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| Tuesday, December 09, 2008 |
| Live Long and Prosper, a Travel Adventure |
The summer Olympic Games in Beijing made history in 2008. A bold new opportunity for travel in China will be the adventure experience for trekkers, trekkies, travelers, and tourists in 2009.
Eco-tourists, spa-lovers, and devoted Star Trek fans will soon be exploring new frontiers in Poyue, China. Officials there are preparing to welcome visitors to China’s Guangxi Autonomous Region. Villagers hope their regions “pure” water, “life-prolonging” air and organic crops will draw visitors to this “longevity cluster,” a region reported to have natural “life-extending qualities.”
Poyue, and “the surrounding Bama County has ambitions to become a center for health tourism.” Stan Sesser of the Wall Street Journal may have inspired Trekkies and others to travel ‘where no man has gone before’ to complete the ‘Final Journey’ in his October travel piece on the region. Previews of the Star Trek Prequel now showing in theaters everywhere will have fans wondering how Mr. Sesser had the inside track when J. J. Abrams kept everything so hush-hush. Will Padma Lakshmi reunite with her Starship Enterprise roommates, mingle with legions of her fans, and possibly stage a cook-off in one of the world’s most exotic settings enhanced by naturally grown foods?
Visitors will be drawn to this region by ‘promises’ of longevity and “scientific claims” of “low alkalinity,” in “magnetic fields,” where a “high concentration of negative ions in the atmosphere inspire a feeling of exhilaration.” In some remote and beautiful areas tourism threatens paradise. In Guangxi, officials and residents are preparing to welcome and advertising for visitors to come enjoy their regions natural “benefits.”
Some will arrive searching for the long and healthy life the region promises. Some will just want to enjoy an exotic vacation. Other travelers and fans will probably believe they are in a perfectly remastered Star Trek episode. They’ll be planning authentic and ambitious re-enactments of famous and beloved episodes with scenery Gene himself would have approved of and appreciated.
Visitors will find “upscale accommodations for foreign tourists are part of the areas future, which includes a visitor’s complex with separate facilities for different nationalities.” Separating Klingons from Romulans or other old foes may sound like a wise plan, but does it honor Starship Enterprise goals?
Tourism officials say “visitors need only hang out, breathe the air, drink the water, eat the food and they’ll benefit.” Others, like “Dr. Thomas Perls, associate professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, and head of the New England Centenarian Study” scoff at the notion that something in the air, or water, or soil can prolong life; but this doubt and the “lack of scientific evidence” becomes a huge opportunity for fans to experience “authentic scientific expeditions to discover if the climate will be friendly and able to sustain life.”
There are purists, like my son, who won’t even watch previews of the Star Trek prequel. They’ll wait 6 months for the May 08th Premier to travel into the past with “Chris Pine, as Capt. James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto, as the level-headed Spock, and Karl Urban as Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy” as “the future of ‘beaming up’ is born.” For those less patient, or more eager to experience “the treasure of longevity in Bama,” Go Boldly!
Tourism officials may soon find their dreams of “10,000 visitors a day” coming true.
May they all live long and prosper.
- Nancy
Labels: Fact vs. Fiction, Healthy Planet, Nancy
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posted by The Sensei Team @ Tuesday, December 09, 2008   |
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