Following Zibo and Harbin, Tianshui, an ancient Silk Road city in Northwest China’s Gansu Province, became the latest place that has caused     1     nationwide craze thanks to its malatang, or spicy hot pot. Tianshui spicy hot pot     2    (make) by cooking raw ingredients(原料) —meats, vegetables and noodles, in a pot of boiling broth. Then they are rolled into a large steel basin, drizzled with garlic sauce, sprinkled with Tianshui peppercorns and crushed peanuts,     3    (brush) with bright red chili oil, and colored with coriander and green onions. Fragrant and     4    (visual) appealing, it provokes(刺激) taste buds on the tip of tourists’ tongue. Different     5     Sichuan cuisine, the secrets to the unique flavor and attractive appearance of Tianshui malatang come from local speciality ingredients in Tianshui—Gangu chili peppers and Maiji peppercorns, both     6    (belong)to local speciality agricultural industries. Unlike the peppers used throughout Sichuan, the Tianshui pepper is fragrant and juicy. It     7    (burn) in the mouth but is smooth in the stomach.

Tianshui not only has delicious spicy hot pot food, but also stands out for its distinctive     8    (region)culture. Its grottoes and murals(石窟与壁画) are among the most famous art     9    (form) in Gansu. The Maijishan Grottoes,     10     are home to 221caves and more than 1,000 square meters of ancient murals, are known for their impressive beauty.

2 . The Best Maldives Island for Your Travel Style

Every resort (度假地) in Maldives is its own private island but choosing the right one for you can be difficult. Want to kick off your Indian Ocean holiday in style? Our guide will help you know what to look for in the hunt for your ideal island.

You’ll never go hungry at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi, which has 11 restaurants, including ones specializing in garden-to-table cuisine. There are regular food-themed events, too — our favorites include Arabian Night and the Twilight Seafood Barbecue.

Considered one of the best spots in the Maldives for honeymoons, the Four Seasons Resort Maldives has a huge range of room categories and offers a brilliant selection of packages, including Island Romance packages that feature fantastic extras designed with couples in mind.

There are numerous reasons to visit the Fairmont Maldives, including the fact that it’s a great place to learn about sustainability, whether it’s at the Sustainability Lab, where guests can turn discarded plastic bottles into jewelry or during excursions with marine biologists from a charity created to protect sea turtles.

Heritance Aarah recently opened its Live Maldivian Village Museum, which focuses on 4,000 years of Maldivian history. Guests can learn about the art of coral stone carving and find out why locals are known as some of the world’s best boat builders.

To ensure you experience the Maldives’ best bits, schedule a holiday every month without fail. We’re joking, but you get the point: think what you want to see and do, and brush up on the different areas’ seasonal selling points.

3 . Have you heard of these four monuments?

Carhenge. Floralis Genérica. Traffic Light Tree. Hand of the Desert — these are four unusual monuments from around the world you might like to visit.

Carhenge is in Alliance, Nebraska (USA). As the name suggests, it has a lot in common with Stonehenge, the famous stone circle on Salisbury Plain. But while Stonehenge was built with stones, Carhenge was created with cars. The monument was made in 1987 by a local artist Jim Reinders and his family. He used old cars and even an ambulance. At first, the people of Alliance didn’t like it, but they soon changed their minds after it became popular with tourists, who brought lots of money to the town.

Floralis Genérica is a massive statue of a flower. It stands in a pool of water in front of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Eduardo Catalano, a native of Argentina, gave the statue as a gift to the city in 2002. Every morning, the flower opens. Ask anyone who has seen it and they’ll tell you that watching it open is an unforgettable sight. In fact, many people believe it is one of the most beautiful statues in the world.

The Traffic Light Tree is situated at Heron Quay, in one of London’s financial districts. The tree has 75 sets of traffic lights. It was created by French artist, Pierre Vivant, and was installed in 1998. A computer controls the lights, which are turned on and off randomly. The roundabout where the tree is was voted the most popular roundabout in the UK in a recent survey.

The Hand of the Desert is in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The sculpture was designed by the Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrazabal. From a distance, it looks as if there’s a giant in the sand who has stuck his hand out of the ground.

If you’re looking for something new to see, you know where to go!

5 .

Emerald Cruises’ River Cruise (巡游) Danube delights 7 NIGHTS/APR—OCT 2023/PRICES FROM £1,440pp This amazing holiday includes: River cruise 7-night full-board Danube river cruise on board your Emerald PRICES PER PERSON FROM APR. 2023 MAY. 2023 JUN. 2023 SEP. 2023 OCT 2023 EMERALD STATEROOM WAS £2,265pp NOW £1,440pp WAS £3,195pp NOW £1,995pp WAS £3,225pp NOW £1,980pp WAS £3,195pp NOW £1,955p WAS £2,645pp NOW £1,460pp PANORAMA BALCONY SUTE WAS £3,457pp NOW £2,205pp WAS £4,405pp NOW £2,120pp WAS £4,075pp NOW £2,745pp WAS £4,045pp NOW £2,120pp WAS £3,495pp NOW £2,225pp

Star-Ship ·20 meals including: seven breakfasts,six lunches and seven dinners ·Enjoy unlimited drinks on board with a free Premium Drinks Package ·Visiting: Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Krem — Durnstein, Engehrzell — Passau, Regensburg Tours and Experiences ·A guided coach tour of Budapest ·A walking tour of Bratislava ·A guided Vienna art tour, Gottweig Abbey, Pasau and Regensburg ·Traditional Hungarian folklore show onboard ·Home-hosted coffee and cake with a Slovakian family ·Traditional Bavarian band on board ·A hike to Buda Hill, Bratisava Castle and Durnstein Castle ·A bike tour in Vienna, to the Walhalla monument and along the Danube River All flights and airport transfers to and from your star-Ship (London departure — complimentary regional flights available on request)

8 . I’m not a full-time traveler. I spend most days working to earn a living just like you do. But whenever a chance arises for me to visit a far-off country, I jump at it.

When studying abroad in New Zealand, I travelled extensively all over the country with two friends. We booked everything from whale watching to a private flight over the Southern Alps, and racked up some impressive credit card bills. Another international student almost looked down her nose at our pricey adventures, declaring that she had come to New Zealand to study, not to empty her savings account on travel.

My question to her came. Why would you come halfway around the world to save your money and keep your nose pressed into a book every weekend? Would you go to China and not visit the Great Wall because it consumes money? Would you go to Italy and skip visiting the Vatican because it requires an admission ticket?

I know where I would like my life to go in the coming months and years. But there are no guarantees that things will go as planned. Practically, nothing will go as planned.

“Oh, I’ll travel when I retire.” “I’ll travel when the kids are grown.” “I’ll travel when the house is paid off.” How often we hear others say these? I hear these excuses all the time. But you know what occurs? Age. And stress. And, well, life. Life happens and by that time, you have bad knees and weak lungs and you simply cannot visit all those places you dreamed about in your youth. How sad! I don’t want to end up like that, holding on to youthful travel dreams that will never be reality.

So I often think, what if “sometime later” never came?

So if you are privileged enough to be able to afford to travel, then you should attack it with curiosity and energy and a sense of adventure.

So travel young, and travel far.