Put on your red shoes, tap your heels together three times, and you will find yourself in California, Sydney and Beijing.
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California
Designed by Sam Whiting long before Great Depression Sonoma Golf Club, a vintage golf club in the heart of the Sonoma Valley Wine Country, offers a lot of challenges and strategic choices just like in the old times. It is reserved exclusively for Sonoma Golf Club members and guests of the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa.
As a guest you will be a part of their long standing reputation of one of Northern California's finest golf courses. For the start, take a golf coach, for more than one reason. If you just started to play with friend and learn to play golf guided just by his advices it is almost certain that you will learn to play golf badly. So, take a pro. He will teach you about golf fundamentals but also about golf strategies, and most importantly about its secrets. He will show you how to develop confidence and power, and something that can be of help even to experienced players, consciousness about yourself as an athlete and mental strategies. For "English type" of persons Sonoma Golf Club insures tee times every ten minutes from 7:30am until dusk. If your bladder is sensitive be careful with all that tee. Anyway, use the opportunity to improve your skills, make new friendships and after all rest of telephone ringing. Who need you desperately today, will need you tomorrow.
Australia
Sydney is the 21st most expensive city in the world and Australia's first. Although, it is globally most competitive business destination. Built pretty much unplanned, its shape is more complicated by hills and the numerous inlets of the harbour. Nested near the central business district and world famous Sydney Harbour Bridge lies one of the Orient-Express Hotels, The Observatory Hotel. Named by the nearby observatory, The Observatory Hotel is unique by many things not just by the name - it offers most unusual spa experience.
Only the guests of The Observatory Hotel can commend with swimming in the subterranean pool under a twinkling fibber-optic ceiling. And this is not all. If you never tried caviar body mask treat yourself with the treatment in The Observatory. Microdermabrasion with diamonds, gold and pearls is also a part of the decadent spa treatment list. Don't spend all day covered with beauty creams, find the time to feel Sydney's heart beats. We will tell you just one thing: New South Wales economy is larger than that of Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia or Singapore and accounts for more than one third of Australia's GDP. Are you relaxed and scented enough? Then let's make some money now.
China
During Olympic Games, according to the data of Peking Tourist Office, Beijing will be visited by nearly half a million people. If you think that you know almost everything about China and Beijing here are few more facts that you probably missed. Total land of 9,596,960 square kilometres makes China the fourth largest country in the world. Beijing, the most mentioned city in the world in the last few months, is the second largest city in China and with Shanghai they are the largest and most populous cities in the world. The name "Beijing" literally means "Northern Capital". The city flower of Beijing is China Rose.
In Beijing there are 16 districts and 2 counties. At least 14 countries and 4 seas border China. For the last 4,000 years China has been the oldest continuous civilization on Earth. 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks are used in China each year. China is the only country in the world that has wild pandas. Chinese emperor Shi Huang-Ti built a network of 270 palaces, linked with tunnels, but that was obviously not enough to feel safe of assassination so he slept in a different palace each night. Well, that dude surely had a lot of a skeletons in the closet. When you are in Beijing, buy The Jen Min Jih Pao or People's Daily, the largest official publication. Although it is hardly that you will read it, bring it home as a souvenir. ■
