Travel / Lifestyle

Forbidden city woos numerous tourists

From Elmo Leonard in Beijing

China, is caught up in the heat of the summer. But, suddenly it rained, and the temperature dropped to less than 30 degrees Celsius. Yet, through the clouds, the burning hot summer sun saps up energy, and tour operators admitted that the best time to climb the Great Wall is in winter.

Flights out of Beijing airport were delayed by half an hour, only due to the high traffic of planes taking tourists to other destinations in that part of the world.

To accommodate the high flow of tourist traffic into Beijing and China, and to cater to the anticipated influx of visitors for the 2008 Olympic Games, to be staged in Beijing, the Beijing airport is expanding at a steady pace.

Tianamen Square, the largest public square in the world reflected another of the many human parades, woven into the Chinese way of life. The millions of Chinese at the Tianamen Square, at any one time of the day is evidence of the strength of the Chinese population at present, 1.3 billion.

The Forbidden City, lying alongside Tianamen Square, adds to its immensity.

The Forbidden City was the palace of Chinese monarchs in the past and was forbidden to ordinary people. The Palace Museum, formerly the Forbidden City, was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Over a span of 560 years, 24 emperors lived here. It houses a great variety of rare cultural relics and works of art, covering 720,000 square metres. The Forbidden City is the largest and most complete complex of ancient palatial structures extant.

It constitutes a component in the world treasure-house of culture and art. Globally noted for its magnificence, the Forbidden City is attracting numerous tourists both from home and abroad. Here, young people identified themselves as tourist guides. The attraction to the Forbidden City is such, the queues to enter, on a hot working day morning, last week, ran a kilometre in length.

China, not happy with being the factory to the world, is trying harder, and harder, to gain further market share for as many products, as it could. The many Chinese department stores, stacked with the latest export designs in apparel, shoes, ornaments and even food, is commonplace. But, unlike their exports, the prices they quote at these commercial complexes is sky-high. Thus, bargaining is the mean of the visitor and the price may come down by more than 60 percent.

Of interest to visitors, anywhere, is natural beauty, ancient palaces and ruins, accommodation and entertainment. And, the people. The Chinese human parade offers, much, for the visitor to ponder.

There are millions of bicycles on the roads, day or night. Many bicycles are improvised to carry all types of commodities and even move furniture when moving house. A few bicycles are being fitted with light motors. More motor or auto cycles, which can run on petrol, or human power, as the need arises, are adding to the Chinese transport mode. The parade in cars is also increasing, with more cars replacing bicycles, every day.

With the Chinese economy taking off, more and more visitors come here on business programs and the skyline is dotted with tourist hotels catering to the businessman and the pleasure seeker. One such is Swissotel, Beijing, a Raffles International Hotel, in the heart of the city, in the centre of the diplomatic and business districts.

Here, there are many new added features as the Hong Kong medical clinic, Bank of China with ATM, airline ticketing office, China post office, tour and travel desk along with a selection of fine shops.

SriLankan staff benefit from strategic partnership with Emirates

The strategic partnership between SriLankan Airlines and Emirates has enhanced the career development of a large number of staff of the national carrier by providing them opportunities of spending several years in Dubai through the SriLankan-Emirates Secondment program.

Staff from a variety of departments have been selected for three-year stints with the Emirates Group to further their skills and knowledge. They include staff from Airport Service Delivery, Airport Service Support (Ramp), Cargo Operations, Airport Service Support (Utility) and Engineering and Maintenance.

"Being picked for this program is reward for our most dedicated staff, since only the best performers are chosen," said Head of Human Resources at SriLankan Sunil Dissanayake. Emirates has been the managing partner of SriLankan since the national carrier was partially privatised in 1998.