Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

A single step

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

A good traveller has no fixed plans

A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.

Roads were made for journeys

Roads were made for journeys, not destinations.

Better to see once

It is better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times.

Lake Baikal holds a fifth of fresh water

Baikal contains roughly 20 percent of the planet's unfrozen fresh water and is deep enough to swallow several stacked skyscrapers.

Turkey's underground city held thousands

Derinkuyu descends eighteen levels and could shelter around 20,000 people with livestock, wine presses and ventilation shafts.

Istanbul spans two continents

Istanbul is the only major city built across two continents, with commuters crossing between Europe and Asia by ferry every morning.

Cappadocia's rock is soft enough to carve

Volcanic tuff in Cappadocia is soft when freshly cut and hardens in air, which is why entire churches and hotels are carved into the cliffs.

Pamukkale means cotton castle

Calcium-rich hot springs have built white travertine terraces down the hillside at Pamukkale over thousands of years.

Little by little

Little by little, one travels far.

Japan has more than 6,800 islands

Japan is an archipelago of over 6,800 islands, though four of them hold nearly all of the population.

Tokyo's rush hour has pushers

Station staff known as oshiya are still employed on the busiest Tokyo lines to help commuters fit inside the doors.

Japan's vending machines outnumber people in some towns

With roughly one machine for every 30 people, Japan sells everything from hot corn soup to fresh eggs on the street, day and night.

Kyoto was spared the bomb

Kyoto was removed from the atomic target list partly because of its cultural importance, which is why 1,600 temples still stand.

Cherry blossom has an official forecast

Japanese weather services publish a sakura front each spring, tracking the bloom as it sweeps north from Okinawa to Hokkaido.

Mount Fuji is privately owned above 3,360 m

The upper slopes of Fuji legally belong to a Shinto shrine, a claim confirmed by Japan's courts.

Japan has a rabbit island

Okunoshima was once a secret poison gas factory. Today hundreds of feral rabbits hop across the ruins.

South Korea is mostly mountains

About 70 percent of South Korea is mountainous, which is why its cities build upward and its hiking culture is enormous.

Seoul's subway has free wifi everywhere

Seoul's metro offers signal in every tunnel, so commuters stream video hundreds of metres underground without a drop.

Korea counts age differently

Koreans traditionally counted everyone a year old at birth and added a year each New Year, a system officially retired in 2023.

China's high-speed rail is the longest

China has built more high-speed track than the rest of the world combined, linking most major cities at 300 km/h.

The Great Wall is not one wall

The Great Wall is a network of walls built by different dynasties over 2,000 years, and long stretches are earth rather than stone.

China uses one time zone

Despite spanning the width of five, all of China officially runs on Beijing time, so the sun rises after 10 am in western Xinjiang.

Shanghai's maglev hits 431 km/h

The airport maglev covers 30 kilometres in about seven and a half minutes without touching the track.