: A Chinese TV series targeting 80 million viewers in filming”, and “Filming of a Chinese reality show in Colmar” are just a few recent headlines. Crazy Rich Asians too tame for China, bombs on debut Chinese viewers can’t see enough of the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/2177474/chinese-film-and-television-producers-flock-france-classical?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/2177474/chinese-film-and-television-producers-flock-france-classical?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Dec 2018 11:00:00 +0000 Cows are not known for their love of water, but one Dutch engineer is out to change that. Of the many challenges Peter van Wingerden faced in his plan for a floating dairy farm in the Port of Rotterdam, one was to ensure cows didn’t suffer from seasickness. “What we found was that cows can become seasick, but the risk is low,” says Van Wingerden, who has been working with his wife, Minke, since 2012 to develop the farm through their company, Beladon. “The floating farm is completely stabilised;... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2176344/netherlands-floating-farm-paves-way-self-sustainable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2176344/netherlands-floating-farm-paves-way-self-sustainable?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Dec 2018 12:15:57 +0000 When the Imperial Club opens its doors in Paris next month, there should be little doubt about who is welcome to gamble there. The gaming club will open in a shopping centre in the French capital’s 13th district, home to one of the city’s two Chinatowns. It will offer up to 20 games tables in the 9,700 sq ft venue, taking bets seven days a week, 2pm to 6am. And in an apparent nod to Asian clientele, the club’s promotional artwork features the Chinese character for “treasure”. But don’t call... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2172770/backlash-paris-chinatown-gaming-club-prepares-open?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2172770/backlash-paris-chinatown-gaming-club-prepares-open?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Nov 2018 23:00:45 +0000 Sixty-five Chinese travel agents from 18 cities were greeted in the classical Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne in Dijon, a city in eastern France, earlier this year at a stately town hall reception. After a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, the visitors dressed to impress for an evening meal at Sofitel’s Grand Hotel La Cloche. Their presence was part of a concerted effort by the city and the surrounding Burgundy-Franche-Comté region to woo more high-end Chinese travellers by appealing to their love... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2170127/burgundy-lures-wealthy-chinese-tourists-with-appetite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2170127/burgundy-lures-wealthy-chinese-tourists-with-appetite?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Oct 2018 05:00:15 +0000 A series of increasingly violent attacks and robberies on Paris’s Chinese population has the community living in fear, as they become an almost daily occurrence. Last week police arrested 11 suspected ringleaders of a gang responsible for attacks against Chinese residents of Paris’s northeastern suburbs. The youths, aged 16-19, have not been charged, but are said to have already been known to the police for alleged drug trafficking, violent thefts and extortion. Between August 19 and October 2,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2169455/living-fear-chinese-are-prime-targets-paris-gangs-and-violent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2169455/living-fear-chinese-are-prime-targets-paris-gangs-and-violent?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Oct 2018 03:00:00 +0000 The opening of a Chinese-owned infant milk powder plant in a small town in the Brittany region of western France in 2016 was heralded as an economic saviour for the region and a win for French dairy farmers. The €170 million (US$196 million) Carhaix factory would provide some 120,000 tonnes of high quality powdered milk a year to China, where demand for foreign infant milk products has soared after a years of food scares. France’s biggest dairy cooperative Sodiaal signed a 10-year contact with... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2168018/hopes-chinese-cash-cow-france-milk-country-sour?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2168018/hopes-chinese-cash-cow-france-milk-country-sour?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Oct 2018 03:30:45 +0000 When right-wing French politician Valérie Pecresse visited China in June, she was promoting the Greater Paris region on a campaign trail with stop-offs including Beijing, Hangzhou and the Great Wall. Pecresse, president of Île-de-France for the Republicans party, had deemed it unacceptable that Chinese accounted for only about 2 per cent of the 40 million tourists visiting the capital and its suburbs in 2017. As China’s art lovers head to France, French art increasingly travels east She vowed to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2165463/france-launches-operation-seduction-woo-more-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2165463/france-launches-operation-seduction-woo-more-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Sep 2018 10:15:15 +0000 Long before bread riots led up to the 1789 French Revolution, the famished citizens of urban France were deeply connected with rural life. The attachment to the countryside is embedded in the national identity and spelt out every time that rural environment is deemed to be under threat. Having witnessed its prized Bordeaux vineyards gradually bought by Chinese investors, France is now on its guard against a similar “invasion” of its farmland. Newspaper headlines in recent months have tried to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2163341/growing-revolt-against-chinese-conquering-french-farms?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2163341/growing-revolt-against-chinese-conquering-french-farms?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Sep 2018 03:30:45 +0000 Angela Chan is directing her husband into position alongside Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, to shoot the perfect photo. The colossal bronze sculpture of a pensive nude male is arguably the most famous work by the Paris-born artist, who was a pioneer of modern sculpture. “A little to the right; no, go back to the left,” Hong Kong-born Chan instructs her spouse. “With your hand like this.” Every day in the gardens of the Musée Rodin, on the French capital’s Left Bank, tourists come to sit beside The... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2162867/culture-tops-chinese-tourists-reasons-visiting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2162867/culture-tops-chinese-tourists-reasons-visiting?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Sep 2018 01:30:00 +0000 “Bleisure” travel – a hybrid of business and leisure tripping – is one of the major travel trends shaping 2018, as executives ditch rules about not mixing work with pleasure, and take their work with them on holiday. Recent studies show that even during paid leave, 74 per cent of Gen Y travellers want to work. Hotels are responding by creating curated workspaces, stand-out relaxation concepts, and hybrid office-lounges where cocktails and concentration go hand in hand. 1. A resident... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/article/2162241/6-best-bleisure-hotels-cater-workaholic-vacationer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/article/2162241/6-best-bleisure-hotels-cater-workaholic-vacationer?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Sep 2018 06:03:37 +0000 Wang Shu’s rejection of what he calls “professional, soulless architecture” has almost become a war cry. That kind of architecture, he believes, is ruining China. “We are the largest construction site in the world, but the majority of materials used are concrete and steel,” he says. “There is almost no place for handmade, traditional and natural materials. But we are committed to turning that around. We want to bring back manual construction into modernisation.” How architects are changing... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2161956/pritzker-prize-winning-chinese-architect-wang-shu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/interiors-living/article/2161956/pritzker-prize-winning-chinese-architect-wang-shu?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Aug 2018 05:15:22 +0000 When Parisian graphic designer and photographer Francois Prost visited China last November, he booked accommodation with a view of the Eiffel Tower. “It was quite a convincing sight,” he says. “Other than the fact that it is smaller than the actual Eiffel Tower – three times smaller – but still very impressive.” Prost found his home city constructed overseas on a grand scale in the neighborhood of Tianducheng: a suburb of the city of Hangzhou in China’s easten Zhejiang province. He knew before... https://www.scmp.com/china/french-photographer-francois-prosts-comparisons-chinas-tianducheng-and-paris/article/2160670?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/french-photographer-francois-prosts-comparisons-chinas-tianducheng-and-paris/article/2160670?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Aug 2018 10:00:45 +0000 When Parisian graphic designer and photographer Francois Prost headed to the Hangzhou neighbourhood of Tianducheng in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang last November, he booked accommodation with a view of the Eiffel Tower. “It was quite a convincing sight,” he says, “other than the fact that it is smaller than the actual Eiffel Tower – three times smaller – but still very impressive.” The weird and wonderful, surreal nature of the creation is what attracted Prost to China in the first... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2160186/how-chinas-fake-paris-impressed-french-photographer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2160186/how-chinas-fake-paris-impressed-french-photographer?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Aug 2018 06:03:25 +0000 Tamara Thiessen Tamara Thiessen There is a cultural revolution of sorts under way in the French capital and it has been started by young Chinese tourists. In the past, the coach loads of tour groups from China would have poured into department stores for the traditional luxury “Paris shopping experience”. These are giving way, however, to a new generation of independent, millennial Chinese travellers who are forgoing places like the Grands Boulevards, the Champs-Elysées and the Golden Triangle that takes in Avenue Montaigne... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2158937/chinese-millennial-tourists-paris-swap-luxury-shopping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2158937/chinese-millennial-tourists-paris-swap-luxury-shopping?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Aug 2018 05:00:00 +0000 Paris has been forced to back-pedal on its plan to become Europe’s most cyclist-friendly city by 2020 as its municipal bike-sharing network has ground to a halt due to technical issues. The Vélib system – a portmanteau of French words vélo (“bicycle”) and liberté (“freedom”) – was launched in 2007 and successfully managed by the city until the end of 2017. The grey bikes were once available for hire around the clock from 1,800 stations and became a familiar sight in the capital as young and old... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2158868/chinese-bike-sharing-giants-battle-paris-turf-following-velib?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2158868/chinese-bike-sharing-giants-battle-paris-turf-following-velib?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Aug 2018 07:30:30 +0000 The best way of experiencing the rainforests of Borneo, an island in Southeast Asia two-and-a-half times the size of the British Isles, and of getting close to nature there is to jump on a boat. Don’t expect fancy cruises; instead revel in the astounding flora and fauna and fascinating ethnic cultures. Here are five tried-and-tested river journeys – all different – that take you deep into the island’s wild heart. 1. Batang Ai, Sarawak The island of Borneo is divided between three countries:... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2158165/five-best-borneo-river-trips-see-its-nature-and-wildlife?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2158165/five-best-borneo-river-trips-see-its-nature-and-wildlife?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Aug 2018 07:32:02 +0000 Crowds of Chinese in the auditorium of the Louvre have been dismayed and frustrated after learning that the world’s largest and most popular museum has no audio guides in Mandarin – one of the world’s most spoken languages – to provide a running commentary during their visit. “I don’t know how people are meant to fully understand the exhibitions without this, especially if they are independent travellers like us,” said one visitor last week. “I find it really amazing that they don’t have Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2154469/lost-translation-black-market-chinese-guides-and-tickets-has-cost?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2154469/lost-translation-black-market-chinese-guides-and-tickets-has-cost?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jul 2018 09:45:45 +0000 It seems ironic that Islam's holy month is one of the best times to wrap your taste buds around Malaysia's delicious kaleidoscope of Chinese, Indian and Malay flavours. The myriad spicy and sweet food offerings, brilliant at the best of times, peak during the Ramadan festivities, as Muslims switch from fasting mode to a public feast. For non-Muslims, post-fasting Ramadan bazaars are the place to celebrate with Malay friends. From late afternoon, main city thoroughfares close to traffic and morph... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48-hours/article/1814818/where-feast-locals-malaysias-ramadan-bazaars?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48-hours/article/1814818/where-feast-locals-malaysias-ramadan-bazaars?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jun 2015 15:37:23 +0000