Chinatowns of the World

by Kelly Amabile on

Travelers create all sorts of interesting themed trips these days, but I don’t recall hearing about a tour that visits all the world’s Chinatowns just yet. Have I missed it? Well, if it hasn’t been done yet, someone will get around to planning such an adventure eventually, I’m sure. In the meantime, a new exhibit that opens in New York this week offers a nice overview that can help with itinerary planning — if you’re up to the challenge of visiting the more than 300 Chinatowns that exist around the world today!

In association with New York’s Chinatown Film Festival, the Storefront for Art and Architecture is hosting Chinatowns, a collection of over 1,000 images taken by almost as many photographers. This global tour spans over 100 cities on four continents: “It is a visual tribute to the diversities and idiosyncrasies, as much as the similarities, that unite these urban communities scattered all over the world.”

The exhibit opens on Tuesday, December 11 and will run through December 22, 2007.

Overseas (bargain) shopping trips

by Jerry Guo on

Here’s a story from this week’s New York Times on the rising trend of Europeans flying to New York to bargain shop. What stands out here is not that these are posh socialites getting their fix on 5th Ave. We’re talking about average Joes (more like Janes, I suppose) who fly to the states specifically to take advantage of the depreciating dollar and holiday deals.

Several airlines are apparently offering promotions to encourage this kind of things. For instance, on Silverjet, a roundtrip, business-class ticket was marked at $2,000. Not a bad deal, but sounds like you’ll have to do a heck of a lot of shopping to recoup your startup costs.

Cafe-in-a-box

by Jerry Guo on

For all you lucky New Yorkers, from now until December 29th, make your way to the Time Warner Center, and you can sip a nice cup of espresso next to this cafe-in-a-box. It can transform itself in 90 seconds flat, and in other forms, can function as kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, living room, or library. I do wonder who’d want to read a book in basically what is a crate.

What’s interesting about this cafe is there’s a) a Mac sitting on the counter, apparently just there to look cool b) a toilet, which kinda undermines the aforementioned cool factor.

Bonnie and Clyde: Ivy League style

by Jerry Guo on

From the lovely people at the New York Post comes a holiday story of fraud and greed. A 20-something couple, one of whom went to UPenn, spent the past year jetsetting around the world, on everyone else’s dime. The press has labeled them the “21st century version of Bonnie and Clyde” for going horseback riding in Hawaii and Caribbean, drinking champagne in private hot tubs at posh resorts, and flying back and forth to New York, Paris, London, and Montreal.

What’s really creepy is that they had duplicate keys to 30 of their neighbors’ apartments. Yikes. I did, however, find it somewhat funny like some true Ivy Leaguers, they needed prep books to do anything: “The Art of Cheating: A Nasty Little Book for Tricky Little Schemers and Their Hapless Victims,” was found in their apartment, which coincidentally was paid for with stolen money.

Anyways, just another reminder this holiday season to be careful with your personal data and identity. Cheers!

New York subway nightmare

by Jerry Guo on

Over Thanksgiving, one persistent New Yorker lost her $76 30-day Metrocard (payment system for the New York City subway and buses). What did she do? She called the MTA for three days straight, waiting for 100-150 minutes each day just to speak to someone.

That’s a bummer, though I like to find the humor in any situation–one commentator suggested she help the Indian economy and outsource her calling. Apparently there’s a company that would do this for $4 an hour. Ingenuity on both behalf of both parties.

Anyways, I’ve decided not to rant about how much the MTA is like every single American DMV office.