SHANGHAI — Hundreds of thousands of visitors waited for hours in the baking sun Saturday on the opening day of the Shanghai World Expo 2010, showcasing China’s rise as a modern industrial power.
Fewer people than expected showed up, but it wasn’t clear why. About 350,000 tickets had been sold for Day 1, but officials said [...]

China has launched what it claims to be the world’s fastest train that can travel more than 390 kilometres per hour.
It embarked on its maiden 621 mile journey from the central city of Wuhan to the southern city of Guangzhou.
Traveling at an average speed of 218 miles-an-hour, it can travel up to 245 miles-an-hour, [...]

Countries across the Indian Ocean are marking the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed almost 250,000 people.
In Indonesia’s Aceh province, where 170,000 died, thousands held prayers in public mosques and private homes.
On Thai beaches, Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners held pictures of loved ones lost five years ago.
Hundreds of tourists also returned [...]

India Country Guide
India is a mystical land that presents the traveller with a bamboozling array of unforgettable experiences. Hinduism, the prominent religion, is intimately woven into the fabric of everyday life, reflected in an extraordinary range of time-honoured traditions. Apart from its ancient spiritual framework, India’s vastness also challenges the imagination, being home to one [...]

The town of Bangkok began as a small trading center and port community on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River before the establishment of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the precursor of modern Thailand which existed from 1350 to 1767. The etymology of the town’s name is unclear. Bang is the Central Thai name for [...]

Introduction to Japan
For a country that lived in self-imposed isolation until 150 years ago, Japan has not hesitated in making up for lost time. Anyone who’s eaten sushi, or used a Sony Playstation feels they know something about this slinky archipelago of some 6800 volcanic islands and yet, from the moment of arrival in Japan, [...]

Bangkok has a population of approximately 6,355,144 residents while the greater Bangkok area has a population of 11,971,000 (Januuary 2008). This has in turn shifted the country from being a rather homogeneous Thai population to an increasingly vibrant mix of Western, Indian and Chinese people, giving the city a cosmopolitan status. The capital is part [...]