Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2019 i Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Edition

When it comes to cuisine, there are certainly a few things that will always be true: that pasta should be served al dente, red wine pairs best with red meats, and a perfectly cooked steak will forever be among the greatest of life’s joys. The demand for good steak among Hong Kong’s famously discerning dining public is always high, but gone are the days when a satisfactory meal was determined by the cut of one’s meat alone – setting is becoming just as important to the overall meal experience. Perched on the 21st floor of The ONE shopping mall on Tsim Sha Tsui district’s famed Nathan Road, Wooloomooloo Prime offers stunning views of Victoria Harbour that act as the perfect accompaniment to the top-quality cuts it serves. Certainly, Wooloomooloo Group's…

VISITORS to Cathay Pacific’s The Pier business class lounge in Hong Kong International Airport can now treat themselves to a spot of yoga or meditation at The Sanctuary, a new dedicated 65 sqm (700sq ft) space within the lounge developed with The Pure Group. Guests can head to one of two areas: The Body Sanctuary for yoga, or The Mind Sanctuary for meditation. The former offers space for practising yoga as well as guided videos led by instructors from Pure Yoga, though there are more secluded spaces for practising by yourself. Chairs and stretching instructions are also available for those wishing to do seated stretching. Business Traveller tried and tested this new space. For the full review go to businesstraveller.com/asia-pacific…

THIS MONTH’S prizes come from NUO Hotel Beijing. Situated close to the Chinese capital’s bustling 798 Art District, the NUO Hotel Beijing channels Ming dynasty aesthetics complemented with a modern twist. The hotel features 438 rooms and suites, along with an Executive Club Lounge, and its own NUO Spa. There are also six bars and restaurants, serving dishes using ingredients sourced from the hotel’s local green farm partners, and if you’re really looking to get an authentic Chinese experience head to the Yuan Tea House where you’ll find some of the finest teas sourced directly from NUO plantations. For more details and to enter, visit businesstraveller.com/competitions Two winners this month will each be awarded a two-night stay in a Deluxe Room including daily breakfast for two. DECEMBER ISSUE…

THIS tiny Pacific island nation hit the headlines at the end of January when Trevor, the only duck living on the island, was killed by dogs. Air New Zealand flies a 171-seat A320 direct from Auckland to the country’s Hanan International Airport twice per week during peak season (April–October) and once per week off peak, with a flight time of around 3.5 hours. The airline warns passengers travelling there to be aware of the dateline effect: if you leave Auckland on a Saturday, you’ll arrive in Niue on Friday. Likewise, when you leave Niue on a Friday, you arrive in Auckland on a Saturday. Niue is a large coral atoll, standing alone in the centre of a triangle of nations (Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands), according to Niue’s official…

Kempinski Hotel Beijing Lufthansa Center, Beijing’s first European hospitality pioneer, has unveiled the transformation of its 480 new rooms and suites after the most substantial renovation in its 26-year history. These include a western and oriental presidential suite, a new large Executive Lounge, and a new all-day dining outlet. The hotel is conveniently located in Beijing’s thriving lifestyle, diplomatic, and upper residential district next to the head offices of Fortune 500 companies, embassies, international schools, and renowned shopping centers. The first phase of the US$30-million renovation brings international leisure and business guests timeless elegance, while providing Beijing with a rejuvenated complex that aims at reinterpreting European luxury in modern China. The hotel has long been a preferred local destination for high-level diplomatic and embassy events, official government summits and state…

As the plane landed at Tashkent airport after the six-hour flight from Seoul, I tried to rev up my travel-weary brain (I’d started the journey in Hong Kong) for the travails that lay ahead and shake off the food coma induced by Korean Air’s filling but stodgy economy class beef bibimbap. 'Enjoy Uzbekistan,' the immigration officer said as I entered Central Asia’s most populous nation – and, until recently, one of the world’s most repressive states I had been warned – and read, to my angst, in online forums – that going through the rigmarole of Uzbekistani customs and immigration would test even the most stoic of travellers: foreign currencies had to be declared to the last cent; voluminous arrival forms had to be completed in Uzbek or Russian, with…

1 Stone Arch Bridge Begin your urban exploration at one of Minneapolis’s most photographed landmarks: Stone Arch Bridge. Suspended over the great Mississippi River, this former railway bridge was built in the 1800s and converted into a pedestrian and cycle path in 1994. Stroll across it for the best ground-level view of the city skyline and the man-made St Anthony Falls. On the west side of Stone Arch lies the Mill City Museum, built within the ruins of what was the world’s largest flour mill before it was destroyed by a fire in 1991. The museum’s designers reinforced the building’s charred walls with steel and added large panes of glass, creating a beautiful contrast of old and new. Get a handle on what the mill was like in operation inside…

You’ve just spent a punishing few days shuttling between meetings in Beijing’s gridlocked traffic. You reach the airport, ready to get home to your family and enjoy some well-earned downtime. But – yet again – your flight home is delayed. As a frequent domestic flyer in China, I’ve had to put up with this countless times myself. Recently, travelling from Shanghai Pudong to Shenzhen, my flight was delayed multiple times before being cancelled outright. I was one of the fortunate ones given I had insurance cover for the flight, hotel and other charges, but it still didn’t help me get where I needed to be. In 2017 there was an eight-minute increase to a 24-minute average flight delay Although the Chinese airline industry has experienced tremendous growth in the past…

FANS of the world’s largest aircraft were hit with bad news last month following manufacturer Airbus’s announcement that it has decided to cease production of its A380 superjumbo entirely in 2021. The decision came after Emirates, the main customer of the A380 with nearly 110 of the aircraft in service, decided at the end of January to reduce its outstanding orders for the superjumbo to just 14 new aircraft over the next two years. Qantas also officially cancelled an outstanding order for eight A380s in February. That leaves Japanese airline ANA as the only carrier other than Emirates with firm deliveries for the aircraft. The carrier will be receiving three superjumbos for its non-stop Tokyo-Honolulu service, launching May this year. Airbus has struggled to attract new orders for the double-decker…

QATAR AIRWAYS is planning a rapid expansion of its hotel division, Dhiafatina. The group already has five hotels, including above-pictured Sheraton Melbourne. Speaking at the launch of the new flights to Danang, Qatar Airways' Group CEO Akbar Al Baker detailed expansion plans for the airline and its hospitality division, saying the aim was “to have 50 hotels”, adding that these would be in destinations that the airline flies to (150 and counting, at present), but that the expansion would not be indiscriminate. “We have already turned down three deals this year because when people learn they are dealing with Qatar they think I have a bank in my pocket,” Al Baker said.…

VAN DON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, VIETNAM Kicking off the year in airport openings (OK, it technically opened the last weekend of 2018) is Van Don International, 50km away from beautiful Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam’s Quang Ninh Province. The airport is connected to Ha Long City by a new four-lane, 60km highway. The airport can handle 2.5 million passengers annually, which could increase to five million by 2030. vdia.com.vn RAMON AIRPORT, ISRAEL Officially opened on January 21, 2019, Ramon Airport (ETM) is 18km from the resort town of Eilat in southern Israel. The annual passenger capacity is two million visitors, and will expand to 4.2 million by 2030. It has space for 60 planes, including wide-body aircraft. It runs scheduled domestic flights from Tel Aviv and Haifa, and some international…

BURMA BOATING, a sailing firm owned by Myanmar tourism company Memories Group, has recently acquired the solar-powered Silent 55, offering expeditions around the Mergui Archipelago from January 2019. Designed by Silent-Yachts, the 16.7-metre yacht is said to be the first 100 per cent solar-powered boat to sail in Asia, equipped with a fuel-based engine as backup. The power generated by the solar panels allows the catamaran to travel an unlimited distance on an average sunny day, and the two silent 30kW motors allow the boat to reach a maximum speed of 12 knots without the usual generator noises. The S55 can accommodate up to six guests and three crew members and is composed of three levels: the fly bridge offers 360 degrees views; the main deck features a 40 sqm…

MOST travellers look to pristine beaches and tropical rainforests when booking a much-needed holiday, but if you’re finding the usual sun-and-sand trips are becoming all too familiar you could always opt for a trip to the Arctic Circle to go spotting for polar bears. Adventure-travel company Off the Map Travel has launched a new experience involving a trip to the Norwegian island of Svalbard, which sees travellers stay at the Nordenskiold Lodge located at the base of a huge glacier. Trips begin with a dogsledding excursion from their arrival point on the island, Longyearbyen, before hopping onto a boat to go searching for walruses, whales and polar bears. Guided glacier climbs, kayaking and photo walks are also part of the itinerary. According to the company’s founder, Jonny Cooper, May to…

The first thing commuters see when they arrive in Wangjing – a northeastern subdistrict of Beijing – is a fibreglass sculpture of a mother and baby panda placidly chewing on bamboo. The gentle maternal tableau speaks to the former wholly residential nature of the area, but nowadays that homely image is somewhat misleading. Around 20 years ago, the commuters were heading in the opposite direction. Wangjing, then nicknamed “Sleeping City”, was nothing more than a bedroom community – a place for workers to lay their heads at cheap rents after a hard day’s toil in the city. Although strategically placed between the airport and the CBD, there were few shops, hardly any restaurants and absolutely nothing in the way of big business in what was then considered a remote location.…

Originating from the megalopolis of 1970s Greater Tokyo, pod hotels were created to provide refuge for exhausted salarymen on the frontline of the post-war Japanese economic boom. These compact capsules, often stacked one on top of the other, offer stripped-back accommodation for the traveller – a bed and the bare (but comfortable) necessities for rest, such as a reading light, storage space and access to bathroom facilities. The first example was the Capsule Inn in Osaka, which opened in 1979 for men only. Designed by the influential Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, it offered overnight accommodation to guests who did not require the trappings of a traditional hotel. Often cheaper than the long bullet train ride to homes in the suburbs, they were used by commuters as a place to crash.…

BACKGROUND Qantas doesn’t regularly fly its Airbus A380 on its Sydney-Hong Kong service; however, on December 1, 2018 it began deploying the aircraft on one of its two daily flights (QF127/QF128) on the route for a period of four months, giving passengers the ability to fly first class between the two cities. The A380 is scheduled to continue flying between Sydney and Hong Kong until March 28 this year, after which the airline’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner will take over the route. CHECK-IN Twenty-four hours before my flight, I was sent an email reminding me of my trip and that I could arrange a few perks ahead of my flight the following day, including kerbside assistance for my luggage at Sydney Airport with the airline’s Porter Service, along with the…

SINGAPORE Airlines rolled out a suite of changes to its Krisflyer frequent-flyer programme on January 24, offering a mixed bag of slightly positive changes and an overall increase to the number of miles needed to book award tickets. The increases to the number of miles required for redemption are not all huge, but they’re enough to make redeeming premium cabin award tickets that bit more difficult, especially on the airline’s longer routes. A one-way Saver Award ticket from Singapore to Tokyo used to cost 32,500 miles for premium economy, 43,000 miles for business and 65,000 miles for first class. Now, these cost 34,500, 47,000 and 70,000 miles, respectively. There are a few positives to the changes though. Travellers can now upgrade from economy direct to business even on flights that…

IT’S 2019, and we’ve reached the year in which the original Blade Runner was set. Though the flying cars appearing in the film haven’t become reality yet, a hybrid-electric aircraft design recently released by Uber and Bell Helicopter shows a sign that we are edging closer to this kind of aerial ridesharing. The conceived vehicle, called Nexus, looks like a hybrid of a car and an airplane from the outside. Inside, it can accommodate one pilot and four passengers, with space for luggage storage. There’s also a digital ceiling that provides details of the trip and other highlights. The firms said they plan to be testing flying cars by 2020, with a commercial service available by 2023. UberAir has partnered with various aircraft manufacturers to develop the technology. Many other…

K-POP fans have been playing havoc with Korean Air’s boarding and departure processes of late, and the airline has been forced to take drastic action to curtail a spate of incidents involving last-minute cancellations. Fans of Korean pop have been misusing penalty-exempt fares to go see their favourite music stars, going so far as to check in, go through airport departures, enter lounges and, in some cases, even board flights to see them, The New York Times reports. The “passengers” then cancel their tickets without actually taking the flight. The major issue is that airlines are required to disembark and redo security checks for all passengers if any individual opts to voluntarily leave the aircraft. Korean Air has now initiated a 200,000 won (US$177) penalty against travellers who cancel their…

I wonder aloud if my travel insurance covers hospital visits for severed fingers, hands or limbs “Standing here is safe; standing there is not safe,” the elderly man in the sawdust-covered puffer jacket warns me, before proceeding to set a rusty belt-driven buzz saw standing about three metres tall into motion. I watch anxiously as the machine, emblazoned with four sets of Chinese characters spelling out lucky slogans about thriving business and good health, slices off the whole side of a log with ease. As the serrated blade whirs less than a metre away, I wonder aloud if my travel insurance covers sawmill visits, as well as hospital visits for severed fingers, hands or limbs. But before long the brutalised log comes to an undramatic rest, and the push of…

It can be a nightmare visiting China as a foreign business traveller if you don’t speak putonghua (standard Mandarin). Many locals can’t speak English, and there are few well-translated English signs, especially in lower-tier cities and villages. Fortunately, several apps have emerged in recent years to make your trip a lot easier. It’s wise to get a valid mainland China phone number (with a +86 country code) because most apps require a local phone number for sign-up. A verification code will be sent to you via SMS for authentication purposes. If you plan to buy a pre-paid SIM card upon arrival, you need to present a valid passport due to China’s real-name authentication policy. WAYGO Trying to decipher the hieroglyphics of a Chinese restaurant menu is the bane of business…