History Hound Travels

Do you readers (all three of you), ever think I must surely know something about every square inch of this planet? If so, you will surely enjoy hearing that when I first saw “Xian”, I had no idea it was an actual place, but instead thought it a bastardization of the word Christian. How lame is that? How much lamer is it from someone who writes a travel blog? Heh, I’m may not be the brightest bulb in the light strip, but I can at least learn new things.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution ShareAlike License version 2.5:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

Xian is the the capital of Shaanxi province in China, and is more than 3,100 years old. It’s the home of the Terracotta Army (which I had heard of), as well as over 8 million actual living people. Because if it’s incredible age, Xian has a rich and varied culture, and there is plenty to see, from the city wall rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty, to the Big and Small Wild Goose pagodas. Xian is a sister city to Kansas City, MO.

Of course, when you visit, you’ll be looking for a good hotel, and where better to find that than an outfit who prides themselves on their selection of cheap Asia hotels? Xian hotels run the gamut in price and amenities, so there is something for every budget.

photo courtesy of wikitravel. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.0

I was reading today on wiki about Singapore. Did you know it’s one of the few city-states in the world? It’s only 272 square miles!! The first records of settlement there date back to 200 AD, but it was sparsely populated until it was colonized by the British East India Company in 1819. The country became self governing in in 1959. Singapore is a republic with a market-based economy, and it’s considered to be the most business-friendly economy in the world. Interestingly enough, Singapore’s anti-population growth policies have been so effective that the government is now providing financial incentives for up to four children per family.

Almost 10 million tourists visited Singapore in 2006, and you know they needed places to stay. Hotels in Singapore range from the 2 star 1929 Hotel Singapore to the 5 star Fullerton. Charges for Singapore hotels vary widely with costs as low as $33 and as high as $592. Whatever your travel budget, Asia Hotels is ready to help you find hotels in Asia, and most other parts of the world as well.