China Travel Guide

Ceará's coast is a world-class kitesurfing destination. Around Fortaleza—Cumbuco, Cauípe, Preá and others—steady, strong trade winds, warm water and vast flat sand lagoons draw kitesurfers worldwide. In the windy season (about July–December), colorful kites and riders skimming the waves are spectacular. There are calm lagoons for practice and waves for advance; many schools offer lessons from beginner to advanced and gear rental. Whether first try or expert, riding the wind on Ceará's blue sea is an unforgettable coast experience.

Victoria Park sits at 1 Hing Fat Street in Causeway Bay on Hong Kong Island, China. Covering about 19 hectares, it was begun in 1955 and opened in October 1957 as the largest urban park on the island, named for the statue of Queen Victoria at its south gate. Its sporting facilities are the most complete in Hong Kong: a 3,000-seat tennis centre court, 13 tennis courts, six hard-surface football pitches, basketball courts, lawn bowls, a swimming pool and jogging trails, while the central lawn and amphitheatre host morning exercise and festivals. The park is also home to Hong Kong’s largest Lunar New Year flower market, and every Sunday noon its amphitheatre stages the televised City Forum—an open political debate that has earned the park the nickname “Hong Kong’s Hyde Park”. Open around the clock and free of charge, it lies one step from the Causeway Bay shopping district: a calm green heart in the middle of the city and the best place to feel the rhythm of local Hong Kong life.

The Glacier Garden is a unique natural and geological museum in Lucerne, beside the Lion Monument. In 1872, while digging foundations, people found well-preserved glacial remains—giant 'potholes' (kettles) ground by glacial meltwater and swirling gravel about twenty thousand years ago, the largest several meters in diameter and depth, precious evidence of glaciation. The park was built around these potholes, also showing older rocks and fossils proving this was once a subtropical beach and palm forest, revealing geologic change. There is also an 1896 'Mirror Maze' (Alhambra style) with over eight thousand mirrors creating a psychedelic space—great fun. Geological wonders, natural history and a fun maze together make the Glacier Garden an educational Lucerne stop.

Canopy ziplining is one of Monteverde's most thrilling, popular adventures, and gliding through the misty cloud forest adds a unique, dreamlike experience. Monteverde is both a Mecca of cloud-forest ecotourism and one of Costa Rica's most developed, famous zipline regions, with large, well-equipped zipline parks. Steel cables connect platforms across cloud-forest valleys or between tall trees; harnessed and clipped to a pulley, guided and protected by professionals, you leap from a high platform and speed along the cable through the green, misty canopy and even across deep canyons—wind in your ears, forest below, mist on your face: exhilarating yet dreamlike. Some Monteverde parks are known for ultra-long, ultra-high cables—single spans over a kilometer, suspended above canyons, world-class; many also add a Tarzan swing and a unique "superman" zipline (face-down, flying like Superman). Flying like a bird over the cloud-forest canopy and canyons, ziplining is Monteverde's signature adrenaline experience.

University Parks is a beautiful, quiet city park in Oxford—open green space belonging to the university, a relaxing natural retreat in the scholarly city, great for strolling and nature. North of the center, a beautiful public park belonging to Oxford. Quiet and green: lawns, old trees, seasonal color (spring flowers, summer green, autumn leaves); the Cherwell flows along one side, with willows and waterfowl. Flower beds, tree-lined paths and sports fields (Oxford cricket). As part of the university, serene and bookish. A place for students, citizens and visitors to walk, jog, picnic, relax. Free, all seasons (especially spring/summer). After visiting colleges, a stroll here is refreshing. Exploring University Parks is a quiet Oxford sight.

The forest park is a beautiful, tranquil wooded garden around Lake Heviz—a forest park embracing the world-famous thermal lake, adding fresh green to the spa resort, a pleasant place to walk, rest and connect with nature. Lake Heviz is not only a magical thermal lake but surrounded by a beautiful, tranquil forest park—a protected forest adding fresh, calm green to the famous lake and the Heviz spa resort. The park is green and tranquil: tall, dense protected old trees form shade, embracing the warm lake; winding trails, open green space, fresh humid air (lake vapor plus dense forest makes the air especially fresh—good for convalescence). Both a natural green screen and beautiful backdrop for the lake, and a pleasant place for visitors and convalescents to walk, rest and connect with nature—breathe fresh air, relax in green and calm.