1 . Welcome to Holker Hall & Gardens

By Car: Follow brown signs an A590 from JB6, M6. Approximate travel times: Windermere-20 minutes, Kendal-25 minutes, Lancaster-45 minutes, Manchester-1 hour 30 minutes.

By Rail: The nearest station is Cark-in-Cartmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster Preston for connections to major cities & airports.

Sunday-Friday (closed on Saturday)11:00 am-4:00pm,30 March-2nd November.

Producers: Market 13th April

Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.

Holker Garden Festival 30th May

The event celebrate its 22nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.

National Garden Day 28th August

Holker once again opens is gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.

Winter Market 8th November

This is an event for all the family. Wander among a variety of shops selling gifs while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.

Chengdu has dozens of new millionaires, Asia’s biggest building, and fancy new hotels. But for tourists like me, pandas are its top     1    (attract).

So it was a great honour to be invited backstage at the not-for-profit Panda Base, where ticket money helps pay for research. I     2    (allow) to get up close to these cute animals at the 600-acre centre. From tomorrow, I will be their UK ambassador. The title will be     3    (official) given to me at a ceremony in London. But my connection with pandas goes back     4     my days on a TV show in the mid-1980s,     5     I was the first Western TV reporter     6    (permit) to film a special unit caring for pandas rescued from starvation in the wild. My ambassadorial duties will include     7    (introduce) British visitors to the 120-plus pandas at Chengdu and others at a research centre in the misty mountains of Bifengxia.

On my recent visit, I held a lively three-month-old twin that had been rejected by     8    (it) mother. The nursery team switches him every few     9    (day) with his sister so that while one is being bottle-fed,     10     other is with mum—she never suspects.

4 . Rock climbing, one of the fastest growing sports, not only builds physical strength and mental focus, but also leads you to some beautiful places．Here are some climbing spots for climbers．

Acadia National Park, Maine

This popular New England park is one of the few places where you can climb seaside rocks．The granite（花岗岩）is good for climbing．In some areas, you need to start when the sea is at its lowest level．The area has guides, instructors and climbing schools, making it particularly welcoming for beginners．

More information: nps.gov/acad

Red River Gorge, Kentucky

This geological area in Daniel Boone National Forest is prized for its climbing routes and rock scenery．The park, located an hour's drive southeast of Lexington, is well known in the climbing world for both beginner-friendly terrain（地形）and more challenging sections．It's a place where you can find a lot of fellow climbers．

More information: fs.usda.gov/recarea

City of Rocks, Idaho

This national reserve near the Utah border is worth a trip for the scenery alone．Named by gold miners heading to California in 1849, its granite looks like skyscrapers, towering 600 feet above the ground．It's a fascinating area from a geologic and geographic angle．Many visitors come for August's Idaho Mountain Festival, a celebration of climbing with top athletes in attendance．

More information: nps.gov/ciro

Earth Treks Englewood, Colorado

While you can find climbing gyms across the country, this one just south of Denver is worth a special trip．With 53,000 square feet, the massive facility has a special rock climbing area, a group of guides and even extras like childcare and yoga．

More information: earthtreksclimbing.com/englewood

5 . The protected lands of the National Parks are some of the most amazing destinations within the United States to view some spectacular pieces of nature. Many of these parks have fun family-friendly activities, making them great destinations for holidays and summer break.   

Olympic National Park is a great destination for families to explore the wild beauty. At this park, visitors will find beautiful beaches, a rain forest, mountains and more. Children will love the wild coastline, with amazing beaches, and a lot of fascinating sea life. The whole family will love the many hiking trails, the wild beauty of the beaches throughout the park, and the wildlife within the forest and mountains.

Yellowstone National Park is the nation's first national park. Visitors can start at one of the Visitor Centers to learn about the abundant wildlife of Yellowstone. Children will love keeping an eye out for elk and bison while driving and hiking through the park.

Located on North Carolina's Outer Banks, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is an amazing destination for recreating, relaxing and much more. The seashore has many beautiful beaches for the whole family to explore and enjoy. Visitors can spend vacation time searching for shells, birding, kayaking, hiking and more. The Outer Banks are also an excellent spot to go windsurfing, especially on Hatteras Island.

Glacier National Park was the tenth national park created in the nation. The park offers visitors the opportunity to explore the amazing wilderness of Montana, through biking, hiking, camping, backpacking, boating and more. The best time of year to visit is the early summer, the region is snowy in the winter and hot in the summer.

6 . Welcome to Adventureland!

Everyone loves Adventureland! The Parks and Exhibitions were built for you to explore (探索), enjoy, and admire their wonders. Every visit will be an unforgettable experience. You will go away enriched, longing to come back. What are you going to do this time?

The Travel Pavilion

Explore places you have never been to before, and experience different ways of life. Visit the Amazon jungle (丛林) village, the Turkish market, the Tai floating market, the Berber mountain house and others. Talk to the people there who will tell you about their lives, and things they make. You can try making a carpet, making nets, fishing ...

This exhibition shows how progress will touch our lives. It allows us to look into the future and explore the cities of the next century and the way we’ll be living then. Spend some time in our space station and climb into our simulator (模拟装置) for the Journey to Mars.

The Nature Park

This is not really one park but several. In the Safari Park you can drive among African animals in one of our Range Cruisers: see lions, giraffes, elephants in the wild. Move on to the Ocean Park to watch the dolphins and whales. And then there is still the Aviary to see ...

This is the center of Adventureland. Run out of film, need some postcards and stamps? For all these things and many more, visit our underground shopping center. Come here for information and ideas too.

7 . China is a big country, and there is no simple answer to the question “When is the best time to visit China? ” There are two best times to visit China, depending on your preference.

October

Things to do: hike on the Great Wall, photography tour

Places to visit: Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, Guilin,Jiuzhaigou, Chengdu

The best time to go to China is early autumn (October).

Most of China has warm temperatures, and the summer rains have stopped (apart from around HongKong and Sanya) so it’s pretty dry. The autumnn colours are also amazing. It is quiet at tourist attractions for most of the month, as the summer holiday travel crowds have gone. But try to avoid October 1 st -7 th, which is the Chinese National Day holiday, as attractions, transport and hotels are packed with Chinese tourists and prices go up a lot.

Late Spring (April to May)

Things to do: appreciate flowers, Li River cruise, ethnic festivals

Places to visit: Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin, Huangshan, GuiZhou, Zhangjiajie

The second-best time to travel to China is probably in April and May, when the flowers are in bloom and the temperatures are warming up. In late spring, temperatures across China are getting into the 20s (℃), except the extreme northwest and northeast. While the North of China is still dry, the summer rains have already begun in the South. This could actually improve the view in the form of mountain fog in mountainous areas like the Li River and the Yellow Mountains.

Ethnic festivals in GuiZhou are concentrated in April and May, such as the Sisters’ Meal Festival. If you are interested in Miao and Dong ethnic cultures, this is a good time to visit.

Travel prices are average: cheaper than June to October, but more expensive than the lower season from November to March.

I travelled to Lijiang in this summer vacation with my parents by plane．The fresh air brought me back to life before I got out of the plane．We first went to the Lijiang Ancient City, where they bought some interesting thing and had a good meal．On the second day, we go to the Yulong snowy mountain．It was my first time that I had seen the snow．I played with the snow happy with my parents．I told that Yulong snow mountain was such famous a place in China that many people came here every year．I was tired but exciting throughout this trip, looking forward to visit Lijiang again!