1 . Whether you feel like taking a trip, or you just need some fun, you’ll enjoy this list of popular tourist attractions.

Alabama: Alabama Gulf Coast Beaches

If Alabama wasn’t the location for your next summer beach vacation, you may want to reconsider. There are 51 kilometers of white sand beaches made almost entirely of quartz grains (石英颗粒) washed down from the Appalachian Mountains thousands of years ago. That’s probably why over six million people visit Alabama’s Gulf Coast Beaches every year. Ten dollars per person.

Alaska: Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise

Alaska is the place to go for spotting breathtaking (令人惊叹的) wildlife. In fact, the number of visitors who travel to Alaska to see wildlife has increased by 45 percent. The Kenai Fjords Wildlife Cruise will bring you up close to whales, sea lions and sea birds. It is a five-hour trip that starts at noon and covers 88 kilometers of sea, and it will be the best $98 you ever spent.

Arkansas: Hot Springs National Park

Skip the beach and choose a new type of relaxation at Hot Springs National Park. It’s America’s oldest national park. It is also the only urban national park. You don’t need to make reservations (预订). Doors open at 8 a. m., so get there early!

Connecticut: Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History is a must stop if you’re travelling nearby Yale University. It attracts plenty of people and has many collections including New England birds, dinosaurs, Greek and Roman antiquities (古董), and even an Egyptian mummy (木乃伊). Adults pay $13 for entry, but if you want to visit for free, go on a Thursday.

A skywell, or “tian jing” in Mandarin, is a typical feature of a traditional home in southern and eastern China. Less     1    (expose) to the outdoor environment makes a skywell different from a northern Chinese courtyard. Skywells are    2     common residents in large areas of southern and eastern China had in the past.

In today’s rapidly urbanising China, fewer and fewer people live in skywell dwellings,     3     a revival(重新流行) of interest in traditional Chinese architecture is leading some of historic buildings with skywells     4     (restore) for modern times. Meanwhile, some architects are drawing inspiration from skywells to help keep new buildings cooler, which is a method     5     (combine) design and technology to cool a building without the use of power.

However, there are some challenges for bringing skywells into modern designs. The effect that the mechanisms(结构) of courtyards have     6     natural lighting, ventilation(通风) and rain collection is well known , but applying these principles     7     (need) to be site-specific. Because traditional skywells had different shapes, sizes and features,     8     were highly dependent on their natural surroundings. Adding skywells into modern buildings requires designers to be     9    (sense) to their project’s context and situation, making it difficult to apply them as     10    universal solution.

10 . Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.

AVOID BIG EVENTS Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation (膳宿) and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost £169.15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost £118.15.

If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid or you’re looking for a big event to pass your time—checkoutsitessuchasWhatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.

STAY AWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.

Don’t be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. If you book two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge’s Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday, September 22 was £95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was £75.75. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just £62.95.

GET ON A BIKE London’s “Boris bikes” have attracted the most attention, but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.

Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around £1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or £5 per day).