Celebrating Mid Autumn Festival in Hong Kong

Mid Autumn festival is one of the most important festivals on the Chinese calendar. It occurs on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. In western terms, this date usually lies at the end of September or early October and is the day the moon is closest to the earth.

Mid Autumn festival is a legendary fairytale, modern day moon appreciation, eating mooncakes and an opportunity for children to play with candle lit lanterns.

A legendary tragic love story of one's lover who is eternally trapped on the moon has turned moon worship into eastern version of thanks giving.

Traditional mid autumn festival candle lit lanterns are in a shape of rabbit or starfruit. These days, you will find lanterns in all shapes and sizes. Lanterns shaped as airplanes, helicopters, cartoon characters are popular. For the young ones, battery operated lanterns with tacky music are also available.

A mid autumn kid's gift basket might include lantern, binoculars for moon viewing accompanied by an astrology set. On the eve of mid autumn festival, you will find a sea of children with candle lit lanterns at Victoria Park.

Mooncake filled with lotus seed paste and a hard egg yolk in the middle is a must try during the festival. There is an abundance of mooncakes available on the market including icy mooncake, ice cream mooncake, chocolate mooncake, as well as low fat and sugar free options. Popular mooncake brands in Hong Kong include Shangri-la, Kee Wah and Peninsula Hotel. In particular Peninsula Hotel's Spring Moon limited edition mooncakes are popular with scalpers who resell them at two to three times its retail value.

In Hong Kong, it has become one of the most important corporate gifting seasons and has become bigger than Christmas and Chinese New Year. It is an opportunity for businesses to say thank you for their client's business in the past year. A classic mid autumn corporate gift would include a fruit basket accompanied by a box of mooncakes. The classic fruit basket should include a variety of colourful tropical fruit including pomelo, dragon's fruit, kiwi, mangos, pears, grapes, grapefruit, naval oranges and Fuji apples.

Mid Autumn festival is a great time to visit Hong Kong to experience local traditions and folklore. If you are having business dealings in Asia, you should consider sending a traditional mid autumn basket to show your appreciation. Remember gifting is an important part of business culture in Asia.

Article Source: Jason_Curie

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A New Zealand Campervan Holiday - An Experience To Remember For A Long Time

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Planning to go for a New Zealand campervan holiday? If you are, then you are really going to enjoy your vacation - as long as you follow some simple rules and guidelines. This is because New Zealand is really a very scenic and nice country.

On top of that, unlike the traditional vacations, your campervan holiday gets you in closer contact with both the scenery and the locals. As such your New Zealand campervan holiday will be a holiday that you will remember for a long long time.

If you go on a New Zealand campervan holiday, you will find that it allows you to spend time where you want, traverse different roads at your fancy - just because you just want to explore and see where they lead to. It also allows you to spend longer time in places you are really enjoy.

Unlike traditional guided tours, there are no hard and fast rules. You either adopt the wake up and decide where to go option with no fixed itinerary to follow or plan a fixed caravan park stay itinerary. In this case you pre book the caravan parks for the nights and go and do whatever you like during the day and only come back in the evening or at night to stay and use the facilities of the caravan park. The other more unrestricted option is to pull up at one of the hundreds of beautiful national parks and stay there for free.

With a rented New Zealand camper you'll be really spoilt for choice when it comes to adventure activities. As the adventure capital of the world, you can do things like horse riding, safaris, 4WD tours, quad bikes, tramping, para-gliding, mountain climbing, bungy jumping, hot-air balloons, whale watching, kayaking and the list goes on...

If you are not looking for adventure but something slower, New Zealand also has plenty to cater for you as well. New Zealand's golf courses are spectacular and numerous. On top of that, its green fees are some of the most reasonable in the world. Open beaches and secluded bays offer safe swimming or sunbathing. If you enjoy walks or cycling, there are plenty of walkways and cycling tracks for you to enjoy.

Oh, don't forget the wining and dining part as well. This is something pleasurable this is not to be missed and one that is a must for you to experience in New Zealand. New Zealand wineries produce award winning red and white wines and many incorporate elegant restaurants or lively cafés on their properties for you to enjoy fine wine and food. With inspirations from countries as varied as Europe, Thailand, Polynesia, Japan and Vietnam, you will find that New Zealand food has a range of flavours that is tasty, refreshing and light.

New Zealand campervan holidays really offer a great value for anyone. Where else can you get a 15 nights on the ground (that is exclusive of airfares) holiday that consists of vehicle, staying in the campervan in campervan parks, staying in hostels, staying in a fully equipped en-suite apartment plus food and petrol for less than USD$1,800?

I saved a lot of money by having both accommodation and vehicle hire in one package. On top of that, I saved money on meals by shopping in supermarkets and cooking them at the campervan parks rather than eating out in restaurants every night. At nice locations along my journey, I just pull over my campervan by a river or lakeside or even by the side of the road and have my lunch, tea or coffee. Oh how wonderful...

If you are looking to rent a campervan in New Zealand, you can get campervans in all shapes and sizes. Some of the bigger ones can accommodate up to a 6 berth or beds in one vehicle! This is a perfect option for especially if you are going as a group or family and you want to travel together. When you to travel as a group with your family or friends, you will find that final per person cost is really low. As a family travelling together, you will definitely have a wonderful bonding experience on this type of campervan holiday as you will be travelling, enjoying and doing things together.

A campervan holiday provides you with many benefits including: freedom, adventure and value for money. It is an experience to share with the family, with friends and with others out there on the road. Put in some in some initial planning and you will definitely enjoy your New Zealand campervan holiday.

Check out this Squidoo lens by clicking on this link --> http://www.squidoo.com/a-fantastic-17-days-campervan-new-zealand-holidays if you are planning to go on a New Zealand campervan holiday. It has very detailed itinerary and plenty of photos, videos as well as money saving tips there.

Article Source: James_Causian

To Santo Domingo From Punta Cana by Bus With Bavaro Express

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If you are staying in Punta Cana you might be interested in visiting Santo Domingo, the first and oldest city built in America by Europeans. the best way is by bus taking the Bavaro Express (Expreso Bavaro). This bus leaves from Bavaro Bus Station, around the Friusa intersection on the Avenida Estados Unidos 809-552-1678.

Departure times are:

7:00 am (first bus)
9:00 am
11:00 am
1 pm
3 pm
4 pm (last bus)

You may also board at the Veron stop along Plaza Colonial 809-455-1473. In this case the pick-up times are usually half an hour after the original departure time. The price of the ticket is 400 RD$ one-way for both adults and children and there is no discount if you buy the return ticket. You can buy the tickets at the office just in front of the bus stop, same story in Santo Domingo for the way-back. The trip is around 3h40m depending on the traffic.

**BE AWARE that very often entering the city the driver or other men ask who's going to visit the Colonial Zone (Zona Colonial). This is a trick for the tourists. They say that the bus doesn't pass for the Colonial Zone and the only way to reach it is taking a cab. That's not true because the bus actually goes to the Colonial Zone. The only reason they do it is because they just want to get some extra money. So they try to let you get off before and push you to get a taxi (bus and taxi drivers have a deal in this sense) with the excuse that that part of the city is very dangerous. In case this happens DON'T GET OFF and stay on the bus till it arrives at the Chinatown neighbor that is very close to the Colonial Zone and it's safe**.

Upon entering Santo Domingo, the driver is flexible with letting passengers off. The normal stops are in front of the Dario Contreras Hospital on Santo Domingo's east side, the corner of Calle Josefa Brea & 27 de Febrero and the last stop on Juan Sanchez Ramirez, off of Maximo Gomez.

Getting to Bavaro from Santo Domingo

The bus is picked up just off the Avenida Maximo Gomez on Juan Sanchez Ramirez #31 809-682-9670 just about a half a block from the Supermercado Nacional. Departure times are the same as in Bavaro. Before leaving the city, the bus will make one more stop at El Parque Enriquillo on Avenida Duarte. Tickets can also be purchased at this location.

Once the Expreso Bavaro bus reaches Bavaro, it is no longer an express bus. From the bus's first stop at Veron, to its last stop at Friusa, the driver will let passengers off wherever they please.

Note:

The Expreso Bavaro is currently the only express transportation between Santo Domingo and Punta Cana. The only other option to travel to Santo Domingo and other western destinations is by taking local buses to Higuey and transferring from there.

Source: http://www.livingpuntacana.com

All the info that locals know and visitors want to know to get the best of Punta Cana.

Article Source: Claudio_Melis