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Xanadu added to UNESCO World Heritage lineup
World's 15 best hotels, according to customer reviews
New way to book travel: Chinese site helps travelers get details right
4 Cambodian temples that aren't Angkor Wat
Japan's blurred genders: Embracing my New Half
World’s 15 highest bungee jumps
Insider Guide: Best of Vancouver

Xanadu added to UNESCO World Heritage lineup

Posted: 02 Jul 2012 02:00 AM PDT

On this grassland Kublai Khan erected the great Yuan Dynasty capital that came to be known as Xanadu.
Described by Venetian traveler Marco Polo, romanticized by English poet Samual Taylor Coleridge, the historic site known to much of the world by the fanciful name of "Xanadu" has offically joined UNESCO's World Heritage list.

Located in modern Inner Mongolia, the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty is called Yuan Shang Du Yi Zhi (元上都遗址) by the Chinese.

UNESCO released the additions to its famed list over the weekend. A UNESCO Xanadu photo gallery is available here.

Joining Xanadu on the list are Bassari Country in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire's Historic Town Grand Bassam.

Golden Lotus blossoms on the grasslands of Xanadu's Jin Lianchuan. Shaped like a square, Xanadu was the first capital designated by Kublai Khan (1215-94). It was designed by his advisor Liu Bingzhong in 1256.

World's 15 best hotels, according to customer reviews

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 11:10 PM PDT

by CNNGo staff

It doesn't take much for customers to leave a bad review, but it takes all kinds of awesomeness to get them to write a glowing one.

A recently published list collates the brightest reviews from international travelers.

Global online travel agency Expedia has released the 2012 edition of Expedia Insiders' Select, the company's annual list of the best hotels around the world.

Based on more than 500,000 guest reviews from site users, the rankings pick 650 establishments from the 130,000 hotels and resorts listed on Expedia.com.

Expedia claims to have more guest reviews than any other online travel agency and says it authenticates each guest review by verifying that the reviewer stayed at the property in question within six months of the time of the review.

New way to book travel: Chinese site helps travelers get details right

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 09:30 PM PDT

Even if you don't speak a word of Mandarin, you can become a trusted China travel consultant.

And we don't mean you should lie.

With Trekiz (www.trekiz.com), an innovative Beijing-based travel website, almost anyone can plan and book a one-of-a-kind China travel itinerary with just a few mouse clicks.

A made-in-China travel innovation

Unlike most travel sites, which provide limited purchase options (flights, hotels, set tours), Trekiz (short for "trek easy") breaks down trips to their smallest components: activities.

We want to build a travel website that can satisfy the strangest travel needs from the strangest person.

4 Cambodian temples that aren't Angkor Wat

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 08:50 PM PDT

by Ian Lloyd Neubauer

At the turn of the millennium, when Cambodia was still reeling from decades of civil war, one could spend hours walking around Angkor Wat Archaeological Park without seeing a single foreigner.

But Cambodia today -- and the 12th-century temple complex that sits at its geographic, historic and spiritual heart -- is awash with tourists.

More than 640,000 visited in the first three months of 2012, with archaeologists claiming the UNESCO World Heritage Site is being loved to death.

Yet there are dozens of Angkor-era temple complexes in Cambodia that receive a fraction of the visitors Angkor Wat gets, some of which you can have all to yourself.

These are four of the most impressive.

Japan's blurred genders: Embracing my New Half

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT

by Roland Kelts

Roland Kelts For the casual sojourner, Japan's gender lines can be tough to parse.

Young men sometimes brandish purses and sport jean-sheathed skirts.

Young women strut through the largely crime- and whistle-free streets late at night in hot pants and stilettos likely to provoke unwanted catcalls or worse in New York or London.

But nowhere is the embrace of gender paradoxes more dramatic than in Japan's so-called "New Half" shows -- dinner-theater spectacles combining the high-concept staging of Broadway with the glitz of Vegas, and the allure of beauty distilled into a largely transsexual group of performers.

I encountered my first New Half show several years ago in Osaka. A middle-aged housewife whose daughter had enjoined me to teach them both English offered a night out on the town to persuade me.

World’s 15 highest bungee jumps

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 11:10 AM PDT

by Sanday Chongo Kabange

When a video emerged of an Australian student whose bungee cord snapped, plunging her into the gushing waters of the Zambezi River, she could have vowed never to dive head-first toward the earth again.

But if the Zambian government has its way, Erin Langworthy, 22, will be back. They have invited her to take part in another fully funded jump in 2013 at the same spot.

Till then though, she could get psyched up for the plunge at any of these -- the world's 15 highest bungee jumping pods.

More on CNNGo: 50 thrilling things to try before you die

321 meters: Royal Gorge Bridge, Colorado, United States

The Colorado-based bridge was the highest suspension bridge in the world for nearly 75 years, until 2001 when the Liuguanghe Bridge in China surpassed it.

Insider Guide: Best of Vancouver

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 09:40 AM PDT

by Dana Lynch

Here's what you likely know about Vancouver: it's pretty. You can ski, snowboard, hike, camp, kayak, golf and go to the beach.

Here's what you likely don't know: Botoxing was invented here. The Occupy movement started here ("AdBusters" is Vancouver-based). And Lululemon is the reason your mom wears yoga pants.

Invention is always on display in Vancouver, where the cuisine is fusion, the fashion is eco-friendly, the hotels are as green as they are glam and the vibe is unique: West Coast outdoors, multicultural, high-tech and hippie all at the same time.

Here's how to take in the best of Vancouver, British Columbia's (B.C.) best-known city

Hotels Luxury

Same as it ever was? Better, actually.