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• What's the big deal about mooncakes?
• British Airways starts automatic check-in service. But is this new?
• World to tourists: 'Stop stealing everything!'
• 'Asia's largest art museum' set to open in Shanghai
• World's 10 best golf resorts

What's the big deal about mooncakes? Posted: 28 Sep 2012 02:13 AM PDT by Zoe Li Mooncakes: can't avoid 'em, can't eat 'em. The traditional pastry eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival can have up to 1,000 calories per piece and most Chinese people admit that they don't even like the flavor. According to Green Power, each Hong Kong family bought three boxes of mooncakes on average last year, but they discarded a total of 2.5 million mooncakes. As our China editor Tracy You puts it: "It's just something I do because I'm Chinese, not because I like them." So why is Hong Kong and mainland China caught up in mooncake madness every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival?   Come the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, bakeries set up their special mooncake counters just to service customers seeking a box of the pastries.  read more

British Airways starts automatic check-in service. But is this new? Posted: 28 Sep 2012 01:38 AM PDT by CNNGo Staff Waiting in line at the airport to check-in is a nuisance for everyone, and British Airways (BA) is claiming that by the end of next year, this will come to an end. According to various media outlets, the airline is trialing a new service that will automatically check in passengers ahead of their flight -- part of a £5 billion (US$8.12 billion) investment program that BA is rolling out to improve passenger experience.  Selected BA passengers departing from French airports from this month will be checked in 24 hours prior to their flight, assigned a seat and allocated electronic boarding passes. All without having to wait. "Customers have so much to think about prior to a trip, be that finishing up in the office or getting the kids' suitcases packed," said Frank van der Post, the airline's managing director of brands and customer experience.  "We're aiming to give them one less thing to think about by giving them the choice to be checked in automatically and sent their boarding pass electronically. Then they just need to drop off any bags and make their way to the plane." read more

World to tourists: 'Stop stealing everything!' Posted: 27 Sep 2012 09:06 PM PDT by CNNGo staff Travel guides and websites are filled with advice for tourists on how not to get ripped off when visiting the world's great attractions. But maybe it's the attractions that need tips on not getting pilfered by tourists. From pieces of the Great Wall to live penguins, travelers looking for unique souvenirs will stuff almost anything they can into their luggage. The latest uproar over theft of a public attraction comes from Boracay Island in the Philippines, where the magnificent white beach sands are suffering "blatant extraction" at the hands of the kinds of tourists that give the rest of us a bad name. Responding to the threat to its most valuable natural resource, local officials passed an ordinance last week that greatly toughens the existing law for being caught carting off sand or pebbles from the Philippines' top tourist destination. read more

'Asia's largest art museum' set to open in Shanghai Posted: 27 Sep 2012 03:20 PM PDT by CNNGo staff China's commercial heart Shanghai hopes to boost its international art profile by opening a ginormous exhibition space which is more than twice the size of Buckingham Palace (77,000 square meters), one of the world's largest palaces. The city is banking on its new art landmark, the China Art Museum, to rival internationally renowned museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris in the near future. Colossal culture center The new China Art Museum (中华艺术宫) covers 166,000 square meters with 64,000 square meters of display space. It is sited in the former China Pavilion, a legacy of the Shanghai 2010 Expo, and will open its doors to the public on October 1. "Speaking of the size, China Art Museum is the largest art museum in China or even Asia," said Teng Junjie (滕俊杰), an official who was involved in the planning of the museum, as reported by China's state news agency Xinhua. read more

World's 10 best golf resorts Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:50 AM PDT by Tony Smart This weekend the 39th Ryder Cup tees off at the Medinah Country Club in Chicago, pitching the best golfers from the United States against the best from Europe. It's the third most watched TV sports event in the world after the soccer World Cup and the Olympics. More importantly, it often gives golfing wannabes the fillip they need to finally book that week-long golfing break. My criteria for choosing the world's top 10 golf resorts have been first, golf -- quality, condition and history of the courses; second, quality and luxury of the accommodation; third, the quality of the food and drink available; and finally the quality and variety of the other facilities available. My list begins with what is, in my opinion, the best golf resort in the world and runs down to what I think is the 10th best, although there's very little difference between them. I make no apologies for the fact that the first four are all in the United States. They simply do things bigger and better. read more

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