Traveler's Advisory
By
LEORA MOLDOFSKY
Asia
Shanghai
Before it was closed to Westerners in 1949, China's largest
city was a bustling trading port, famed for its cosmopolitan
night life and lively café society. But the open door of the
"Paris of the East" also attracted drug runners, gangsters
and pimps. The Shanghai Museum of Public Security, established
in 1999 to educate residents about their city's seedy past-and
improve the image of its corruption-riddled police force-traces
Shanghai's policing history since the first force was established
by the International Settlement in 1854. The three-story museum
houses more than 3,000 artefacts, including the gold-handled
pistol 1930s crime lord Huang Jinrong kept up his sleeve,
life-size wax figures of turbaned Sikh policemen, and an extensive
display of fire hoses.
Globe
Voyage
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the epic trek by
30,000 Mormons to Salt Lake City, Utah, 200 Latter Day Saints
walked 1,800 km west from Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1997. The sesquicentennial
reenactment of the sea trek 85,000 Mormon converts made from
Europe to the U.S. will be less grueling. Starting Aug. 7,
an armada of 10 tall ships will trace the emigrants' route
from Esbjerg, Denmark, to New York City. Amateur sailors can
sign on for the entire 59-day journey ($7,945) or for legs
as short as two days (from $351). For those who can't join
the voyage, Sea Trek 2001 will host "Rock the Dock" (exhibits,
educational forums and "cultural displays") and the musical
tribute Saints of the Seas at ports of call, including Gothenberg,
Sweden, and Portsmouth, England. See www.seatrek2001.com.
North America
San
Francisco
Lauded as one of the greatest poems in English, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge's Kubla Khan was inspired by an opium-induced dream.
A walk-through installation by San Francisco's Antenna Theater
mixes Coney Island funhouse tricks with modern technology
to simulate that hallucinogenic trip-without running foul
of the law. Euphor!um participants don headphones and carry
digital audio players through darkened chambers illuminated
by Coleridge's imagery (the sacred river Alph, Xanadu's "stately
pleasure dome"); recordings of the stanzas are triggered by
infrared beacons. Through April 21. See www.antenna-theater.org.
Trains
Looking
for a little peace from cell phones, pagers and laptop computers?
Take the train. On some of its rail services between New York
and Washington, Amtrak has banned technological blips and
bleeps-and loud talking-from the first car in each train.
There's no extra charge for traveling in the 65-to-80-seater
"quiet cars," which are filled on a first come, first served
basis. See www.amtrak.com.
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April 2, 2001 | No.
13
COVER
STORIES
Dread
Heads
Scared? You're not alone-millions of people suffer from debilitating fears.
But science is devising cures for every anxiety, from ablutophobia (fear
of bathing) to zoophobia (fear of animals).
THE
ARTS
CINEMA: In the Mood for Love delights and
mystifies
A gender-bending Thai film takes on the
world
BOOKS:
Calling from Carverland
TRAVELERS
ADVISORY
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