Explore the Mediterranean islands of Greece and Cyclades
Greece and Cyclades are known for their ancient history, culture and mythology. For decades now these have lured thousands of tourists from across the world to get their share of this enchanting location. The Mediterranean offers a chance to explore the coastline of Greece and find some of the best hidden islands. The sight of the bright white houses dotted along the coast everywhere is a classic Greek greeting to everyone who comes here.
There are so many islands, small and big along the coastline that the best way to explore it all is through Yacht charter Greece which would allow you to visit a new island and a new port every single day. Greece yacht charters offer you the chance to experience the classic Mediterranean culture in a true luxury style. Some of the best places in Greece and Cyclades to visit are:
Kea- the island of Kea is still very well hidden from the tourists which is what adds to its charm. This quiet little island has beautiful beaches, hills and valleys that are filled with orchards and dotted with almond, oak and olive trees. The beaches here are exceptionally beautiful and secluded. Mykonos- Mykonos is very well known for its glittering nightlife. The atmosphere here is really vibrant and alive with the youthful crowd walking around the narrow streets, the colorful markets, the many pubs, bars and clubs that are dotted along the beautiful beaches. Delos: Delos is situated quite close to Mykonos and is the most important archeological site in Greece. The island has some very important archeological sites that date back to centuries and a museum that showcases its history. Ios- Ios is again known for its vibrant crowds and its party culture. There are numerous bars and clubs here lined at the beach and the center of the city and the beaches here are known to be the ones that attract the most stylish people from around the world. Sifnos- the island of Sifnos has a rugged charm with its string of hills that surrounds the island. Sifnos has plenty of small villages where life is still lived the ancient Mediterranean way and there are plenty of orchards and hillsides that are covered with aromatic herbs. Kythnos- this island is still very secluded and does not attract throngs of visitors. The Island has several small villages that have character and the charm that a truly Mediterranean island must have. Life here is very relaxed and there are a number of beaches here that have perfect white sand and sparkling azure waters.
The islands in Greece and Cyclades can leave you mesmerized by their sheer beauty and their enchanting culture, anyone who comes here once will surely be touched by the abundant natural beauty here.
Categories: 1000 Islands Museums Tags: 'Explore, Cyclades, Greece, Islands, Mediterranean
Mumbai-Gun At Elephanta Island
Many who visit the Island find some ancient caves with sculptors dating back to times about two thousand earlier. They are well preserved now and attract thousand of tourists each day. The ride itself from Gateway of India to Elephanta is quite interesting. It gives not only an opportunity to get away from the crowds and noise of a great metropolis but also a short trip out in the sea to experience the winds and the waves.
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There are hundreds of diesel powered boats lined up at Gateway of India to take you there and people will approach you themselves inviting you to take the ride. Rates are down to earth cheap and worth a beautiful visit to the island. Do not forget to take your water bottle and some eatables as it gets quite hot and humid and restaurantsâ?? at the island are not as reasonable as on the mainland in the city.
The ride itself is quite well organized and interesting as you get to see the Mumbai Port and ships of various sizes and kinds berthed around. As you near the island you get an opportunity to see from a distance inverted cup like structure of Bhabha Atomic Research centre at Trombay which is right opposite the jetty of Elephanta Island. The only thing that I dislike most is the quality of the sea water all around Mumbai. It is dirty. Seems all the filth of a city of over 10 million people is freely allowed to flow in the sea making it yellowish in color. Plastic bottles, polythene bags and all kinds of rubbish you can see floating in the sea.
On the island itself things are neat. The caves are interesting; as you climb a flight of stairs, though climb is little tiring. Most people visit the caves and a little beautiful Museum that is there. But as there is no sign board to direct to the Gun at the top of the hill most people miss it. You got to ask the people about the Gun. They will direct you to a small little unpaved trail leading to the top of the hill. It will take around ten minutes climb. If you are old and infirm I advise you to avoid it.
Once on the top you will notice the Gun. Itâ??s quite big. It reminded me the movie Guns of Navarone. Ofcourse, in the movie there were two guns, while it is one and the size is little smaller then what is shown in the film. But it is quite interesting to see it here on the island and the view all around is also great.
Categories: 1000 Islands Museums Tags: Elephanta, island, MumbaiGun
Paradise island mystery and Anton Chekhov
Paradise island mystery and Anton Chekhov
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By Wendell W. SolomonsÂ
Literary scholars from Russia arrived in Sri Lanka for a symposium on writers Chekov and Bunin.
After a July 1890 visit, Chekhov, in letters to friends described the Russian island of Sakhalin as â??hellâ?? and called Ceylon â??paradise.â??
During the March 2006 visit the Russian scholars were wondering why Anton Chekhov wrote a detailed book to describe Sakhalin, a prison colony island, whereas he did not publish as much a short essay about the island he had called â??paradiseâ??. The larger world has named a place of historical pilgrimage in the island – Adamâ??s Peak.
Chekhovâ??s compatriot Sergei Bunin had visited and written about Ceylon. Bunin had become the first Russian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The scholars had arrived for the March symposium from frosty Moscow attired in suit and tie. You could sense what the tropical sun did to them in Colombo. The local side, Sri Lankan scholars arriving at the Russian Cultural Centre for the symposium, wore light cotton-mix clothing.
Yet, it was not the tropical sunlight alone that the Russian team had to overcome. A mystery of Anton Chekhov pursued them to the symposium.
They asked – Why had Chekhov not shared impressions of Ceylon with his large readership?
Although Chekhov’s fame today rests primarily on his plays, he had written hundreds of short stories even if you were to set apart those of his teenage years. It was pointed out at the symposium that Chekhov had travelled to Kandy in the central highlands where he met a Russian-speaking Buddhist monk from Russiaâ??s Buryatia. This monk sought out details about a native lady healer and travelled subsequently with Chekhov to seek a remedy for an ailment of Chekovâ??s.
We know Chekhov was impressed with the lady and presented her with a necklace. When leaving the island, among finds that Chekhov took with him were a pair of little mongooses and a palm civetâ?¦ Yet, why did he not share with his large audience, a story of his findings in Ceylon?
At the symposium, a member of the Sri Lankan group tried to place the Russian guests at ease.
He suggested: Perhaps Chekhovâ??s major interest was to get acquainted with Buddhism?
At that you almost sensed an â??Ah!â?? going through the thinking of the participants; here was relief at last!
Buddhism wafted me into thoughts of Helen P. Blavatsky. Her visit with Henry Steele Olcott had preceded Chekhov to Ceylon. It had prompted Olcott to lead a major drive for founding more schools in the island. Seated next to me was a woman journalist from Moscow, and I reminded her of Yelena Blavatskayaâ?¦
She remarked, “There seems more to Blavatskaya than we presently realise.”
Then she commented on the now vivid faces at the symposium, “Look at the natural smiles. They arenâ??t the ones staged by American advertising industry.”
The home scholars were happy that the guests were at ease. I read the smiles also as of two groups who had broken the ice and received affirmation of shared interests.
A cocktail evening was scheduled to follow. Yet, after dipping into some snacks. I was deep in concern: “Was the mystery solved? Had Buddhism interested Chekhov?”
To Research Now
The Russian scholars had reminded us that after Shakespeare, Chekhov has become the worldâ??s next most popular dramatist. They also told the audience that the only memorial to Chekhov they knew outside the former Soviet Union is located in the Grand Oriental Hotel – or GOH – in Colombo.
I could go to the Grand Oriental Hotel to search for clues. The location of hotel, which had been bought by a state bank in the 1950s, was quite familiar. At the bank, my father was picked to supervise reconstruction of the hotel and as a child I had visited him at work. A hotel isnâ??t a museum but my fatherâ??s generation, like the preceding one, had preserved a memorial in the â??Chekhov suite.â??
In the alcove that leads into the room are framed Chekhov pictures. Inside the room are more pictures; Chekov seated with Tolstoy and then with Gorky.
The illustrations and the room took me out in time. They reminded me of the sentiments involved and again of the nature of the people who had preserved the memorial to the writer.
Speaking of sentiments involved â?? was Chekhov studying Buddhism as a consequence of the debate on the origins of biological life prompted by the 19th Century publication of Darwinâ??s Theory of Evolution? Was Chekhov in search of an earlier or stronger ethical anchor for society as in the case of Blavatskaya and Olcott?
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Speaking historically, the ethic of philosophies such as Buddhism appeared at 600 BC, that is, before Christianity. Preceding philosophies do gain illustration in the Bible and this quote briefly describes an issue that absorbs page after page of Ecclesiastes:
The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realise that the same fate overtakes them both.
Then I thought in my heart, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said in my heart, “This too is meaningless.” (Eccl 2:13/14)
Do Buddhism and Christianity deal with the issue of â??meaninglessâ?? in human life?
Chekhov was raised in a religiously focussed family that sang Old Slavonic liturgies at home and read the Bible. Foundational philosophies did not escape him. Take one response to the issue in his story â??Ward No: 6â??. A Chekhov hero exclaims on the Greek Stoics whose ethic of detachment reached its zenith not long after the arrival of Buddhism â??
“What was I saying? Oh, yes! This is what I mean: one of the Stoics sold himself into slavery to redeem his neighbour, so, you see, even a Stoic did react to stimulusâ?¦”
We know that among forms of stimulus, â??compassionâ?? takes priority in Gautama Buddhaâ??s teachings. In the Four Noble Abodes of Existence the first place is reserved for â??Karunaâ?? (Pali language â??compassionâ??.) Last but not least we witness that Gautama Buddhaâ??s personal life provides us with the example of his practicing a caring for people and all life.
Audience and Chekhovâ??s Message
Regarding â??compassionâ?? in Chekhov, he outlined his choice of form and substance for his own work in a letter to his brother Alexander:
1
Absence of lengthy verbiage of a political-social-economic nature;
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Total objectivity;
3
Truthful descriptions of persons and objects;
4
Extreme brevity;
5
Audacity and originality; flee the stereotype;
6
Compassion.
Chekhov did not intend that his work be restricted to a solitary sectarian subculture. From what he writes at point 1 above you might estimate that he had chosen to write for large audiences. To do that his work fends off mutant â??fads and ideologies of the day.â??
That original phrase is one of 1998 and comes from Western banker named James Wolfensohn.
Gaining spport – like Kurt Waldheim – James Wolfensohn had climbed to head the Washington-based World Bank in the 1990s. As to Waldheim in the UN Secretary-Generalâ??s post, his bio-data later exposed him as a Nazi officer.
Wolfensohn was shifted to the Washington DC development bank from the lead position of the J Schröder Bank in New York and from the same canny and queer commercial bank’s board of directors Allan Dulles had been elevated to head the CIA. The J Schröder Bank represented Gremanyâ??s I H Stein Bank that was in turn headed by a Schröder relation. To complete the circle, Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler belonged among old faithfuls of the I H Stein Bank clan and issued cheques drawn on their personal accounts in Cologne.
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The Wolfensohn words were spoken to World Bank directors after the 1998 final collapse of the Russian rouble at the hands of reformers who under the â??Monetaristâ?? label had been sent to Moscow in 1993.
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According to testimony placed before US Congress by Professor Janine Wedel and according to the research of Anne Williamson (both available on the WWW,) the fad Monetarist group was put together by Wolfensonâ??s direct deputy, who also holds the bankâ??s second forceful position of Chief Economist.
After the Wolfensohn comment the Monetarist leader Milton Friedman started closing his book but the viral mutant, a negative nihilism, runs wild creating community antipathy and social dissolution.
Chekhov in answer to Nihilism
In Chekhovâ??s time, a strain of Russian nihilism had become a professionalâ??s shelter from myriad social and political movements such as those of Anarchists, Decembrists and Narodniks who preached a removal of the monarchy.
Alexander II was the Tsar who answered US President Abraham Lincolnâ??s call when he faced violent separation by slave-holding southern US states. Alexander II sent a flotilla of Russian warships to New York and California at Lincolnâ??s request. At home, the reform-oriented Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861 and corporal punishment. He established local self-government, initiated judicial reform, revised the educational system and improved administration of the police.
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Dissolution of Social Ethic
If the social good is deconstructed or hidden by a myth or fad, then a finger may seem to exist without the body of humanity. In that blissful ideology, “I” survive though society freezes to death.
Monetarists such as Milton Friedman associated closely with Alice Rosenbaum. Born in Petrograd in 1906, Rosenbaum later settled in the USA to begin expositions on social philosophy in the 1930â??s under the name â??Ayn Rand.â?? She borrowed nihilism and then took it over the brink to Thomas Hobbes of the 1650â??s.
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Looking at a rash of marauding frauds that hit US companies, illustrious New York financier George Soros called the situation “self-defeating.” Two can play the same game.
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Rizal admired Colomboâ??s beautiful buildings, barracks, temples, tree-lined streets, botanical garden, and museum. After visiting a hospital the physician wrote: â??No odour of sickness, no dirt, nothing that reminds one of illness…â??
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 Chekhov is thus apt for both Sri Lanka and Russia where populations must return and incorporate the social good. Populations have to extricate themselves from shape shifting by a pre-civic, pre-agrarian and pre-industrial cult of selfishness. Today video and TV are available. Sri Lankan-born Michael Ondaatjeâ??s book was converted to the movie “The English Patient.” It shone for Oscars and winning more awards than â??Evita.â?? The US President went on record with a remark that he preferred Ondaatje.  An ending Chekhov quote comes from “The Artistâ??s Story” (1896) : “My life is tedious, dull, monotonous, because I am a painter, a queer fish, and have been worried by envy, discontent, disbelief in my work all my life: I am always poor, I am a vagabond, but you are a wealthy, normal man, a landowner, a gentleman – why do you live so tamely and take so little from life?” After noting that, we have to come to grips with a dedication through which Chekhov who had reached 30-years, travelled 5,000 miles to Sakhalin overland and returned by steamer via Hong Kong, Singapore (which he found depressing,) India, Ceylon, Port Said and Odessa to Moscow. Before this journey that began in April 1890, Chekhov had noted: “After Australia in the past, and Cayenne, Sakhalin is the only place where one can study colonisation by criminals. All Europe is interested in it and is it of no use to us? From the books I have read it is clear that we have let millions of people rot in prison, destroying them carelessly, thoughtlessly, barbarously; we drove people in chains through the cold across thousands of miles, infected them with syphilis, depraved them, multiplied criminals and placed the blame for all this on red-nosed prison warders. All civilised Europe knows that it is not the warders, who are to blame, but all of us, yet this is no concern of ours, we are not interested.” Returning to the Chekov family house in Moscow on December 1st, 1890, Chekhov immediately began to compile and organise his work on Sakhalin. Just as immediately, the strain of the expedition took its toll on his health and his usual benign humour. “Life in Moscow after my toils on Sakhalin seems so dreary and mundane I feel like screaming out loud,” he wrote to his publisher Suvorin shortly after his return. “I am becoming sick and tired of my Moscow friends and acquaintances”. Chekhov spent four years on the writing, published finally in 1895 as â??The Island: A Journey to Sakhalinâ?? and it was hailed both by liberals and Leftists as a signal contribution to the movement for prison reform. This writing was slowed by, among other things, Chekhovâ??s role as a census taker and his commitment to helping victims of Russiaâ??s devastating famine of 1891. In addition he fought for the construction of TB sanatoria and schools for peasants whom he tended during the epidemics of cholera, typhoid and other fevers, treating thousands free of charge. In 1892 Chekhov had bought and moved to a country estate in the village of Melikhovo, where some of his best stories emerged including stories depicting intellectual aloofness, self-centredness and megalomania such as â??Ward Number Sixâ?? (1892) and â??The Black Monk,â?? (1894). In 1897 Chekhovâ??s tuberculosis began to hold up his work. Needing mild weather, he took to living either in the Crimea or abroad. Pictures do not often depicted that he had been a tall and handsome man, attractive to women and only after turning 40 years did a debilitated Chekov opt for what might have interfered with his work, involvement in marriage. From August 1900 Moscow Art Theatre actress Olga Knipper (who performed central roles in Chekhovâ??s plays) began playfully to cajole the sick dramatist about marriage in her letters and Chekhov married her in May 1901. Chekhovâ??s play â??The Cherry Orchardâ?? reached the stage with great acclaim on January 17th, 1904 but Chekhov died in July in the same year in Badenweiler. In a search for more foreign memorabilia, I later discovered that Germany (he has became the most popularly performed dramatist there) had in 2004 named a city square for Chekhov in Badenweiler thus adding to a bust erected in 1906 by his Russian friends in the city where Chekhov went for medical treatment in 1904. Chekhov is interred at Moscowâ??s Novodeviche Monastery, traditional for celebrities and leaders. My special acknowledgements for commentaries are due to Brook Speaking in brief here, I might add that in the Four Noble Abodes, the second, â??Metthaâ??, teaches that one should live at peace with all beings. The third, â??Mudithaâ??, teaches sympathetic joy for anotherâ??s achievement (say, my practising altruism to replace envy and covetousness.) Greek Stoics taught detachment from worldly things so as to achieve peace of mind for scholarly work (the Cynics went further to cultivate indifference by jesting at the world.) Yet, Gautama Buddha, through the fourth Noble Abode “Upekkha”, asked that householders not be awed or bowled over by joys or sorrows of the world. He does not ask householders to break away from the world; his Four Noble Abodes contain a call for balance and equanimity but not indifference. The Chekhov legacy includes more than 400 short stories. So much awaits evolution into scripts for video and TV. The Chekhov legacy also includes scores of dramas that can still more rapidly be transferred to TVâ?¦
Looking further at our wounded world, billions of people can be inspired by the work of great personalities such as Anton Chekhov.
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Chronology
I had to develop a chronology of events for this attempt to decipher the mystery.
Born on January 29th, 1860, Chekhov had contracted tuberculosis. From age 24 when he suffered his first episode of bloody sputum and painful lungs, his health was seen to deteriorating. In 1889 he had seen his brother Nikolai die of tuberculosis. More, his training as a physician would have left no doubt that his life span would not allow him to raise children to maturity.
John Coope annotates Chekhovâ??s study of Sakhalin: From the outside the prison gave an impression of cleanliness and order but inside the blocks conditions were very squalid. The whole of the middle of the building was taken up by a long sloping plank platform on which the convicts slept. There were no bedclothes and the entire room was littered with rags, paper, bread, and miscellaneous belongings.
“It is a beastly existence, it is nihilistic, a negation of personal rights, privacy and comfort.”
Stowe and Andreas Teuber respectively at:
http://www.theater2k.com/ChekhovAnnote3.html
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/chekhovbio.html
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Buddhist Concepts
Online WWW resource for Buddhist concepts are available in the Kandy Buddhist Societyâ??s â??Buddhist Dictionary.â?? For more details online see, for instance, the writings of Nyanaponika Thero.
We must distinguish that some part of this coincided with Anton Chekhov. Taking the oath of Hypcrites during his training as a doctor, he perceived a need to help a general population, irrespective of political fraction and labelled himself a free artist.
Yet, more. Starting in the land he knew at first hand, Russia, Chekhov was to become worldwide, a mobiliser of audiences towards the social good without his being sidelined by man-made viruses such as sectarian exclusivism or philosophic deconstruction.Yet, Alexander II was assassinated by a bomb thrown into his carriage. The name of a local revolutionary group, the Narodnaya Volya (â??Peopleâ??s Willâ??) was invoked but what could not always be assessed was the flow of money into political groups including monies that arrived from foreign sources for subversion in Russia.Using prime-time state TV channels, the faddists promised a stable, convertible rouble. They then went on to wreak havoc. With currency devalued more than a hundred times, family incomes dwindled to nothing. Mothers and fathers sold their apartments to seek food. Without a roof, they and their children were lost in the dark. Frozen bodies had to be picked up in icy streets in the morning.Scapegoating Jews was used to rally Germans to Hitler. So we might decide that Wolfensohn was speaking from authority on â??fads and ideologies of the day.â?? Media can be used to spread a myth to impoverish a population.However, witnessing the difference between (a) the Buddhist temple where stanzas are chanted in ancient Pali and (b) the Christian church today where hymns are sung in a local language, can you expect any similarity of values?Something to pursue propped up. Not in ritualistic but in deeper sense, can the anchor of Buddhism be considered to belong in Chekhovâ??s work? That may have contributed to Chekhov ascent to his now traditional popularity among Sri Lankaâ??s Buddhists – or said in another way, Chekhovâ??s sentiments had long found sympathy NOT ONLYÂ in the Christian heart.
First Web publication:
http://news.lk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=351&Itemid=52
Friday, 30 June 2006
Patmos Island and St John the Apostle
David Mutlow travels to Patmos and revels in its descovery.
In 95 AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian the Apostle John (the last living disciple of Christ) was exiled on this Island of Patmos. It was here that St John wrote the book of Revelation.
The Book of Revelations’ depicts St John’s vision of historical events yet to take place. His banishment to the Island was far from comfortable, believed to have been in his late 70’s at least.
He lived in a cave above the Islands capital of Skala as a hermit. Today this cave is one of the most revered locations for all Christians. Not only is it revered as a place where one of the Disciples lived in exile. It’s also a place where God revealed himself to a human being. In theological terms it is an extremely blessed spot. According to our guide and Archaeologist ‘Heinrich Hall’
Just below the Monastery of St John founded by St Christodoulos in 1095 Ad is the Katholikon of the Monastery of the Apocalypse and the location of the Cave of St John. It’s here that the holy evangelist dictated to his disciple ‘Prochoros’ the Book of Revelations.
Listening to our guide a profound reverence is given in the description of the cave itself. “When entering” says our guide Heinrich Hall. “You’ll be struck on how small this cave is. According to belief there is a little niche in the wall where St John laid his head during the night. There’s also a little recess in the wall that was used as a handle when he got up in the morning after all he was a very old man and another hollow that looks like a pulpit where his disciple Prochoros sat taking St John’s dictation.”
The cave is extremely small, no bigger than an average size living room. The granite-like volcanic formation wraps from below our feet into the Cave and flows back above our head within reach of my fingers. Soot from candles long ago can still be seen in the crags in the walls and ceiling. Today a building’s wall doubles the size of the original cave. This is the ‘Katholikon Chapel’. Only a very faint smell of incense is in the air but the atmosphere, the reverence it inspires, is quite humbling. St John’s exile only lasted 2 years on the Island, in 96 AD after the assassination of the Emperor Domitian St John returned to Ephesus to life out the rest of his days.
Above the ‘Katholikon Chapel’ is: The Monastery of St John the Theologian, giving its full title. It is a fortified Monastery founded by St Christodoulos in 1095 Ad at the beginning of the Crusades (1095 -1291). This is when the Byzantine Empire was under attack from the east and the west hence its fortifications. Over time a town developed outside the Monastery walls. Now called Chora mostly for protection its 16th & 17th century style buildings has a striking resemblance to hill towns in Tuscany. Narrow alleyways with the occasional parked scooter outside it’s owners door can be seen yet the similarity ends there, where in Italy the walls are clay brown in Chora brilliant whitewashed walls dazzle us in the sunlight. Cobbled squares in every shade of white with accents of green (vines) and red (bougainvillea) attract the eye.
Inside the Monastery the fresco paintings outside the Chapel of Panayia are a must see. Wall paintings in vivid colours portrays various miracles of St John can be seen with rare depictions of images of the anti-Christ on the walls outside. Inside the Chapel of Panayia (The Virgin) built in the 12th century and the oldest in the Monastery, ornate frescos undiminished over time are everywhere. Rich purples and gold depict the Madonna and child with the Archangels Michael & Gabriel wingless and dressed in military-imperial uniforms either side.
Listening to Heinrich’s revered enthusiasm is infectious “The Monastery has the best medieval library in Europe with 10s of thousands of documents showing the running of the Monastery and its property. Its archives are used to study the Mediterranean economy from the Middle Ages to the present.” says Heinrich Hall. Sadly access to the archive is by written permission however the Monastery Museum displays the most choice pieces in its collection.”
In a courtyard outside the Monastery we sit drinking frappes (cold Instant coffee) our glass-bottled water advertises ‘Water from Central Greece’ with a marine scene by Alison Reid. We are high amongst the gardens of Chora, our platform shaded by bamboo. To my right silver/green olive branches and eucalyptus trees drape over our balcony Carob trees planted century ago its fruits used for cattle hang within reach of my hands. Fig trees with fleshy leaves and cactus plants with their prickly pears are all around our garden in the trees.
Returning to our boat whilst walking through the port of Skala we are stopped by Heinrich. “This spot marks the location where St John baptised his followers” a small brass plaque purched on a ring of ornate iron fence protects the remains of the original quayside.
Getting there…
David Mutlow travelled with ‘Peter Sommer Travels’ on their North Dodecanese Archaeological tour for seven days visiting Samos, Patmos, Leros, Kos and Halicarnassus (Bodrum) the site of the Mausoleum. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. http://www.petersommer.com
Categories: 1000 Islands Museums Tags: Apostle, island, John, Patmos
A treasure trove of artifacts – The Overseas Chinese Museum
Located in the Fujian province of China, Xiamen is an exiting place to visit if you’re a travel fanatic. A unique mix of native and overseas Chinese culture enriches the already thriving cultural diversity of this oriental city. This coastal city is one of the more quiet places in China that tourists have the pleasure of visiting. Home to a number of famous attractions, Xiamen is most renowned for Gulangyu Island and the Overseas Chinese Museum. With major international presences haunting the past of Xiamen, this remarkable city has also been honored by being nominated as one of the most suitable places to live in China. Despite keeping a low profile, Xiamen is a major contributor to the fast growing Chinese economy and is a favorite destination for a large number of foreign investors.
Covering an area of 50,000 square meters, the Xiamen Overseas Chinese Museum is a venue that highlights the proud heritage of overseas Chinese. This magnificent palace like structure is divided into three main exhibition halls: the Hall of Relics of Motherland’s History, the Hall of Nature and the Hall of History of Overseas Chinese.
The Hall of Relics of Motherlands History houses a fascinating collection of extremely valuable relics and artwork form ancient times. Thousands of pottery, bronze ware, sculptures and paintings from past dynasties are also found within these walls. The Hall of Nature exhibits a number of animal species ranging from mammals to birds and even showcases a variety of plants as well. The Hall of History of Overseas Chinese exhibits a number of artifacts that examine the history of overseas Chinese prior to and after the liberation.
Xiamen is also home to Gulangyu Island where gorgeous colonial buildings are plentiful and automotive environmental pollution is non existent purely because the use of vehicles is not allowed. This is a perfect getaway destination for those of us who just want to escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Guests can find a Xiamen hotel practically anywhere in the city but Millennium Harbourview Hotel Xiamen offers unparallel services and a full range of amenities for a memorable stay.