{"id":1882,"date":"2007-05-04T19:18:21","date_gmt":"2007-05-05T00:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.jackjia.com\/?p=1882"},"modified":"2007-05-04T19:35:54","modified_gmt":"2007-05-05T00:35:54","slug":"20070504%e6%b3%b0%e6%99%a4%e5%a3%ab%e6%8a%a5%ef%bc%9a%e4%b8%96%e7%95%8c25%e5%a4%a7%e5%a5%87%e8%a7%82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jackjia.com\/?p=1882","title":{"rendered":"20070504\/\u6cf0\u6664\u58eb\u62a5\uff1a\u4e16\u754c25\u5927\u5947\u89c2"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 25 wonders of the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Pyramids, fine. But Las Vegas must be ironic. What next . . . Dollywood?<\/p>\n

From The Times
\nMay 3, 2007<\/p>\n

Matthew Parris <\/p>\n

1 Salt flats of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia <\/p>\n

2 Uluru or Ayers Rock, Australia <\/p>\n

3 Pyramids at Giza, Egypt <\/p>\n

4 Drifting down the Amazon <\/p>\n

5 \u201cFairy chimneys\u201d and caves of Cappadocia, Turkey <\/p>\n

6 Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA <\/p>\n

7 Petra, the city carved from stone in the Jordanian desert <\/p>\n

8 Machu Picchu, Peru <\/p>\n

9 Sagrada Familia, Gaud\u00ed\u2019s masterpiece in Barcelona <\/p>\n

10 Perito Moreno glacier, Patagonia <\/p>\n

11 Sistine Chapel, Rome <\/p>\n

12 Trekking in the Himalayas <\/p>\n

13 Angkor Wat, Cambodia <\/p>\n

14 The canals and palaces of Venice <\/p>\n

15 Taking a camel train across the Sahara <\/p>\n

16 Great Wall of China <\/p>\n

17 Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe <\/p>\n

18 Paddling in the Barrier Reef, Belize <\/p>\n

19 Taj Mahal, India <\/p>\n

20 Maya ruins of Mexico and Guatemala <\/p>\n

21 Stone giants of Easter Island <\/p>\n

22 Grand Mosque, Djenn\u00e9, Mali <\/p>\n

23 The temptations of Las Vegas <\/p>\n

24 Forbidden City, China <\/p>\n

25 Itaip\u00fa, the world\u2019s biggest dam, Paraguay and Brazil <\/p>\n

There would have been an outcry if the Rough Guide had not included in its 25 Wonders of the World the only one of the original Seven Wonders of the World still left standing. So, yes, obviously the Pyramids of Giza \u2013 and if the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (south of Baghdad) were here today . . . well, if they were here today they would be gone tomorrow, but an earthquake got there about 2,000 years before the bomb-makers of the al-Mahdi Army. <\/p>\n

And, yes, obviously, the Taj Mahal. And I suppose any attempt at speed-dating with the Wonders of the World would have to include the Great Wall of China. And I agree about Machu Picchu, although visitors to that magical place may agree that the magic lies more in the situation than in the ruins themselves. <\/p>\n

And I agree about Arizona\u2019s Grand Canyon (nice canyon \u2013 shame about the state). Like the truly awesome Victoria Falls, also on the list, there are must-see places that really aren\u2019t a disappointment when you do see them. My family lived in what is now Zimbabwe for eight years without bothering to visit the Victoria Falls, mostly because everyone else did and it seemed a bit touristy, like the Tower of London. But when we did go \u2013 wow! The Tower of London\u2019s not bad, either. Have you been? Most Londoners haven\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Petra? Yes, the Rough Guide must be right, because everyone I\u2019ve ever met who\u2019s been there says this city carved from a red rock cliff-face is spellbinding. Venice, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Easter Island statues . . . these are not sights from which people return saying the reality was a bit of a let-down. <\/p>\n

But the authors of this little booklet have faced a dilemma: the same dilemma they face throughout this series. It is this. In a high-speed gallop around the world\u2019s best countries, experiences and places, do you go for the obvious, or do you take a walk on the wild (or at least quirky) side and suggest journeys your readers might never have thought of? <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been ambivalent about the Rough Guide take on things. At its best it cuts the crap, spares readers the worthy guff about dates and dynasties, and primes travellers with some smart ideas for doing things differently. At its worst it can be self-consciously alternative \u2013 the guidebook for people who think themselves too cool for guidebooks. I really don\u2019t want to be advised to sink a Guinness in Dublin, for instance (yawn), in the booklet on the British Isles. <\/p>\n

And in 25 Wonders of the World we could have been spared the Sagrada Familia, Gaud?\u2019s fantasy proto-cathedral in Barcelona. Best viewed as an elaborate architectural joke, the Sagrada Familia would not be out of place in Disney World in Florida, where cool people do not go. If they did, and found \u201cGaudi\u2019s modernist masterpiece\u201d there, they would call it naff. OK, cool people, go to Barcelona. But don\u2019t expect a wonder of the world. <\/p>\n

And Las Vegas? Please. What next? Dollywood? Are we talking ironic here, or could we just have some practical advice? <\/p>\n

What else might I have left out? Some of this guide\u2019s determined attempt to suggest more than the obvious looks interesting. The world\u2019s biggest dam, Itaip\u00fa, in Paraguay, for instance; and I was about to say that Uluru in Australia, which I\u2019ve never heard of, sounds fantastic \u2013 until I discovered that they mean Ayers Rock. Oh, spare us this PC stuff, Mr, Mrs (or Ms) Rough Guide. <\/p>\n

I agree that whole-landscape experiences are valid wonders, sometimes more wondrous than jolly-interesting-thing experiences, and I heartily approve of this list\u2019s inclusion of the entire Amazon, and the Sahara. If we\u2019re ticking boxes then there\u2019s a good glacier, too, a questionable mosque \u2013 but no cathedral (not cool) \u2013 a majestic mountain range, and a real find for wonder-seekers: the vast and other-planet Uyuni salt-pan in Bolivia, where you must go at once if you haven\u2019t been yet. <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no volcano. A life that has not included peering into an active volcano cannot be called a life. And there\u2019s no sea \u2013 how about a night in the Roaring Forties on the Southern Ocean? And no cave \u2013 so how about the Mulu national park, easily reached, in Borneo, where you will find a cave\u2019s mouth higher than St Paul\u2019s, from which at dusk, every dusk, three million bats emerge in hissing black writing across the sky. And . . . <\/p>\n

Enough. The Rough Guide gets us going, and that\u2019s the point. <\/p>\n

http:\/\/travel.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/life_and_style\/travel\/destinations\/article1737377.ece<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 25 wonders of the world The Pyramids, fine. But Las Vegas must be ironic. What next . . . Dollywood? From The Times May 3, 2007 Matthew Parris 1 S…
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