Mon 1 Feb 2010
A municipal standard was recently drafted to bring courtyard homestay families in the ancient city center in Beijing under regulation and provide standardized services to foreign guests who relish the idea of staying in traditional Chinese homes.
The Beijing Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision published a series of criteria to assess homestay family services and is soliciting for public opinion.
Only if a courtyard meets the standards (more…)
Mon 1 Feb 2010
IN Gore, a town of 12,500 on the South Island of New Zealand , street signs proclaim that the visitor has arrived in the world capital of brown trout. To reinforce the point, town officials have erected a huge sculpture of the fish in a grassy park halfway between the town’s bustling main business street and the Mataura River, a world-famous brown trout stream a quarter-mile away.
The wide street’s nondescript 1950s buildings contain dozens of stores, fruit and vegetable stands and (more…)