Wednesday, October 17, 2012

CNNGo.com

CNNGo.com

Ex-China nuclear bomb base turned into tourist site

Posted: 17 Oct 2012 01:18 AM PDT

It's not exactly going to be Disneyland -- but this new 'theme park' is unlikely to have many imitators. 

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which lies some 3,000 kilometers west of Beijing, is shelling out some RMB 6 million (US$960,000) to transform China's former atomic test site Malan Base into a tourist hot spot, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency (in simplified Chinese).

The project will turn the country's ex-top state secret into the Malan Military Expo Park (马兰军博园) to showcase national defense legacy. Local government also regards it as a way to drive tourism, the report said.

Construction crews broke ground on October 10.

Located in Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, about 380 kilometers southwest of provincial capital Urumqi, Malan was the research and test site of China's first atomic bomb, which was exploded in October 1964.

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Blame my dog: Weirdest excuses to cancel a flight

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 08:42 PM PDT

by Hiufu Wong

Booking a flight may be a hassle, but it's not as painful as canceling a reservation.

Especially when it was your dog that punched the confirm purchase button for you.

Not buying that one?

There's more where it came from in a recent post by the customer service team at lastminute, a travel and leisure retail website.

The post lists some of the weirdest (dare we say most creative?) reasons travelers have provided when cancelling bookings or fiiling complaints.

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How a former Korean CIA building became Seoul's most underrated accommodations

Posted: 16 Oct 2012 03:20 PM PDT

by Frances Cha

In the 1970s into the 1980s, there used to be a saying about Namsan, the 262-meter mountain in central Seoul now known for its scenic date spots and "love locks."

In those days of heightened paranoia about activist shenanigans and North Korean espionage, "going to Namsan" was a euphemism for being dragged into the Korean CIA headquarters for questioning. Rumors abounded that the interrogation led to torture, and possibly death.

Even after its most notorious years, the building continued to be an office building for the KCIA, now called the National Intelligence Service, and was bought by the Seoul government in 1995 as part of a campaign aimed at "reverting Namsan back to its original state."

The ₩7 billion (US$6,323,114) conversion from what was arguably the country's most feared building into the friendly budget accommodations that it is today was the result of a civil campaign to give Namsan an image makeover.

"In 2004, citizen groups asked the Seoul government to turn the former KCIA building, which was being used as a Seoul government office building, into a more accessible facility befitting its location in the middle of the Namsan Park," says Kwon Ko-eun of the Seoul government's children and youth division.

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