Six Chinese cities you need to know

Most visitors to China are inevitably drawn to the headline-stealing trinity of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, all enormous, vibrant cities that are, justifiably, at the top of the list of must-sees. However, China has more than 100 cities of over 1 million residents, many of which remain little known to foreign travellers but boast attractions worth more attention.

Suzhou
In the southern half of China's fertile Jiangsu province, Suzhou has earned the nickname the Venice of the East thanks to its network of historic, picturesque canals. Suzhou has long been affluent and it supported a famous arts and cultural scene during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties; it maintains a reputation as a centre for intellectuals to this day. While the city is now home to more than 6 million, the majority of whom live in the modern new parts of town, Suzhou's old town features tiny canal-side alleyways, elegantly arched stone bridges and traditional whitewashed buildings overlooking beautiful gardens.

While many come to Suzhou for its refined heritage, the big draw is the city's historic gardens, nine of which are Unesco world heritage sites. Built over thousands of years by scholars and retired government officials, the gardens are exquisite examples of the classical Chinese style. The largest and most famous is the Humble Administrator's Garden, which, while stunning, can get extremely busy. Visiting smaller gardens such as the Garden of Cultivation gives a better sense of the peaceful havens the gardens were originally designed to be. The city is also renowned for its silk production and has an excellent museum dedicated to the commodity.

Where to stay
In the midst of Pingjiang Road, Suzhou's most famous historic canal street, Dongfang Hostel (doubles from £45 room-only) offers seven modern rooms with traditional Chinese design touches and is within walking distance of many of Suzhou's best attractions.

Getting there
Suzhou does not have its own airport. High-speed trains run regularly from Shanghai, taking as little as half an hour, and from Beijing, in around five hours.

It’s a jungle out there: Costa Rica with kids

It's dark in the rainforest, the air thick with strange croaks and chirps, and our group moves slowly, following José's torchlight. As he gestures for us to stop, we gather around in silence, the adults as keen as the children to see what he's spotted. There on a leaf, with its bulging orange eyes, neat green body and comically big tangerine feet, sits a Costa Rican tree frog. Cue delighted squeals all round.

"It's so cute!" whispers my niece, Georgia, and I nod, partly relieved it's not a boa constrictor or tarantula.

We're halfway through a night safari at Maquenque Ecolodge in the far north of the country and the jungle feels tangibly alive. Caiman eyes shine at the edge of the lagoon and frogs and toads of all colours and sizes add to the howler monkeys, turtles and toucans we'd seen earlier in the day.

For somewhere the size of Denmark, Costa Rica packs a powerful punch when it comes to wildlife. A quarter of its land is protected and, with half a million species, it's one of the world's most biodiverse countries.

A wild natural playground with decent tourist infrastructure, it seemed the perfect choice for an adventure to remember with a 12-year-old. It is our first trip together, my first time alone in charge of a child (I don't have kids) and the longest Georgia has been away from her parents. My plan is to show her a world away from life at home – and get her back in one piece.

Bite the bullet train and head to Japan

Getting to eat the good stuff in Tokyo can be a challenge. The problem isn't finding the right places. The concierge team at the city's hotels work harder than most making restaurant reservations, and ours at the Mandarin Oriental is no exception. They have sent us to a bustling, wood-lined izakaya, or food pub, down a side street in the city's Akasaka district. Here, smoke pirouettes from the grills in the open kitchens, the beer, like the air conditioning, is beautifully chilled and the tables are crowded with locals.

The problem is that the place is so very local, so very Tokyo, that quite reasonably no one here speaks English, and we speak no Japanese apart from the good manners of "hello" and "thank you". Or so we think. Suddenly our 18-year-old son, Eddie, is sorting the order. He can do numbers and a few other phrases, enough to get an omakase request – roughly, the chef's choice – under way. We are served blocks of silken tofu under umami-rich tangles of dried fish, plump, gossamer-skinned gyoza and tempura-ed fritters of sweetcorn. Thanks in part to Eddie, we do eat the good stuff.

We shouldn't have been surprised. After all, the trip was based on our two teenage boys' engagement with Japanese culture from London. Eddie and his 14-year-old brother, Dan, have long been armpit deep in the stuff. They have watched endless anime, read manga and played the games. They know a good bowl of ramen from the merely mediocre. It should be no surprise that Eddie has picked up some of the language. I suggest to my other half that instead of our usual holiday lazing by a European pool, we should be intrepid and together explore the real Japan before our sons are too old to want anything to do with us. Pat looks at the weather forecast. "You know it's stinking hot in Japan in August," she says.

I nod and say: "But ramen… I have my priorities."

Exploring Japan is not straightforward. In the major cities, many signs and announcements are in English, but an awful lot isn't. The culture is deceptively complex, and a bit of help can save a lot of time and anxiety. We have a tour company called Inside Japan on our side. They have sorted the itinerary, supplying us with pre-loaded cards for the Tokyo metro, along with Japan Rail passes which enable us to take the famed bullet trains from Tokyo to Kyoto, and finally into the forest around Mount Fuji.

They secure us tickets for a sumo match and one morning we rattle out across the seemingly endless low-rise Tokyo suburbs to a local gymnasium, where we are among the very few non-Japanese in a crowd of thousands. Huge, melon-bellied men wrestle each other for mere seconds amid the slap of chest on chest, in between lengthy bouts of ritual and chanting. It's utterly compelling.

Pride of West Virginia seeks donations for travel

 the date of the home opener at Milan Puskar Stadium — hundreds of fans will enter the venue early to see and hear the Mountaineer Marching Band.

But before that kickoff, the Pride members are hoping to travel to North Carolina on Sept. 1 for WVU’s season opener against Tennessee in Charlotte.

The band also hopes to make a trip to Raleigh, N.C., Sept. 15, to help cheer on WVU in its game against North Carolina State.

Alumni and friends of WVU and the Mountaineer Marching Band are being asked to help the band travel to support the football team at those two North Carolina games.

According to a press release from WVU, donations are being accepted to the Pride Travel Fund, established by the WVU Foundation, to help reduce traveling costs for the Pride of West Virginia, as the band has long been known.

Both trips south are expected to include stops in southern West Virginia. Details on those performances are still being put together. The band also will travel to Kingwood for the


"The Pride Travel Fund is an invaluable resource for the WVU Mountaineer Marching Band. The costs involved in transporting, housing and feeding a 350-member organization such as The Pride can be extremely high," Scott Tobias, director of bands, said in the release. "The generosity of our donors makes it possible for The Pride to continue to represent WVU and the entire state of West Virginia throughout the region and nation."

Since its inception in 2007, the Pride Travel Fund helped the band travel to many locations, including football games at Auburn, LSU and Oklahoma, as well as performances such as the 2016 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

"As members of the band, we are extremely grateful for the Pride Travel Fund," she said in the release. "It has allowed us to travel to many states during my time in the band, including Arizona, Florida, New York and Texas. Support from our donors helps us gain memorable experiences all while being able to support our team."

Travel literature

Jonathan Raban was largely responsible for changing the nature of travel writing. Back in the 1970s when he began, the genre still viewed the world from under the tilt of a Panama hat. ('I looked at the tops of the columns. Were they Doric or Ionic?') It was considered as ill-bred for a writer to reveal anything about themselves as to have illustrations —'the best travel books never do'.

Raban tore a lot of this up, and with glee. He had worked closely with confessional poets from America like Robert Lowell and John Berryman, producing what is still one of the best essays on Lowell's late poems about his messy divorce. He had even been Lowell's lodger for a while. Now he took the same transatlantic approach to travel writing, and elicited the same chorus of disapproval the poets had experienced for being so personal. Yet it was patently as absurd for a writer not to tell the reader if he was going through some emotional turmoil as it would be for a traveller not to tell a companion on that same journey. Even if they were English.

He also took as his subject matter not the Mediterranean or the Middle East, the traditional stomping ground for the men in linen suits, but the brash new world. He returned to America again and again with something of the questioning obsession that Naipaul brought to his books on India.

The best of all his American books is perhaps Hunting Mister Heartbreak, which takes its title from a poem by John Berryman. At the start of the book he announces that there is a sentence which always stirs the imagination of Europe and which promises to deliver the unexpected:'Having arrived in Liverpool, I took ship for the New World.' Raban unpicks the appeal of these lines. It is not just that they are'so jaunty, so unreasonably larger than life'. It is that what turned the Atlantic passage into the great European adventure was not so much the nature of the country that awaited the immigrants as the character of the ocean,'a space too big for you to be able to imagine yourself across'.

How to get discounted airline tickets outside of travel fairs

Some people are willing to go to great lengths to find affordable tickets and cashback promotions during travel fairs, such as by spending the night outside the fair's venue.

However, not all are satisfied with the deals on offer, such as Yessu, who told kompas.com.

"It’s complicated and there are too many requirements [to buy the discounted tickets]," said Yessu. "I also don’t want to line up so early in the morning."

Those who feel the same may want to read the tips below to get their hands on affordable airline tickets outside of travel fairs:

Join online travel fairs

Some airlines now opt to hold both offline and online travel fair, including Garuda Indonesia.

Do note that the website will be accessed by many visitors, hence you'll need to be smart and pick the hours that are less popular among ticket hunters.

Utilize credit card promotions

Some banks usually offer promotions to their credit card holders, but always read the terms and conditions carefully because some promotions are only available for certain types of cards.

Follow travel agent social media channels

Travel agents often offer promotions, usually during the National Online Shopping Day (Harbolnas) or the anniversary of their company.

Read also: Tips for couples to survive their first holiday together

Utilize air miles
One of the reasons why it is beneficial to be a loyal customer of an airline is getting your hands on its promotions first as well as adding more points to your account.

Always take your membership card with you as the points can usually be exchanged for airline tickets.

Take note of airline anniversary dates

Based on experience, over 50 percent of airlines celebrate their anniversary by offering ticket promotions to customers.

Choose the right time to book and fly

Airlines'seat control times are 11 a.m. and 11 p.m., meaning that these are the hours to cancel any reservations that miss the payment deadline, which can be used to buy more affordable tickets.

Also note that the lowes

3 Surprisingly Affordable Places to Travel This Spring

Planning a great, impromptu getaway this spring may not be as expensive as you think. With Airbnb's competitive, affordable rates and new flight deals popping up almost every day, it’s entirely feasible to string together a last-minute overseas expedition without sacrificing your entire paycheck.
                                               

   
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires is utterly beautiful this time of year. You’ll want to spend as much time as possible wandering through the tree-lined neighborhoods and exploring the city’s famous Botanical Garden: a maze of green alleys broken up by fountains and haunting mythical statues.

To get there, it’s a cinch. Flights this spring from New York City start at approximately $800 roundtrip — a steal considering just how far south you’re actually flying. (Meanwhile, the same ticket from other cities like Chicago and Los Angeles hovers under $1,050.)

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Despite the Dominican Republic’s reputation for ultra-luxurious, all-inclusive resorts, travelers can opt to stay instead at an equally stunning guesthouse or Airbnb. In fact, many of them are located right next to the beach. So for $40 a night, you’ll have a direct path to the ocean, and all the privacy you’d expect at a regular hotel.

Getting to — and around — Punta Cana can be just as affordable. Quicken found flights this spring starting at a cool $350 round-trip from New York City, with slight increases of $100 or $150 if you’re traveling from Los Angeles or San Francisco. You don't need to bother renting a car when you’re there, either. A single taxi motorcycle costs just $2 per ride.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica
The classic Jamaican port town of Ocho Rios was once a small fishing village, but has since blossomed into the country’s most sought-after beach destination (it was even featured on several episodes of "The Bachelor").

But don’t confuse its popularity with priciness. One of the top bucket list items in town — a self-guided visit to dazzling Dunns River Falls — is only $20. And James Bond Beach, on a tiny peninsula surrounded by crystal clear water, is absolutely free to enter.

Travel, pancakes and fashion

The end of February finds us thinking about how far we want to go for a deal. There are bargains for traveling the world, discounts in your neighborhood and sales at your fingertips. Here’s a few good finds to get you started.
                                         

BIG ASSORTMENT
Ban.do has marked down 12,000 items up to 75 percent. Shop for jewelry, like a trendy pair of large hoop tassel earrings, apparel, activewear, drinkware, tech, bags and more. The sale is Sunday, Feb. 25, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. at the ban.do store, 1110 N. Beachwood Drive, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles or online at www.bando.com.

SPRING CLEANING
LF Stores is holding its annual Winter Blow Out Sale to make room for warm weather wear. Women’s fall and winter merchandise, such as tops, bottoms, sweaters, dresses, coats, boots, shoes and more, are reduced 60 percent. Shop in store at locations in Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Laguna Beach, Larchmont, Marina Del Rey and Venice or go to www.lfstores.com.

WINTER WOWS
If the Olympics inspired you to hit the snow, Ski and Snowboard Outlet may be a good place to start shopping. Its stores boast a wide selection of outdoor snow apparel for men, women and children, plus new and used skis, snowboards and accessories. You can find brands like North Face, Ripcurl, Tactic, Roxy, Head and Nordica at savings from 30-80 percent. Ski and Snowboard Outlet is in San Gabriel and Santa Ana or visit online at www.skiandsnowlc.com.

SERVING SMILES
Visit your local IHOP 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27, for one free short stack of original buttermilk pancakes and you’ll feel good twice. For every plate served, IHOP will make a donation to local children’s hospitals and health organizations with a goal of $5 million. You are invited to make a donation as well. Please note that the offer is dine-in only and no purchase is required. Hours may vary at some locations. Go to www.ihop.com.

Why You Should Travel Solo at Least Once

Booking a plane ticket for one might not seem like an obvious way to prepare for your next vacation — especially if you usually travel with a partner, family members or friends. But here’s what many solo traveling enthusiasts will tell you: It’s a first step toward an incredible, life-changing journey.
                                           

Traveling solo gives you the freedom to explore new places at your own pace and chase crazy-ambitious travel goals. Plus, you’ll get to know yourself — and unfamiliar parts of the world — on a whole new level. Here’s why you should try it at least once, from four prolific solo travelers.

You’ll be free to explore on short notice

When you’re in a group, planning a day out requires intense coordination and, often, a little persuasion. When you’re on your own, it’s a different story.

“When I travel by myself, I tend to have some key, big items I definitely want to do, and I keep everything else flexible, so if something comes up, I always have time to do it,” says Pauline Lim, a data analyst at Airbnb, based in San Francisco. So far, she’s visited 40 countries; after her next solo trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, she’ll have visited 46.

You’ll have more chances to meet new people

Like Baron, Brittany Kulick quickly discovered that traveling solo gave her plenty of opportunities to get to know the folks around her.

“There’s something to be said for just really going after what you want, and doing something that’s exactly tailored to what you’re wanting to do at that moment,” says Kulick, founder of the travel and food blog The Sweet Wanderlust. “The greatest thing about solo travel is the people you meet, who are looking exactly for that same thing at that same time.”

Kulick has visited 54 countries and makes a living by doing freelance marketing, social media management and copywriting, as well as picking up temporary work. In 2015, she left Dallas to travel solo full-time.