Taiping is among the top 3 most sustainable cities in the world, according to the 2019 Sustainable Top 100 Destination Awards, right behind Ljubljana, Slovenia and Vancouver, Canada in the “Best of Cities” category!
ITB Berlin hosted the most prestigious Awards Ceremony for Sustainable Destinations. This event is dedicated to recognizing innovation and good practices in tourism management: islands, towns, regions and whole countries. The award winners have been selected by a Jury representing 12 international organizations.
Taiping rated as one of the top green destinations.
The town’s Municipal Council president Datuk Abd Rahim Md Ariff received the award.
Taiping Municipal Council president Datuk Abd Rahim Md Ariff said, “This is the first time we received a prestigious international award. This achievement is due to the hard work of the community and all relevant governmental agencies.”
“The council always works hard to make Taiping a popular tourist destination,” Abd Rahim added.
The “Best of Cities” category of the awards recognizes cities that show leadership in urban sustainability and in avoiding disruptive over-tourism.
Taiping is the second largest town in Perak after the state capital Ipoh. The town also is known as the wettest town in Peninsular Malaysia. Its unusual rainfall has also blessed its Lake Gardens with a fertile and splendid collection of flora and century-old rain trees. Itis characterized by aging buildings and clear blue skies with high chances of rain.
Green Destinations, a non-profit organization that focuses on the efforts of creating sustainable tourism, leading global cooperation between experts, listed Taiping on its 100 Sustainable Cities list in December 2018.
Taiping used to be a thriving tin-mining town that lost its luster with the rise of Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur as cities.
Taiping has previously been recognized as the Best Destination Manager 2016 by the Tourism Promotion Board for the Asia Pacific; besides having received the Malaysia Tourism Council Gold Award 2017 in Best Heritage and Eco Travel Destination Category and Malaysia Tourism Council Gold Award 2018 for the Best Tourism Promotion Campaign.
For those who have not visited Taiping, it is time to consider visiting this beautiful city!
Singapore, an island city-state off southern Malaysia, is a global financial center with a tropical climate and multicultural population.
One of the main attractions in Singapore is its cultural diversity. Singapore is also environmentally friendly. The dominant language which is English also helps to boost tourism in the country which is one of the main incomes for the country. The transportation system in the country is also excellent which makes traveling convenient and easy. It is one of the easiest and most comfortable countries to navigate in Southeast Asia. ‘
Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay Sands is located at Bayfront MRT Station and steps from the lively Central Business District. The opulent Marina Bay Sands resort complex includes a high-end luxury hotel, a mall with a canal running through it, the ArtScience Museum, and the Marina Bay Sands Skypark
Outside of Marina Barrage, Singapore has a number of nature reserves such as Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Singapore is one the second city in the world with the primary rainforest located within the city, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, a mangrove forest that protects a number of migrating birds. The National Parks Board has guided tours by park specialists on selected weekends.
Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the Bay is a nature park spanning 101 hectares of reclaimed land in the Central Region of Singapore. The park consists of three waterfront gardens: Bay South Garden, Bay East Garden and Bay Central Garden.
It covers 1.28 hectares and it is the larger of three cooled conservatories. In 2015 broke the Guinness World Record as the World’s Largest Glass Greenhouse. It includes several heritage gardens, an aerial walkway, plant sculptures, and at least ten dining establishments.
Gardens by the Bay is just one of the many initiatives towards a cleaner and greener future.
The Gardens by the Bay also boost the city’s surging tourism industry, which is a big part of the overall Singapore economy.
The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a 160-year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping district and one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Singapore Botanic Gardens’ sprawling grounds are perfect for picnicking, jogging, or escaping the city buzz. 60 acres of land were transformed from a disused plantation into the popular recreational garden you see today. The National Orchid Garden, which boasts the world’s largest orchid display, with over 60,000 plants and orchid plants. The Swan Lake is home to numerous species of aquatic plants and fishes.
Orchard Road is Singapore’s retail heart, with discount outlets, department stores and upscale boutiques, alongside luxury hotels, with over 5,000 establishments offering the ultimate lifestyle experience to tourists and locals alike.
To take a break from shopping and enjoy a bout of artistic immersion, visit the ION Art Gallery. This gallery features a range of international and local exhibitions.
The Singapore Flyer is a giant observation wheel at Downtown Core, Singapore. It opened in 2008, with construction having taken about 2½ years.
Designed by Arup and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with a capacity of up to 7.3 million passengers a year, the normally constant rotation of the wheel means that a complete trip lasts approximately 32 minutes.
The Flyer’s 28 air-conditioned capsules are mounted outboard of the rim of the wheel structure, providing continuously unobstructed views. Wheelchair ramps and lifts, handicapped toilets, and a dedicated parking lot for the disabled are also provided.
In 2014 Straco Leisure Pte. Ltd. announced the acquisition of Singapore Flyer.
Discover Raffles Singapore and enjoy the hotel’s spacious, comfortable rooms. Raffles Hotel is a colonial-style luxury hotel. It was established by Armenian hoteliers in 1887.
A unique dining experience at Raffles Singapore with five restaurants and six bars – including the iconic Long Bar, famous for its Singapore Sling.
Following restoration works in 2019, the hotel now boasts a whole suite of new amenities and a fresh new look.
Chinatown in Singapore is a sharp contrast to the rest of the city, with low rise buildings and culture bursting. The narrow roads includes Chinatown Food Street, with its restaurants serving traditional fare like Hainanese chicken rice, noodles and satay. You can find souvenir shops and indie boutiques in the area, offering clothes, crafts and antiques.
You can spend a whole day exploring from the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum, to a walk down South Bridge Road, and don’t forget to check out Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore.
Sentosa is a sunny island, home to exciting events, themed attractions, award-winning spas, lush rainforests and golden sandy beaches. Here you’ll find one of the largest oceanariums on the planet with more than 100,000 marine animals and the world’s largest wind tunnel for indoor skydiving. The 18-foot-tall acrylic ‘glass walls’—allow you to enjoy panoramic views of the South China Sea and Siloso Beach.
Clarke Quay is a historical riverside quay, located within the Singapore River Planning Area and at the fringe of Singapore’s Central Business District.. Clarke Quay is also the name of a road along the quay, part of which has since been converted into a pedestrian mall.
Southeast Asia’s first and only Universal Studios theme park, featuring 24 rides, shows and attractions in seven themed zones. Universal Studios Singapore is a theme park located within Resorts World Sentosa on Sentosa Island.
Guests can also immerse in a celebratory atmosphere with the Hollywood Dreams parade, which features amazingly detailed floats, special effects, a custom musical score.
Merlion Park is a famous landmark and a major tourist attraction, located near One Fullerton, near the Central Business District.
The Merlion is a mythical creature with a lion’s head and the body of a fish. The original statue of the Merlion used to stand at the mouth of the Singapore River. Later, the statue was relocated to a new pier specially built on the other side of The Esplanade Bridge adjacent to The Fullerton hotel.
Located along the Singapore River, this museum shows the history of the Asian civilizations. It is one of the pioneering museums in the region to specialize in pan-Asian cultures and civilizations. The museum specializes in the material history of China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and West Asia.
You’d find the offices of the Colonial Secretary, Legislative Chamber, and Surveyor-General, all located there.
Want to learn more about Singapore? Check our other posts about Singapore.
Switzerland’s largest city is on the shore of its glistening eponymous lake. Zurich attracts travelers with activity day and night with its countless events, diverse museums, own food festival and Switzerland’s most vibrant nightlife.
Zurich is Switzerland’s center of economic life and education.
Let’s explore together the top 10 things to do in Zürich:
More than 50 museums, among them the Museum Rietberg, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, the Helmhaus, and the Landesmuseum, attract many visitors with traditional and experimental exhibition formats accompanied by a cultural program that actively seeks to engage with the diverse cultural background of Zürich’s population as well as its visitors. Film and theatre are also important to Zürich’s cultural life.
Your kids won’t be bored in Zurich in any of the fourteen museums specifically designed for children.
Lake Zürich
The range of activities in, on or around Lake Zurich is varied and offers something for everyone to enjoy, whether water sports, swimming, relaxing on the verdant lakeshore, family activities or thrilling festivals complete with a lake view.
Lake Zurich can be explored in many different ways. You explore the lake yourself by renting a boat or joining one of the many organized boat tours.
You may also choose to rollerblade around, which is a very popular way to get around as are skateboards. You can enjoy swimming in some of the designated swimming pools built into the lake.
The lake curves past the wooded peaks of Pfannenstiel to the east and the Albis chain to the west. We recommend taking the scenic promenade, which starts at Bellevue and extends for three kilometers down to Tiefenbrunnen. Along the east shore in the Seefeld quarter, you can look over to Uetliberg and see the hundreds of yachts and other craft breezing across the lake in summer.
The charming, car-free Altstadt, or old town, is the city’s historic heart. Its quaint squares and medieval alleyways are home to cozy bars, traditional Swiss restaurants and small clothing shops. Cultural spots include the Opernhaus and Schauspielhaus for performing arts, while European artworks are on display at the Kunsthaus museum.
The medieval and early modern streets of the Altstadt are where much of the city’s culture, nightlife and shopping is concentrated.
There are medieval alleys and small squares as well as beautiful Renaissance buildings, to admire as you are walking through the old town.
The district in the west of Zurich is full of contrasts, boasting an unpolished charm.
If you’d like to tap into Zürich’s creative and stylish side this former industrial zone is the go-to. More than a decade ago this was an unpleasant place to be. Today The showpiece in Zürich-West is the Viadukt, a repurposed railway viaduct where the brick arches have been filled with stylish bars, restaurants, and shops.
It is a former industrial site, stretching between the track leading away from Zürich Hauptbahnhof and the Limmat, and experiencing a gradual conversion into a new quarter, including offices, apartments and arts venues.
Climbing over Bahnhof Hardbrücke is another symbol of Zürich-West’s renaissance, the Prime Tower, Switzerland’s second tallest skyscraper.
The two towers of this Romanesque church are one of Zürich’s prominent landmark. The Grossmünster is a Romanesque-style Protestant church in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the four major churches in the city. Its congregation forms part of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zürich.
Legend has it that the church was built on the graves of the city’s patron saints, Felix and Regula.
In the first half of the 16th century, the Grossmünster church was the starting point of the Swiss-German Reformation led by Huldrych Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger.
It is considered as one of the best zoos in Europe. Opened in 1929, the zoo has 4,000 animals representing 340 species, from emperor penguins that you can follow as they walk through the park, to domestic animals.
One of its popular events is the penguin parade, which is performed daily after noon if the outside temperature is below ten degrees Celsius.
The Botanical Garden of the University of Zurich was opened in 1977 and is located at Zollikerstrasse in the Weinegg quarter of the city. It has more than 8,000 plant species at indoor and outdoor displays.
The Uetliberg is a mountain in the Swiss plateau, part of the Albis chain, rising to 870 m. The mountain offers an impressive panoramic view of the city, the lake and the Alps.
In the winter, the hiking trails to the summit are converted into sledding runs.
There is a lookout tower on top bringing you to exactly 900 meters and offers a panoramic view of the entire city of Zürich and the Lake of Zurich and lies on the boundary between the city of Zürich and the municipalities of Stallikon and Uitikon. The mountain is a popular local recreation area all year round.
There are more than 500 videos to watch, while kids can play a host of football-themed games.
The FIFA World Football Museum was created in honor of the most popular team sport in the world. The museum presents the fascinating history and development of international football.
The museum opened in 2016 and takes you back to football’s earliest days and documents every World Cup since the first in 1930.
Zürich Opera House is an opera house located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zürich Opera since 1891 and was conceived by the prolific Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer, and also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich.
In 2014 picked up the prize for Best Opera Company at the International Opera Awards. It offers over 250 performances each year.
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