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‘Beyond the Great Wall’: Exploring China’s EdgesJanuary 5

Julia Ross on a new cookbook/travel memoir

Inspired by a recent New Yorker profile of the food writer/adventurer couple Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford, I ordered a Christmas present for myself this year: the duo’s wonderful cookbook and travelogue, Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China. It’s an affectionate look at the cultures and foodways of China’s outlying regions, including Tibet, Yunnan and Xinjiang.

The recipes, for simple dishes like Ginger and Carrot Stir-Fry, are surprisingly low maintenance. But my favorite sections are Duguid’s and Alford’s recollections of traveling in China in the mid-1980s, when the country was just opening up to foreign tourists. Alford, who taught English in Taiwan in 1982, remembers the mystique China held for Westerners at the time:

“Every once in a while I’d hear a story about someone visiting ‘the Mainland,’ traveling independently, but it seemed very hard to believe. The rumor was that a visa could be arranged in Hong Kong from a travel agent in

The Myth of the Carbon-Neutral Air Traveler?January 3

Joanna Kakissis on the efficacy of carbon offset programs.

Photo by Kossy@FINEDAYS via Flickr (Creative Commons).

By 2025, air travel could hurl nearly 1.5 billion tons of carbon annually into the environment—about a half of what the 457 million people at the 27-nation European Union currently emit. If you care about the environment, this is a terrible trend to ponder on an international flight.

I’m in Athens, Greece, now spending the holidays with my family but my flight from Denver, Colorado, did its small part to pollute the earth, producing some 5,243 lbs of CO2, according to the TerraPass carbon footprint calculator. I felt bad, to some extent, but air travel is the most efficient way to visit people and places when we’re on tight schedules. (And there are many other things we can do to be better eco-travelers until the day all planes can run on biofuel, but that’s another blog post altogether.)

Some airlines already offer travelers opport

Lisa Ling: Globetrotting Journalist, ‘Thinking Man’s Sex Symbol’January 2

Eva Holland on the surprise honor for the National Geographic host

One small step for Lisa Ling, and one giant leap for female journalists everywhere? Well, maybe not. But giant leap or not, Ling, who travels the world as an “Oprah” correspondent and as the host of the National Geographic Channel’s Explorer, has landed at No. 5 on the Daily Beast’s list of Thinking Man’s Sex Symbols.

Writes list author Touré: “Lisa Ling is sexy without even trying. Whether she’s striding up a mountain in front of National Geographic cameras searching for wild California cannabis or uncovering bride-burning in India, she’s that super-smart polymath who’s such a courageously crusading journalist that she doesn’t have to do anything to elicit admiration.”

(Via The Book Bench)

‘Gilligan’s Island’: Castaways Hitting the Big Screen?January 2

Just when you thought there were enough travel movie remakes and adaptations in the pipeline, Hollywood has found one more old storyline to re-work.

The New York Daily News is reporting that a movie version of the desert island sitcom classic Gilligan’s Island is in the works. Michael Cera of “Juno” and “Arrested Development” fame has agreed to play the bumbling title character, and producers are reportedly chasing singer Beyonce Knowles for the role of Ginger. There’s no set start date for the project.

(Via The Remote Island)

The (Official) End of ‘Staycation’?December 31 2008

Jim Benning on the word that might finally go away

On a warm Southern California afternoon near the end of the summer travel season, I bade farewell to the word “staycation.” It wasn’t a fond farewell, and I’m happy to report that others followed suit.

Now, at year’s end, comes a last bit of good news on the topic. Lake Superior State University just released its annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. From 5,000 nominated words, the university chose 15 for banishment, including “staycation.”

Thank you, Lake Superior State.

Though she may take some time off at home, the queen would never take a staycation. Neither should the rest of us.

Call it a New Year’s resolution.