https://www.scmp.com/rss/313147/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com This summer, while the world was engrossed in the battle for the top of the medals table at the spectator-less Tokyo Olympics, Japan quietly received a different kind of award. On July 27, Unesco announced that the Jomon archaeological sites in northern Japan had been added to its august list of World Heritage Sites. They became Japan’s 20th Unesco “property” (as sites or groups of sites are known) but the first prehistoric one. The Jomon property comprises 17 Neolithic sites scattered across... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3145973/japans-newest-unesco-world-heritage-site-jomon-prehistoric?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3145973/japans-newest-unesco-world-heritage-site-jomon-prehistoric?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Aug 2021 04:19:34 +0000 The road from Barcelona to the northeastern Spanish city of Zaragoza takes the visitor through a desert of sun-bleached limestone hills. Ernest Hemingway was so struck by them, that he was inspired to write a short story, published in 1927, titled Hills Like White Elephants. Before these hills end, before we even reach the city, the spires of its most cherished symbol, the 17th-century Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, loom into view like a welcome-home sign. Zaragoza is known for... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2172034/zaragoza-why-chinese-flock-spanish-city-goya-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2172034/zaragoza-why-chinese-flock-spanish-city-goya-history?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Nov 2018 11:00:30 +0000 What is it? Monasterio de Piedra is a 12th-century Cistercian monastery that has been converted into a hotel, spa and park, on the banks of the Piedra River, in Zaragoza province, northeast Spain. The story begins when King Alfonso II gave Piedra Castle to the abbot of Poblet in 1186, so he could found a monastery. The consecration of the abbey’s church took place on December 16, 1218, making this year its 800th anniversary. In 1843, Pablo Muntadas Campeny, taking advantage of a government... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2143719/heavenly-holiday-stay-spanish-monastery-known?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2143719/heavenly-holiday-stay-spanish-monastery-known?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Apr 2018 03:00:30 +0000 What is it? Casa Vicens was the first house designed by Antoni Gaudí, better known for his unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia. The Catalan architect built it for stockbroker Manuel Vicens between 1883 and 1885, in Barcelona’s Gràcia district, which was then a village. As his first big job after graduating from the Regional School of Architecture, 33-year-old Gaudí consider­ed Casa Vicens his “manifesto house”, a daring declaration of artistic principles. How Gaudi’s eccentric Barcelona... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2140202/inside-gaudis-first-house-130-year-old-casa-vicens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2140202/inside-gaudis-first-house-130-year-old-casa-vicens?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Apr 2018 10:30:00 +0000 Are you ever stuck for Mother's Day gift ideas? Why not build her a temple? That's what Japanese businessman Kozo Kanemoto did. When his mother died in 1934, Kanemoto, who had a successful steel-pipe business in Osaka, gave up his job, grew his hair and became a Buddhist priest, renaming himself Koso Kosanji. Two years later, he founded a temple in his mother's honour and devoted the next 30 years to its construction. The fruits of his labour are tucked away on the tiny island of Ikuchijima, in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1970329/kosanji-temple-combines-greatest-hits-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/1970329/kosanji-temple-combines-greatest-hits-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:00:30 +0000 Through the dense steam rising from the onsen, Jupiter is clearly visible over the twinkling black waters of the Seto Inland Sea. It's not hard to see why this hotel is called Bella Vista; it lies tucked into the hills outside the historic town of Onomichi, commanding sublime views of the sea's misty islands. What's more, the onsen is open to the elements, allowing fresh sea breezes to caress the skin of bathers as they boil themselves blissfully to a jelly. The islands are part of the Seto... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1544814/walking-water?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1544814/walking-water?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jul 2014 15:30:00 +0000 "It's Tokyo minus the stress," is how the southwestern Japanese city of Hiroshima has been described. So, what's its secret? Well, its six rivers certainly help but Hiroshima's real stress-busting powers lie in its unique open spaces. Explorer and art historian Langdon Warner (the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones character) imbued Japanese gardens with spiritual symbolism. They were designed, wrote Warner, to "express the highest truths of religion and philosophy precisely as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1457644/hiroshima-open-secret?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1457644/hiroshima-open-secret?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Mar 2014 14:12:08 +0000