New Clients in China and Hong Kong Spur Growth for PartsBase, Inc. In Asian Market

Boca Raton, FL August 24, 2005

A handful of sizeable players in the Chinese Aviation market have joined PartsBase, bolstering the parts locator service&194;’s presence in the overall Asian market.

Xiamen Airlines, Hong Kong Aero Engine Services, Hangxin Avionics, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai, Sichuan Snecma Aero Engine Maintenance, and Samwell Aviation have acquired memberships with PartsBase.

PartsBase, Inc. Vice President of Marketing Jesse Josephson says &194;“PartsBase is excited about this growth in our Chinese client base. We are proud to welcome these organizations to our membership community and expect the relationships help move us in the direction of continued expansion in the Asian aviation market&194;”.

PartsBase already operates a leading global parts locator service and data research tool. Recent international growth in the membership base is making the service a viable business tool for more regions of the world each day. &194;“As small critical mass targets are met within some of these geographic regions, like China, the membership community starts to gain momentum and the value of the service actually increases. This lures more and more clients in the region, which helps grow the entire aviation market in that same region,&194;” Josephson continued.

PartsBase is the world&39;s largest and most comprehensive Online Aviation, Aerospace, and Defense Marketplace. We operate as a parts locator service, technology provider, marketing outlet, and research tool for over 3,800 clients (16,000+ end users) worldwide. Our client companies range from the large world-wide corps like Bell, Boeing, Raytheon, Honeywell, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, major distributors and suppliers, over 400 airlines, third party maintenance facilities, OEMs, and more.

A Fifth of UK Holidaymakers Head Abroad Without Arranging Travel Money in Advance

London, UK February 18, 2010

Recent research has revealed that a fifth of people who have travelled abroad in the last 12 months did not arrange their foreign currency before departing. Getting travel money from ATMs once overseas can result in hefty cash withdrawal and commission fees so the Post Office is advising those to travelling abroad to arrange their foreign currency before they go to the airport.

The research from Mintel also showed that 29 per cent of UK holidaymakers used debit cards and 12 per cent used credit cards while abroad to withdraw travel money in a local foreign currency. The report also suggested that many people only take enough foreign currency to get them through the first days of their holiday and then used cards to withdraw extra cash from foreign ATMs .

Using debit and credit cards to withdraw foreign currency from ATMs abroad can be costly, the Post Office warns. According to a recent report from First Rate Exchange Services, the average amount of equivalent sterling withdrawn from foreign ATMs is around &163;108. With commission fees costing on average around &163;6 for credit card cash withdrawals and &163;5 for debit card cash withdrawals, UK holidaymakers could therefore be wasting an estimated &163;326m in potentially avoidable fees on overseas debit and credit card cash withdrawals in a foreign currency.

The Post Office is reminding travellers that commission fees can be avoided by some pre-planning of foreign currency purchase prior to travelling. Some 32 per cent of holidaymakers admitted that failing to plan their foreign currency had resulted in overspending when withdrawing foreign currency abroad.

Burn joss sticks of good luck to mark the Lantern Festival|china travel

With the Lantern Festival, which falls on February 17th this year, around the corner, the curtain will come down on the half-month celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

To mark this special season, apart from holding a lantern, and playing the lantern riddles with family and friends, a growing majority of Chinese people nowadays would go to the Lama Temple, known as Yonghegong, to burn some joss sticks, praying for good luck and fortune for the New Year.

The Lama Temple is one of the most popular temples for doing obeisance for blessings in Beijing. According to employees working here, the number of visitors on the first day of the Lunar New Year surged to a record high of 66,000. It is estimated that the Lama Temple is going to embrace another peak on the Lantern Festival.

Claimed to be the largest and most perfectly preserved lamasery in present-day China, Lama Temple has a history of more than 265 years. It used to be the residence of Emperor Yongzheng and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty and was transformed into a lamasery later.

Among numerous Buddha figures, Tangka and cultural relics that you can see at Lama Temple, the best well-known one is a white sandal wood Buddha. The 1.8-meter figure is an important testimony to the friendship between Han and Tibetan people, and also the largest wood Buddha figure in China.

Top 10 alternative ways to spend the Spring Festival|china travel

While traditionally the Spring Festival is about staying home for a family reunion and a sumptuous dinner, taking a trip with family members can also be a nice choice. Here are a few alternative routes for those who would like to try something different this holiday season.

Weixian county, Cheer up for Sparkles

If you don't want to go too far from Beijing, Weixian county at Zhangjiakou in Heibei province can be a gratifying choice.

The old small town has assembled countless well-preserved ancient temples and monasteries, as well as old folk customs

The old small town has assembled countless well-preserved ancient temples and monasteries, as well as old folk customs. But the most famous custom is striking the iron flower. In some ways, it has an equal importance as the fireworks on Tiananmen Square in local people's hearts. After tempering the scrap iron collected by the whole village into iron water, the performer pours hot water onto ramparts with a willow wood spoon. Today, people with such ancient skills are rare.

Traffic: There is no train or bus to take you directly to Weixian from Beijing. You can follow a professional driver to go since the road is slippery in the icy winter.

Spring of Putuo Mountain Tourism Festival|china travel

Your passport to the latest destinations and airline promotions.

Island city's time to shine

The Spring of Putuo Mountain Tourism Festival will be held from April 9-20 in Putuo district of Zhoushan, an island city in Zhejiang province.

One of the four great Buddhist mountains in China, Putuo Mountain became a Buddhist sanctuary during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). Considered the meditation place of Guanyin (Buddhist Goddess of Mercy), it has attracted pious pilgrims far and wide.

Buddhism concerts, forums and a live show of sand sculptures depicting Guanyin's tales on the island's shores will introduce the goddess to visitors from home and abroad.

Visitors will also have a chance to immerse themselves in Buddhist-themed exhibitions and local intangible cultural heritage performances.

Celebration of Zhuang folklore

Tianyang county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, will hold the annual Buluotuo Folk Culture Tourism Festival from April 9 to 11. Buluotuo refers to the god who created the world in the Zhuang ethnic group's legends.

Tourists can take part in the music and dance gala and Buluotuo sacrifice ceremony. There are also folk song contest and International Lion Dance Contest, which attracts 11 dance groups from Southeast Asia. Also, 141 experts from home and abroad will participate in a culture seminar, discussing about how to promote Buluotuo culture.

Tea time in the mountains

Mengding Mountain International Tea Culture Tourism Festival continues until May 30 in Ya'an, Sichuan province.

People began growing tea on the mountain more than 2,000 years ago. Since the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), tea became a special type for the emperor to offer as a sacrifice to Heaven as well as ancestors.

Tourists can enjoy the Imperial Tea Making Ceremony that depicts how the tea was made and brewed about 1,000 years ago, and taste varieties of local tea. The South Ka Wood, a documentary that depicts the history and culture of Chinese tea, will be shot in the mountain.

An oar-some boat festival

The annual Qintong Boat Festival will be held from April 3 to May 3, in Jiangyan, Jiangsu province.

Its history can be traced back more than 800 years, when local residences held memorial ceremony for those who died in the battlefield.

Tens of thousands of boats will gather in the Qinhu Lake on Tomb-sweeping Day, with five types of boats. Besides a boat race, tourists can watch dragon and lion dances, folk dances and theatrical performances on boats with a stage.

Golden fields set to glow

Jiangsu province's Xinghua county will hold its third rapeseed flower festival, from April 3 to May 6, offering wondrous floral vistas.

A land of abundance, Xinghua boasts beautiful rivers and lakes. Since AD 750, local farmers have grown paddies in the lake, which became their unique "rice islands", on which the golden rapeseed flowers bloom every April.

A boat ride will allow tourists to take a close look at the sea of bright yellow flowers on the waterway. Travelers also have a chance to learn from local farmers how the oil is squeezed and extracted from the rapeseeds.

During the festival, visitors can enjoy local delicacies and folk performances including a folk song gala and a traditional boat show.

Resurrecting a famous statesman

Mi'an county of Hanzhong city, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, is hosting its eighth Zhuge Liang Culture Festival until April 6.

The festival is named after Zhuge Liang (AD 181-234), a famous statesman and strategist in the State of Shu during the period of the Three Kingdoms (AD 220-280).

Tourists can enjoy a series of shows promoting the legendary figure that include opera, acrobatics and martial arts performances. They can also take a trip to the county's Dingjun Mountain, once a major battlefield between the kingdoms of Wei and Shu.

Brush up on history with Kingdom of Chu excursion|china travel

A trip to Wudang Mountains can be preceded or followed by side trips into other parts of Hubei province, which will be a journey into the heart of China as well as into a time when the place was known as the Kingdom of Chu.

Chu produced the tragic figure of Qu Yuan, poet extraordinaire and a failed statesman who drowned himself when his Cassandra-like warning went unheeded. Yichang, south of Wudang Mountains, was Qu Yuan's hometown.

Fast forward to the Three Kingdoms era, we have the debonair and strategically brilliant prime minister of Zhuge Liang, the ultimate epitome of wisdom. Old Longzhong in the neighboring city of Xiangyang has recreated, supposedly on the same spots, structures for all the legends such as when Zhuge received three visits from the lord whom he later served. This moss-covered park is good for a stroll and a brush-up of your Chinese History 101. But mind you, there are many places across the country that claim a piece of Zhuge Liang.

Jingzhou, to the east of Xiangyang and Yichang, is known to most Chinese as the city that was lost by Guan Yu, one of Zhuge's generals. Guan launched an attack against Cao Cao, temporarily vacating the city of Jingzhou that he was assigned to protect. Sun Quan, the one-time partner, took advantage and occupied it. Now, this has become a mildly chiding idiom for recklessness. Parts of the city walls still exist and you can ramble on it and gaze across the river to see a new city rise up.

Moving further east, you will arrive in Wuhan, the provincial capital and a bustling metropolis. A must-see is Yellow Crane Tower by the Yangtze River. In one of the galleries you'll find that while the tower got its first incarnation in AD 223 it has been rebuilt many times, each with a different configuration. The current one sprang up in 1981, but did not occupy the exact spot as previous ones because it had to make way for the railroad. Underneath the ancient facade is steel and concrete that will hold it against hazards like fire or earthquake.

Interestingly, the tower was immortalized in ancient poems, the most famous of which has the following lines, penned by Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) poet Cui Hao:

Gone is the ancient celestial Riding the yellow crane away.

Here is the Yellow Crane Tower Left vacant and stay.

The yellow crane, having gone away,

Will not come back again.

White clouds float for thousands of years

On and on and aimless they remain.

Trees by the sun-lit stream in Hanyang

Are clear and bright.

Lush, green and fragrant

Are the grasses on Parrot Isle.

The sun has set, and where is my place native

Misty waves on the stream make me plaintive.

Taking the high road|china travel

Southern Gansu province offers historic Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, grand mountain vistas and a real escape from the urban rat race. Mike Peters / China Daily

Mike Peters waxes lyrical about the pleasures of Lanzhou and southern Gansu as he stops to smell the flowers and discover a little piece of Switzerland in China.

Eight of us are trudging up a mountain ridge into thinning air. Soft, green grass shrouds the steep but graceful slopes that surround us. Near the end of a hike in a vertical field of wildflowers, the purple and yellow blossoms become dotted with familiar white star-shapes. At about 3,000 meters above sea level, our steps come more slowly but we are not hallucinating.

Or are we? Those white flowers - could they be edelweiss?

They are, and we stop to catch our breath and gawk at Switzerland's national flower like a bunch of giddy Von Trapps. We are not in Europe's Alps but in the hills above the Labrang monastery in Xiahe. Here, the sound of music comes from Buddhist monks chanting Tibetan prayers.

Most of the expatriates on this trip, organized by the China Culture Center, are here for two reasons. First, to get out of Beijing or Shanghai and see a more rural face of China. Second, to experience a slice of Tibetan culture, without taking the time to go all the way to Lhasa.

"It's a wonderful place where you can also see the life and folkways of the Hui and Tibetan," says CCC's director of operations, Alex Gu. "The area is the birthplace of Tibetan Buddhism, so it's a pure example of that tradition and religious culture."

Our tour started in Lanzhou, the provincial capital, which offers tourists plenty to see on arrival. The Yellow River originates in the region, and a stroll along the river takes us to the Qin Opera museum, a drama school older than Peking Opera. Some of us grab the chance to cross the river on a raft made in ancient style. The rustic boats are stick frames mounted on tanned, inflated sheepskins for flotation. Until about a century ago, this was typical river transportation, including commercial barges that each took about 600 sheepskins to keep them buoyant at this Silk Road hub.

We board a tour van for the five-hour drive to Xiahe. As the minibus climbs steadily, we are glued to the vista of mountains gleaming under the setting sun, the slopes terraced in a style the locals learned from farmers in Yunnan province. Bright patches of green and yellow signal that rapeseed and other crops are nearly ready to harvest.

The next morning we rise early, exploring the narrow streets and alleyways of Xiahe below the great monastery of Labrang. Crimson-robed monks rush from household chores to prayer as we walked along the kora, a 3-kilometer "pilgrim path" that winds around the monastery. Along the path are long rows of prayer wheels, with intricate calligraphy capturing prayers on gleaming cast brass or colorfully painted wood. Monks, villagers and tourists who aren't shy give the drumlike wheels a spin as they pass, figuratively sending the sacred words into the air and the surrounding world. About half of the tourists are Westerners, but about as many are pilgrims from Lhasa and nearby provinces with a lot of ethnic Tibetans.

Friendly monks grin tolerantly at cameras in the public areas outside the monastery buildings - recently tourism has become an important source of income for the community. Most monks are a little more worldly than Westerners might imagine from the movies.

"It's common to see young monks surfing online at the Internet cafes in town," says local guide Dennis Qin. "Some of the teenagers even play video games, shooting each other with guns. Some monks own private cars - they are not kept from the world."

Older monks are more traditional, especially down the road at our second monastery destination: Langmu. This rural Tibetan village of 3,000 is tucked amid steep green meadows, thick evergreen forests and mountains that stay snow-capped for most of the year.

Langmu means "fairy," and the town got its name from a rock inside a nearby cave which resembles a beautiful young woman. Quiet and picturesque, Langmusi attracts backpackers - and a few white-collared folks - who are eager to trade their city lives for a brief few days in a place that has only one street.

Flying from Beijing to Lanzhou and back has made the whole trip possible in four days. Once the capital disappeared in the rear-view mirror, life seemed to shift into low gear, from the monasteries to the markets and finally to the nomad camp we visited on the high grasslands.

After an afternoon of horseback riding and leisurely hiking in the freshest air we could remember, it was time to leave and the van's battery was dead. While locals slid under the vehicle and happily banged away with hammers, we tourists grabbed a few more beers and roamed back to our picnic spot under a stunning blue sky. We were almost sorry when the engine roared to life about 90 minutes later. There are worse places to be stranded.