Tourism is a trillion-dollar – and still growing – global industry. United Nations World Tourism Organization records show that in 2015 alone, there was a 4.4 percent increase in international tourist arrivals, reaching 1.18 billion travelers. Because of this global boom in travel, tourism has emerged as the fifth most important industry in the Philippines. […]
From research culled from various websites and other sources, we find that Philippine tourism has, indeed, been on an uptrend over the past years. The Philippines climbed 20 notches to 74th place in the 2015 World Economic Forum Tourism Competitiveness report. This rise in ranking reflects the country’s growing ability to attract and look after […]
Hokkien, on the tongues of Tsinoys, has grown and evolved, taking on a life of its own. Sometimes words simply fail us. With some creativity, Tsinoys have strung together words to form colorful phrases that simply hit the bull’s eye. Here are some expressions unique to Hokkien as favored by Tsinoys. 查某仔 tsa bo ah […]
Mexico City’s Chinatown, Barrio Chino, has the distinction of being the world’s smallest Chinatown: it occupies only two blocks on Dolores Street that teems with thriving Chinese restaurants and shops. Close by is a small park with the traditional arch and stone lions. Jan. 26 to 28 saw in this tiny Chinatown a huge throng […]
讀萬卷書不如行萬里路 is a Chinese proverb that means traveling 10,000 miles is better than reading 10,000 scrolls. I’ve perhaps read thousands of pages about China, so I was extremely delighted when I finally got to do the journey of 10,000 miles last summer. I started at Beijing, China’s capital. At the heart of the city is […]
Eugenio Menegon’s book, Ancestors, Virgins and Friars: Christianity as a local religion in late Imperial China (Harvard University Asia Center, 2009), is a history of a 400-year-old community in Fu’an county (福安市) in Fujian province, China. What makes the book really interesting and significant are historical materials and information about the Chinese in the Philippines […]
Things always happen for a reason. In the wake of the devastation wrought by the 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit Surigao on Feb. 10, seismologists reminded the public that Metro Manila is in for the “Big One” soon. The West Valley Fault caused a major earthquake way back 1658 or 357 years ago. Since that particular […]
The question “What are the most typical examples of Chinese architecture” drove Pu Xiaoyi, who studied architecture in Canada and the United States, on a year-long project investigating in depth the myriad types of Chinese vernacular building styles throughout the country. She explored such structures as yaodong (窯洞), or cave houses in Shaanxi; the Hakka […]
On the 15th day of Chinese New Year, a tranquil city in southwest China’s Sichuan province lights up for the traditional lantern festival. Located about 200 kilometers southeast from the provincial capital city Chengdu, Zigong made its name for salt well drilling and paleontological discoveries. It takes about three hours to get to Zigong from […]
The Jingtai area of the Great Wall, built during the Ming Dynasty in 1599, is at risk of being swallowed up by farmland. Stretching over 90 kilometers, sections in Gansu were largely built using soil and earth, unlike eastern parts of the Great Wall in Beijing and Hebei, which were mostly constructed using stones and […]